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.

My friend became disabled 18 months ago. She is now bed bound as her treatment was cancelled due to covid. Her prognosis isnt great.

She has waited 10 months for a work capability assessment so she can receive disability element of UC. 10 months!

When the uplift is removed she will get £257 and that's it. No mortgage help so she will ultimately lose her home. How is a disabled person meant to live on £257?

She has no savings left. No family to fall back on. They have apologised for the delay but that's all.

All you utterly ignorant selfish people who want rid of the uplift ypu should be thoroughly ashamed. People will literally die in some cases without this money.

@CuriousaboutSamphire

I wasn't being negative, I was genuinally asking a question, as someone has already posted, there are more unemployed people than job openings at the moment.

It’s not a cut. It was a temporary uplift to help out over covid and was always temporary

Lots of us didn’t get an extra £20 per week, and had to manage

There appears to be alot of high earners on mumsnett i have been surprised at some of the incomes stated on here gard to believe I'm not the only one on shirty money

Hard not hard and shitty not shirty

@selflove

Yup, ditto to being £100+ worse off a month, what with the UC cut and the NI increase.

Some people just wouldn't understand how much that sort of money makes a difference. My council sent out a £50 voucher to anyone whose pre-school aged child received the Free 15hours funding (mine does because my income is under £17K), and it was honestly the best thing. An extra £50 to spend on food over the summer made such a wonderful difference. The kids had ice lollies in the food shop every week, we had lemonade at picnics, we had strawberries and blackberries and watermelon for fruit instead of cheaper apples and bananas. When my kids got worms, I could use the rest of the voucher to buy Ovex and we didn't have to all put up with the worms until I got paid.

Being £100+ worse off means that sort of thing is a distant memory. 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. It sucks.

I've got 3 children and wanted a 4th. We sat down and worked out our finances and realised we wouldn't be able to enjoy the (frivolous) things we do now - a holiday, occasional meal out - if we had a 4th.

If you struggle to buy the food you want, then why did you have 3 such young children - genuine question.

I think people are arguing semantics here about whether cut or return to previous levels. The issue is surely that up wasn’t enough to live on before, prices have risen and so returning to previous levels of payment will cause many immense hardship. I am lucky enough to not claim but in a civilised country surely it can’t be right to condemn thousands to poverty. I would refer uplift to stay and NI increase to be deferred until economic stability returns. The increases to NHS and social care will sure be consumed by the return of diseases related to poor diet and malnutrition

[quote Gimlisaxe]@CuriousaboutSamphire

I wasn't being negative, I was genuinally asking a question, as someone has already posted, there are more unemployed people than job openings at the moment.[/quote]
Sorry. I am used to people laughing at the idea of a root and branch change.

Jobs will come as the economy grows again. It won't be chicken and egg, it will be more grasshoper with its bum on fire. But, as I said, inour small rural backwater, those 'starter' jobs are becoming more and more available as many small and medium sized local businesses start getting their customer back they are also getting desperate to fill positions.

From a garage that has 3 jobs, one of which is an apprenticeship to a fruit drink/yoghurt manufacturer that needs packers and other factory staff, drivers, etc. Both could close if they can't fill those positions.

People who are still on the old system of JSA/ basic ESA never saw an uplift at all during covid.

Sad that the super-rich has the working class arguing amongst themselves on who is more poor and less poor while they generate billions of corrupt cash for themselves.

People won't cope. People already don't cope with universal credit.

Also people hit by the benefit cap did not see any benefit from the covid uplift as the cap stayed the same.

Why not a wealth tax? No-one exempt, not so much as the Queen.

@listentomydeclaration
"The majority of UC claimants, from my experience, need to make better decisions."

What better decisions do you suggest I make? I'm a single parent who has always worked full time until I was made redundant during lockdown.
I immediately started looking for a new job and found a few weeks temp work here and there but didn't even receive a response to most of my applications.
Then I was offered a job but it was initially part time and as a contractor, so self employed.
So I've gone from having a ft job with a survivable salary and relevant work benefits, to part time contract work which means no sick pay or holiday pay or benefits. I get UC top up but it's different every month depending on my hours worked. My council tax is cocked up because of differing UC each month, my pension contributions are now non existent and my chronic health conditions are no longer covered by health insurance that went with my job.
I was only on an average salary but It was doable and I could plan.
Now I have no financial security, earn much less than previously, but my bills have either remained the same or increased.

I still feel lucky to have some income but tell me

Where could I have made better decisions??

@rossclare

I have never understood why people ask things like this.
Circumstances change. Most people don’t have kids thinking they’ll just be on benefits.

If your life went sour and you had to suddenly claim UC, would you appreciate people asking why you had 3 kids?

I’ve only got the one, myself, but when I got pregnant me and my partner were both working full time and in what I thought was a strong, committed relationship. Things change.

