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.

It doesn’t make any difference whether or not it was temporary. It’s £20 a week that will no longer be in the pockets of the poorest people in our society. It’s a cut.

I’m so angry about the way we keep taking money away from those who can least afford it to line the pockets of the richest. And still people keep voting for them. It beats me why.

@Blossomtoes

It doesn’t make any difference whether or not it was temporary. It’s £20 a week that will no longer be in the pockets of the poorest people in our society. It’s a cut.

I’m so angry about the way we keep taking money away from those who can least afford it to line the pockets of the richest. And still people keep voting for them. It beats me why.

Who do you suggest people vote for?

I thought it was always going to be temporary, not a permanent increase? It was to help people out in the midst of the pandemic. Like the furlough scheme. People were expected to plan for it ending not budget as if it would be the same.

Price rises among food, utilities, fuel haven’t returned to pre pandemic levels though have they? So you are basically expecting people who were struggling before the uplift to struggle EVEN MORE once the uplift has been taken away. So while the uplift was temporary and that temporary period is coming to an end, the price increases aren’t coming to an end are they? So poor people just get poorer and through no fault of their own, it’s got to be hard enough as it is budgeting so carefully that ever penny counts, or skipping meals so your kids can eat and you can make the bills…only now that’s going to get even harder.

We

It is NOT a cut, if it was a temporary bonus, surely? I’m sure I’ll get angry retorts for this, but how about being grateful for this temporary extra bonus for as long as it lasted, not be bitter that it’s ended?

This country has been ridiculously generous helping people out during the pandemic- free money for all including furlough and this extra £20 a week for nothing.

Some of us got SFA. As a carer on the front line I was rewarded with a badge…a fucking badge. No furlough, no grant and certainly no lovely £20 extra per week for nothing.

Sorry, but that is how many other carers feel too.

Who do you suggest people vote for?

There are plenty of alternatives - for which more people voted than the current government.

@Blossomtoes

Who do you suggest people vote for?

There are plenty of alternatives - for which more people voted than the current government.

Such as? I cant see any tbh

I’m not getting into a goady argument. Enjoy your afternoon.

I really think it’s getting to the point where the masses need to rise up and replace the people who have forgotten that they are elected to work for us and not themselves and their rich mates.

Which ‘masses’ would they be? The ones who elected a Tory government with a massive majority of 80 seats, including almost every constituency outside London & a couple of other big cities less than two years ago?

That should read ‘...almost every English constituency...’

Why can’t we have a bloody edit button!!!

YABU. This is a click bait thread. The £20 a week was a temporary top up to UC, meant to be for during Covid times. It’s not being ‘cut’, it’s just returning to the correct level. The real issue here is whether UC is enough for people to live on (without the £20 top up)

I’d say the answer is no.

@ThisIsStartingToBoreMe

Boris and his cronies couldn't care less about us.

Why did they give you an extra £20 a week for 18 months then if they didn't care?

Well said

It'll be crap for many people.
Food and energy prices have gone up in the last 12 months.

I think some confusion, it’s not a cut it was always a temp increase to help people through thr pandemic with job cuts and furlough and was always publicised to end sept 2021. They are not slashing Uc, they are simply ending the temp uplift thay was applied during the pandemic, as has always been said it will happen.

A "Temporary" increase of a benefit that had been deliberately frozen and therefore cut in real terms for a decade.

@Jaysmith71

A "Temporary" increase of a benefit that had been deliberately frozen and therefore cut in real terms for a decade.

Exactly.

It was only ever temporary and seeing as workers are now going to be paying 1.25% extra, it seems reasonable that everyone needs to take the hit

This ... though of course a lot on UC work too

It's all a bit like school meals being expected to be funded during holidays; they do it a couple of times and folk start to think it'll always be the same, and so it goes on

I think they need to permanently increase UC somehow.

We are a 6 figure income family (so no UC, child benefit etc) and have still definitely noticed food and fuel increases. Families on a tiny budget must be panicking, I’m worried about people going hungry.

@ponyexpress22

Boris said he wants to concentrate on people who are working, but nearly half of all claimants are working.

Yes, but he’s a fucking liar isn’t he? He’s lied throughout his career, even been sacked for it.

@OldTinHat

I'm on a legacy benefit and never got the uplift so claimants on UC have had the positive of that. They're just going back to how they were. They managed before, they can surely find a way to manage again. Personally I skip meals and don't shower every day to cut down on expenditure.

How much does not showering every day actually save??

It is outrageous. All that money spent on brexit (particularly the 50p coin that was scrapped) and they begrudge £20 a week. But then the Tories do not care and have never claimed to. The only reason they did it was to try and save face during a pandemic.

@Blossomtoes

It doesn’t make any difference whether or not it was temporary. It’s £20 a week that will no longer be in the pockets of the poorest people in our society. It’s a cut.

I’m so angry about the way we keep taking money away from those who can least afford it to line the pockets of the richest. And still people keep voting for them. It beats me why.

For the purpose of answering the question of the original post it matters that it was temporary, if it was a permanent uplift and then they cut it then it would be bad. But it's been advertised right from the start that it's a temporary uplift and that it would go back down. Not sure how anyone can be surprised by it going back to its original amount when they said it would.

But Yes the £20 will no longer be in the pockets of those who need it.

I work full time. I'm standing to lose about £86 a month, and it's going to make things so difficult for me.

@StrangeToSee

All my outgoings are as small as it's possible to be, I can't cut much further. My kids (5&6) do swimming lessons, and realistically I'll probably end up cancelling them, because otherwise we'll struggle too much. And then because I have 3 kids under 8, I can't take them swimming on my own because of the pool ratios, so they won't learn

Swimming lessons are very expensive!

Don’t they get free swimming lessons at school?

I taught my own DC to swim rather than rely on overpriced lessons. If you have a friend or two can’t you take turns watching each other’s kids so you can go to the pool with them?

Agreed, half term crash courses can be much better value

And to the silly buggers who think the extra £20 a week was because the government care - its because a lot of their benefit hating voters suddenly found they needed UC when COVID took their jobs and they had to keep up the illusion that everyone on benefits lives a comfortable life

This.

Also benefits were already frozen for nearly a decade before 2020.

It's nowhere near enough to survive on for some. A lot of desperate people about. They don't care.