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.

The amount of people on here that want other people to go without because they didn't get the same thing is awful.

Yeah, right on! Fuck all those entitled fuckers expecting luxuries like food and heating.
What did they do before Covid? All freeze and starve? We are getting back to normality, there is no reasoning for continuing funding something that was specific to coping with Covid.

Put the money is supporting social care, schools, healthcare.

@Clocktopus

Some people are just so entitled by nature and never satisfied

Yeah, right on! Fuck all those entitled fuckers expecting luxuries like food and heating.

Outrageous, isn’t it? It’s almost as if they were human.

@TheOnlyMrsM

I think the main problem is that £20 is nothing to the decision makers. They simply cannot comprehend that to some people £20 is an awful lot of money.

Exactly this - they’d spend it for a quick lunch meeting so they don’t understand how much £20 means to others

[quote Lostinacloud]Another disgraceful decision.

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.

This MP sums up the crazy gap that is being created.
m.tiktok.com/v/7005672332635294982.html?u_code=dkcb7m8ccac7im&preview_pb=0&language=en&_d=dkcb7mcll702j7&share_item_id=7005672332635294982&source=h5_m&timestamp=1631275774&user_id=7002668962538324998&sec_user_id=MS4wLjABAAAAKIUiIXyfXnuUaErqKDlyLTabBtDE5Aq_uQIl_Oq41S2fSHq2BUHQWvCWlzYMNVP2&utm_source=whatsapp&utm_campaign=client_share&utm_medium=android&share_iid=7002669353280734981&share_link_id=56a3a3e3-53d5-4754-a286-79ae5be7e7cf&share_app_id=1233[/quote]
This. So many on here have been fooled into believing this ‘we all must cut back’ austerity catchphrase. The suggestion with this is that ‘there’s not enough money’ to properly find public services & a solid welfare system. This is a lie the tories will peddle and peddle. Public spending priorities are a choice and make no mistake there are many wealthy people & businesses who use light touch tax regulation to pay as little as possible, leaving us to believe there’s ‘not enough money’. Truth is the conservative government believe in a system that is ‘unfair’- if you are poor it’s your fault & they don’t believe society as a whole should pay for you. Whether you agree with that or not is a different issue but until we stop voting in a Tory government this will not change. xo

What did they do before Covid? All freeze and starve?
Yes, in some cases. Many go cold and hungry. In Great Britain. In 2021.

@vivainsomnia

Yeah, right on! Fuck all those entitled fuckers expecting luxuries like food and heating. What did they do before Covid? All freeze and starve? We are getting back to normality, there is no reasoning for continuing funding something that was specific to coping with Covid.

Put the money is supporting social care, schools, healthcare.

Yes, they were probably attending food banks. They will probably need to again. They will possibly not put their heating on when they are cold. How about putting other money into social care, schools and healthcare? How about the £350 million from that lie on the side of the brexit bus for a start? How about the millions in kickbacks and other corruption handed out to friends of ministers? Plenty of heartless arseholes on here.

People should be doing what they would have to do in the USA where there is no welfare state

You'll be roasted alive on here for suggesting anything about the hated US should be an example, but it's not true to say they have no welfare state. It's different to ours of course, but they certainly have welfare:

www.usa.gov/benefits

The wealth of millionaires and billionaires has increased under this Government. Sadly, if there was an election tomorrow the majority of the electorate will still vote for them. Labour needs to be a stronger opposition but they are failing.

UC rates for a single adult under 25 will go back to being £257.33 a month. Could you survive on £8 a day?

Benefit rates have only increased by 1% in over 10 years so things are harder than they have ever been.

I think they should keep the uplift.

@vivainsomnia

Yeah, right on! Fuck all those entitled fuckers expecting luxuries like food and heating. What did they do before Covid? All freeze and starve? We are getting back to normality, there is no reasoning for continuing funding something that was specific to coping with Covid.

Put the money is supporting social care, schools, healthcare.

Have you missed the multiple posters saying the price of food, electricity and gas have gone up? People were in trouble before they had the extra £20 a week, the price rises and the rise in National Insurance payments.

@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.

Marvellous. Should people really have to do this in one of the wealthiest countries in the world? And the new NI increases hit people who work, and don't affect people who live off assets and the like ( ie rich people) An increase in tax for high earners would be so much fairer, but no, people didn't like that idea and so didn't vote for it.

@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’s not a cut.

It is reverting to what it used to be.

What did they do before Covid? All freeze and starve?

Yep. Pretty much. There was a time a few years ago now where I lived on toast. Mainly just with margarine. Occasionally some marmite or cheese. My dc had 3 full, proper meals but I couldn't afford to eat them as well. I lost so much weight my skirt actually fell down on the school run. Luckily no one saw (except the dc and they still laugh about it)
It was a very dark period of my life. Its horrific that people are still living like that in 2021.

Yeah, it's reverting back to what it was before, and meanwhile food prices are significantly higher.

@simitra

We are told there are staff shortges everywhere now. Lorry drivers, retail. hospitality, warehouses, etc. Some of these jobs (apart from lorry drivers) are low skilled. So if physically fit (and instead of being on benefit or a low wage and claiming UC at the tax payer's expense) people should be doing what they would have to do in the USA where there is no welfare state. Whats that? Work 2/3 jobs to provide for themselves or find a better paying job rather than looking for subs and handouts.