Oh, how silly of me. The ruling elite would then be hit in their pockets. However would Boris explain to Stanley his betrayal of his class?

@Willyoujustbequiet

My friend became disabled 18 months ago. She is now bed bound as her treatment was cancelled due to covid. Her prognosis isnt great.

She has waited 10 months for a work capability assessment so she can receive disability element of UC. 10 months!

When the uplift is removed she will get £257 and that's it. No mortgage help so she will ultimately lose her home. How is a disabled person meant to live on £257?

She has no savings left. No family to fall back on. They have apologised for the delay but that's all.

All you utterly ignorant selfish people who want rid of the uplift ypu should be thoroughly ashamed. People will literally die in some cases without this money.

If she has had no income on UC for 39 weeks she cn claim support for mortgage interest ? Has she applied for PIP ? The assesment waiting time for PIP seems to have speeded up a little recently.

@AngeloMysterioso

General question to whoever feels like answering…

Did you vote Conservative in the last election? Knowing that it was a party led by a man who has only ever known immense privilege, is a proven liar, and doesn’t give a fuck about most of his own children?

If so, then why does this turn of events surprise you? What made you think he’d suddenly start caring about the plight of poor people? He doesn’t care. He has never cared. People voted for his party anyway, and this is what happens.

Yes I did vote Conservative. I dread to think of a the mess we would be in if Labour or corbyn were in charge. The benefit system needs stark reforms so that there is more incentive for people to work.

@Clocktopus

We all are going to tighten our belts. We always knew this would be the case. We all are going to cope to recover. Families will have to make difference choices

What about people whose belt is already on its last notch? Or who don't even have a belt let alone one that can be tightened? What choices should they make that are different?

Also some people will be fine. People who make their money from rental income, who are rich and don't need benefits, will be completely unaffected by the NI and UC changes.

I genuinely wouldn't be surprised if the average labour voter has a larger income from employment than the average tory voter. Tories hate everyone but super rich tory donors, and I cannot believe the amount of people who can't see this.

The mesia lie constantly. Tories put up taxes more than labour. Tories waste money more than labour (not least by doing things like cutting funding for a cheap youth centre, a youth centre which only needs to prevent a couple of crimes a year to pay for itself).

Yes other legacy benefits did not get the £20 per week temporary uplift, which I think is wrong and it should have been across the board. You also need to remember those who moved from tax credits to universal credit through change in circumstances (not migration) took a large drop in the amount they received each month I was one of those claimants and it took a good few months to sort my budget out. I work 20 hour a week and also care for my disabled child so working more hours is not feasible for me, so it's all well and good saying go and get a 2nd or 3rd job but some people can't!! The £80 was temporary but it made a massive difference to me.

@Peachee

Nope for people already living hand to mouth it will leave disastrous consequences.. yet minimum wage is a good enough wage to live on. It’s disgusting. Healthy food also costs a fortune! It’s just digging a deeper into a bottomless pit of poverty and shame for people on the breadline whilst the upper/middle class of society bask in it like nothing has happened..

I agree with what you said but healthy food does not cost a fortune. If you shop at Aldi's you can eat really healthily for not a lot. I don't get why people say that. You can buy a bag of whole meal pasta for about 50 pence bag of vegetables for 20 p

People who say just go get a job as a lorry driver/warehouse operative/cauliflower picker 200 miles away have no idea about the reality of life for lone parents, disabled people, those with no spare money for anything let alone retraining etc. It's not like on Eastenders when kids just disappear for a few episodes if they inconvenience the storyline or people move house at a moments notice with a couple of black bin bags. I have been so poor that a Mars bar at the end of the month was a decadent and luxurious treat that could not always be afforded. There wasn't enough to pay the bills and eat so I swung between owing money and being hungry. I'd have laughed if you'd told me to go and get a HGV licence when I couldn't afford a stamp to post the application.

@TrueCrimeWave

I get UC.

I shall manage the same way I managed before.

I have enough to pay my bills and eat without using foodbanks.

I find the fetishisation of people on benefits, reducing us all to virtual scavengers just so that Mumsnetters can virtue-signal their compassion, quite repulsive.

Most of us are adults capable of budgeting & get by that way. It’s not easy but life isn’t.

But everyone's situation is different. If you are on UC and you work and have kids then I actually think Uc is a really reasonable top up. You get a work allowance meaning a proportion of your wage sis completely disregarded before earnings reduce your Uc. If you happen to be a single working person on a low income or worse still not working, the Uc rates are an absolute pittance to survive on and I cannot comprehend how anyone does it. It must be an absolute miserable existence.

@CuriousaboutSamphire

I quite like the idea, I am just curious on how certain things would work with it, but I shall save my questions, so I don't derail the thread and have a bit of a google

I don't understand how they can justify lower payments for younger people as well. Same with minimum wage rates. It's not like you spend less on bills because you're younger. My daughter is disabled and can't work, so I have to support her on the pittance she's entitled to.