To ask how people will cope with Universal credit cut.

[ponyexpress22]

Surely they aren't going ahead with cutting it by £20 a week? I'm shocked that the government could stoop this low. What the hell are they doing.

notanother, I am sorry it went like that and I agree that a thread on which people explain why they ended up as they have would be really helpful first for helping those who are better off understand what happens to some others and secondly so those of us who are doing okay can look at what we might do to try to avoid what led others into a more difficult life (not that you can always avoid it).

[quote LakieLady]@Babyroobs, it may be different where you are, but we've been finding that getting a UC50 is really random.

Some people seem to get them fairly promptly, some have been on UC and submitting fit notes for over a year but never had one.

It just doesn't make sense to me, I'd have thought that these things should happen automatically with a highly automated system like UC.[/quote]
I work mainly with cancer patients and they can ask for a day 1 referral for a WCA if on chemotherapy or radiotherapy so my clients tend to get them sent out pretty quickly, but for those not on cancer treatment yes it can be a huge wait.

@LakieLady

I should've made clear in my first post of yesterday (I did in subsequent posts). Of course the £20 should stay. The fact that it should be extended to include legacy benefit recipients doesn't negate that.

I also wasn't clear full stop. Tbh I was thinking of media articles I've seen this past week more than people here, when I talked of hypocrisy.

They speak of human rights - because people will left without enough to live on (many still won't have enough even with the £20), but they completely ignored people on legacy benefits. In a climate where disability discrimination is rife (and the fact that many legacy benefit recipients are seriously ill or disabled) it comes across as yet more disregarding of the disabled.

Yes some disabled people get slightly more on ESA than UC. I wouldn't call it 'better off' because that implies they're doing ok. They're not. Particularly as serious illness and disability carries extra costs. Also as I said in another post, aside from the cost of reliable internet access, depending on the illness or disability many face barriers in accessing UC because it's an online claim.

The UN condemned our treatment of disabled people several years ago. Nothing seems to have changed.

@Xenia

notanother, I am sorry it went like that and I agree that a thread on which people explain why they ended up as they have would be really helpful first for helping those who are better off understand what happens to some others and secondly so those of us who are doing okay can look at what we might do to try to avoid what led others into a more difficult life (not that you can always avoid it).

I agree. Without a shadow of a doubt I could have picked better partners both times. But I had no idea at the time what they were like or where I was going wrong. It definitely wasn't an intentional "oh well UC can support us".

My friend does that and openly says she does not want more work as it will.affect her benefits. To her this is not a starement to be ashamed off but what is her lifestyle.

But here's where the system is wrong making people who work full time worse off, surely? It's not your friends fault.

I've had to talk a few clients out of switching from ESA to UC to get an extra £20 a week. They'd have been nearly £50 pw worse off.

If they were ill or disabled enough to get the extra £50 - the disability premiums (which are acknowledging the additional costs associated with being seriously disabled) - they wouldn't have been allowed to switch? (Until February this year when the rules changed.)

The extra £20 is badly needed. For all benefit recipients. I don't know why the media is ignoring legacy claimants?

[quote LakieLady]@Babyroobs, it may be different where you are, but we've been finding that getting a UC50 is really random.

Some people seem to get them fairly promptly, some have been on UC and submitting fit notes for over a year but never had one.

It just doesn't make sense to me, I'd have thought that these things should happen automatically with a highly automated system like UC.[/quote]
Also we are having problems having the LCWRA element added for terminally ill people. I send in the medical evidence and it doesn't get added, they deny receiving the form etc. These are people who have been deemed to have less than 6 months to live and where both of a couple often have had to give up their jobs yet the correct elements are not added. It's shocking. I now have one good contact at the DWP, a really caring lady who I go to with problems and she tries to get things moving. There are a few good egges at the DWP !!

There is another thread going on about luck v the actions you take and I always find it interesting to look at but for XYZ we might be in ABC position and what leads to things. I certainly am much worse off for marrying a man who earned a lot less than I did so he took me to the cleaners on our divorce but on the other hand am doing okay because I have always worked full time even when I had tiny babies.

I'll have to look out for that thread. Interesting.

@Itsnotover

My friend does that and openly says she does not want more work as it will.affect her benefits. To her this is not a starement to be ashamed off but what is her lifestyle.

But here's where the system is wrong making people who work full time worse off, surely? It's not your friends fault.

Yes. It's not because she doesn't want the extra work. Working is about more than money - think of the articles about big win lottery winners and affluent pensioners still working. Not working gets boring and miserable. It's about needing enough money to survive. Cost of living is high - particularly with a public health housing and homelessness emergency going on.

To clarify. I meant that her need to turn down the extra work if it affected her benefits was about needing to survive. And separately, working is about more than money. It's about sense of purpose, self confidence, social interaction, and more.

@Blossomtoes

I know because she laughed and told me so .

[quote RuthTopp]@Blossomtoes

I know because she laughed and told me so .[/quote]

I'm also skeptical about this claim. Holidays costs thousands.