Exactly this - there is a lot of opportunity around right now, and wages are rising!

Instead of being grateful for it....want want want....for granted...moaning...so entitled...never satisfied.

No, that's depressing and more than quite. Poor bashing par excellence. Can you hear yourself?

@CiaoForNiao

What did they do before Covid? All freeze and starve?

Yep. Pretty much. There was a time a few years ago now where I lived on toast. Mainly just with margarine. Occasionally some marmite or cheese. My dc had 3 full, proper meals but I couldn't afford to eat them as well. I lost so much weight my skirt actually fell down on the school run. Luckily no one saw (except the dc and they still laugh about it)
It was a very dark period of my life. Its horrific that people are still living like that in 2021.

So much love to you. I have been there too

We are told there are staff shortges everywhere now. Lorry drivers, retail. hospitality, warehouses, etc. Some of these jobs (apart from lorry drivers) are low skilled

Not everywhere in the country has shortages and not every job is suitable for every unemployed person.

There are approximately 1.6 million unemployed people in the UK and roughly 960,000 job vacancies. I'm no mathematician but it appears there are more people than vacancies so even if all of those vacancies were filled tomorrow there would still be unemployed people.

people should be doing what they would have to do in the USA where there is no welfare state. Whats that? Work 2/3 jobs to provide for themselves or find a better paying job

Ah the USA, shining paragon of "how to do it right" where almost 10% of the population lives in poverty, it easier to get a gun than an education, and getting sick can bankrupt you

Why should people have to work 2-3 jobs just to stay afloat? It's not healthy, mentally or physically, and it's wrong. Wages should be at a level where one full time job is enough for a fair standard of living and no top ups are necessary, instead we have a situation where employers get away with paying wages that aren't enough to live on because they know the government will top them up. The biggest beneficiaries of the welfare spend are the companies profiting from the ability to pay minimal wages, get angry at them instead of the people claiming the top ups needed in order to support themselves.

This prices have gone up for everyone though again not just those on UC.

Careers haven’t been given extra help, tax credits working tax credits didn’t even get half of what UC did and they are all people working to like those like to point out a lot of UC claimants are. Wages haven’t gone up for people on UC or not on UC.

I notice that the usual half-wits are ignoring that over a third of people receiving UC are in work. As for the gormless posters advocating ‘what they do in the US’, that’d be the great example of what’s currently happening in San Francisco or going bankrupt because you’ve been ill.

It may just be a “going back to normal” but last 18m have had bills shooting up. Winter again is bad time of year, need more heat and light and less likely feel satisfied with sandwich for tea on a cold day.

The only good thing has been that would hope most people would bite bullet and go food bank now they are not the extreme destitute last hope to be ashamed about that would been 10 years ago.

When politicians trot out the line “well get back work” they ignore the 40% already working and around another 40% who on UC have no obligation to look for work, either as to sick or disabled or have small children or carers. Only about 20% Claiments are the classic “lazy idle unemployed” they are referring to. Essential saying we know only 20% of you can even try pull yourself out of this (well less as you could still be low enough need top up) but we not going do anything other 80% or you.
So stuff you

Exactly this - there is a lot of opportunity around right now, and wages are rising!

Most of those wonderful opportunities pay minimum wage and the people who take them would still have to claim universal credit. The Daily Mail readers are out in force this afternoon.

Yes, they were probably attending food banks. They will probably need to again. They will possibly not put their heating on when they are cold
And the majority managed fine, didn't need food banks and kept their house warm. There is no reason for them to continue to receive more. We all have to face an increase in NI, we can't afford for everyone on NI to receive £20 a week more on-goingly.

Indeed, use the money to support the genuine vulnerable. No issue with that, but others will rightly need to go back to how it was before. It's not a cut, it's not news, it was always going to be the case, but entitled people will always want more.

I know in some cases people have been told completely incorrect information by the UC. I was not informed of the COVID increase but when my payments increased and I queried it I was told it was a band increase due to a recent health assessment.

The first I heard of the COVID increase was when they told people in a generic note sent to all claimants journals I'd be losing it two weeks ago. So they can send out a memo to everyone apparently.

I don't have a problem with being given a temporary extra and them taking it back, what I do have a problem with is that some people have fallen through the cracks, been given misinformation and suddenly are getting a large whack of cash wheeched out from under them. But there seems little point complaining.

To add insult to injury I was told by one operator that "It was all over the telly so I should have known" Well that's excellent, but I don't have a telly and avoid the news because it exacerbates my depression but I should have known of course. The UC doesn't need to actually get in touch with their service users, we should just watch the telly for important updates! Perfectly sensible and a lovely bit of "victim blaming" from that operator. Was (still am) a bit pissed off about that comment.

I know there was a global pandemic and things will go wrong, but I can't imagine I'm the only one who was missed in the newsletter, given very wrong information and is will now have to do some quick foot work to keep things from crashing around their ears, all on top of dealing with mental/physical health issues.

Sadly I can see there being another big uptick in suicide stats in the coming months because of the way this has been handled.