The whole benefits system needs reviewing. For those that genuinely require assistance it seems not enough and unfair.

Then you have those that just don't want to work and will gladly sit back and be payed for doing nothing or say its not worth going to work.

Then you have those that abuse the system by claiming all they can including housing, but work cash in hand. This is what I believe angers people and why they don't support the system.

Weed out the fraudsters and scroungers, and just support the genuine claimants.

18 months of £20 per week is £1560 per claimant. Easily pay for a holiday.

@Whammyyammy

18 months of £20 per week is £1560 per claimant. Easily pay for a holiday.

On what planet? lol. You can't even get a weekend at Centre Parcs for that.

Then you have those that just don't want to work and will gladly sit back and be payed for doing nothing or say its not worth going to work.

Will you stop posting nonsense?

I've already said multiple times on this thread that to get benefit payments you have to show that you're looking for work.

FFS - you just want to believe lies.

A holiday for £1560 pp is easily achieved. I've just had a week in the med. £1100 for us both

@Blossomtoes @Itsnotover

Ffs. Believe what you like . For both your information . They saved the £ 20 and have gone away , not abroad , not 5 star etc . I was making a point of saying , not all people were in absolute dire need of the £20 , it was given to everyone on uc , some people have chosen to save it for Xmas or perhaps to replace a household item , they have saved there's to go away .

These threads are always the same, but there is a middle ground between Daily Fail hype/“you must be a Tory voter to think that”, and the daily lived reality than informs some people’s views on benefits.

I used to live in a really low-income area, it wasn’t always easy to have a lot of people in our street/the nearby streets who had never worked a day in their lives and had no intention of doing so. Who when I walked back from the bus stop after a full day of work would be sitting on their front steps with a crate of beer and a spliff blasting music and screaming and shouting all over the street. I never wanted their lives for a minute, but I didn’t want to pay for their lives particularly either.

Here on MN you’re not allowed to acknowledge that actually there are thick, uneducated, appalling people sitting round happy for other people to support their existence. Instead anyone who does criticise some aspects of benefit recipients are told that everyone on benefits is salt of the earth and fallen on hard times, or have some convoluted reasons why they can’t work, or are in poverty. Yes, poverty is complex and people genuinely will fall on hard times, but there are equally things that some people can do to mitigate their own circumstances but may choose not to.

I KNOW that other people quietly going about their lives claim benefits, and overall I would rather have both a welfare state that helps all to a decent level and employers that pay an actual wage that people can live on than get into Deserving vs Undeserving Poor argument etc. But it’s human nature to look at your pay check, see the tax and NI deductions and think “fucking hell”

@Itsnotover

Then you have those that just don't want to work and will gladly sit back and be payed for doing nothing or say its not worth going to work.

Will you stop posting nonsense?

I've already said multiple times on this thread that to get benefit payments you have to show that you're looking for work.

FFS - you just want to believe lies.

Your reply tells me a lot about you.

@Blossomtoes
I'll also add they don't have kids .

I'm still on tax credits so mine has already stopped in April and the one off payment they gave is long gone. I work and struggle each week to buy the basics and put fuel in my car to get to my work place. I had to take money from the deposit for a trip DD's to put petrol on the car on Thursday as it was on 0 miles til empty. She now can't go on it. £20 pw doesnt sound a lot to many but it was keeping me afloat and in sure it will be the case for countless others too. I'm far from alone. Low income working families definitely get hit the hardest with the loss of things like school meals, uniform grants, but with increased expenses due to working outside of the home.

Was there ever a plan for financially supporting these three offspring without the dole?

This. Of course OP may have suffered some life changing event that pushed her into reliance on benefits, exempting her from this, but that’s not the case for many families.

It shocks me that people have 3 kids without knowing how they’ll support them financially, or plan for things like how they’d cope if one partner left/died/got ill, or shell out a fortune on swimming lessons when they can’t afford basic meds like Ovex (which is available on the NHS btw).

I feel like a lot of people (not everyone obviously) assumes they’ll get enough in UC, tax credits, FSM, housing benefit etc to raise their family so when a benefit is reduced they’re up in arms against the government!

What’s to stop a parent working PT within school hours to bring in extra income, if £20 a week made such a huge difference?

Where’s the budgeting, financial planning, saving? The £20 was always temporary.

I feel like a lot of people (not everyone obviously) assumes they’ll get enough in UC, tax credits, FSM, housing benefit etc to raise their family so when a benefit is reduced they’re up in arms against the government

Why is when there’s a benefit cut, the cynics come out in force and only focus on the minority who may think this way?

Why not focus on the majority who, actually, are not expecting to sponge off the state? And then focus on why it’s okay to let that majority suffer?

Also, the ones that really suffer are the children at the hands of their parents who may have made silly decisions and then again at the hands of the state who just fail to support them.

Judge the parents all you like, but ultimately innocent children end up going hungry and having a shit life.

I was one of those children. Call my parents feckless all you like, but what about me? When I was 7,8,9 and suffering with malnutrition with only flour and water in our house - there was very little in the way of state support.