Cut benefits before increasing council tax

[Bonde]

https://www.lbc.co.uk/article/reeves-council-tax-hike-5HjdMrJ_2/

As an increase in income tax is now out the window, the government will have to look at other ways to fill the gap by increasing a dozen smaller taxes. One option, I think they will opt for, is to apply a surcharge for homes in bands F,G&H. It would be politically expedient to do so because many people will assume those in such homes are wealthy.

We purchased our band f property earlier this year at £550k. We live in London and didn’t want to uproot our family, and move jobs, so decided to buy our 2.5 bed house.
After mortgage and bills, we have £100 to £200 left over, but some months have nothing. An increase would be so difficult to manage.

Why can’t the government have the courage to cut benefits. You can buy a BMW or Mercedes on the Mobility Scheme! Why?

"People on benefits".
People on benefits are not one homogenous mass that have one singular opinion. You just seem to want to demonise them.
You could join their ranks one day.

@Kirbert2
Part of the point of benefits bashing is the staunch refusal to acknowledge that benefits- even receiving the maximum possible (whatever that is, I don’t actually know) for two adults will never equal the income of two adults (partnered) working even minimum wage jobs .
The reality of a life on benefits is supplanted by a notion that people on benefits have “extra” money for “nothing” despite every possible piece of evidence to the contrary.
There is no changing people wanting to vote Reform or hating Labour or wishing the Tories were back (why?) and those ignoring the shit caused by Brexit. There just isn’t.
The most any individual can do is correct people making up utter bollocks about disability and how it affects the sufferers (although that will usually be ignored or mocked) and/or the rampant ill-informed nonsense about how Motability operates and the cost to the end-users (because those who don’t need to use it won’t have the vaguest idea of why someone would chose to swap their “free cash” for “acne” 😉 for a car they’ll never own. I’d rather have the “free cash” than swap it for a fucking gas-guzzling van that offends the universe any day, and that is extortionately leased but sadly my immobile daughter and her pesky disabilities requires otherwise.

So people on benefits aren't allowed to worry about their situations getting worse but OP is?

Of course people are ultimately going to worry about their own situations more.

Said like someone who has no idea what the job market is like right now.

Of course everyone is worried about their own circumstances.

A self employed person is worried about clients, an employee worried about their employer and someone on benefits worried about the financial state of the government.

The self employed person has the most control over their destiny and the benefits person has the least. All down to choice, aptitude and resilience.

@Helpingout2000
don’t forget birth defects and life- limiting conditions that anyone can acquire regardless of their “.resilience “.
Did Rob Burrow factor in MND when he was starting out his rugby career?

Yes, because being disabled is a choice and can be dealt with with simple aptitude and resilience.
If you are on benefits, you need to be resilient dealing with all the shitty judgements on here and online.

i'd agree the triple lock should go, and yes, pensions and pensioners are going to be a mahoosive drain on the public purse while the babyboomers process through the system, but they will die off. I am one, born in 1956. My dad is still in decent health at nearly 92 (no medication), although away with the fairies and looked after attentively by his second wife. So I may well live to be 100, and while I have saved into my SIPP for 25 years, there will not be enough money to fund many years in a care home at £80k or £90k annually in my dotage.

If I receive a dementia diagnosis, I plan to wade into the sea, in a wet suit, with a gun and put a bullet through my brain. Just hope I can manage it.

@Pasadena
So how much time would you place on my daughter’s abilities? She can’t walk or talk or eat. She probably has intellectual disabilities that mean she will stay at the mental age of a below 5 year old for life.
Please tell me how long a Welfare State system should allow her?

I couldn't agree with you more WiddlinDiddlin! So many are quick to judge those of us who need to claim health benefits, and yet they can't be bothered to actually research the truth before they jump on the bandwagon!!

Of course they never think about the pain that we live with every single day, or how much our lives are curtailed by the disabilities we suffer, no, it's all about the green eyed monster, and us having a car that's better than theirs.

They don't think about the fact that if their car breaks down, they can walk to get assistance, or to get to a toilet if they need one while they're waiting, but due to my disability, I would have to stay put, however hot or cold the weather might be, and however much pain I'm in, and that if I need a toilet while I'm waiting to be rescued, I'd just have to wet myself, and then face the indignity of seeing the look of disgust on the mechanic's face when they finally come to help. The fact that having a newer, more reliable car, might just be able to help me avoid that, never registers with people like this, and quite frankly, they should be ashamed of themselves! Fancy being jealous of someone who is disabled!! What sort of society have we turned into??

Probably not, some would be dead, more would be homeless and I'm not sure how they're counted.

It would cost the NHS and social care a lot more as well.

He's basically self employed. He doesn't really earn enough for the hours he puts in but it's flexible and means he's home with DS, can take him to appointments and to school when he can go in.

The reason I'm on benefits has nothing to do with choice.

@UserFront242
(love your user name- is that related to Front 242 by any chance?)
Absolutely this is what a lot of social media commentators think makes them “rational” and so very astute politically and oh so very clever at understanding economics - they push the narrative that being disabled is ultimately a lifestyle choice and anyone could just push a bit and be as wealthy as US but they are lazy. And those scroungers of parents - imagine driving a car they “got for free” from the taxpayers to WORK (although entirely permitted by Motability contracts). Why are they working - they should be at the nail salon and in the pub telling all and sundry how they’ve scammed everyone. Like their neighbours does 🤣.
I’d place a lot of money on those people switching off Great Ormond Street Hospital advertisements (even though that hospital has the biggest windfall in donations) because oh cancer stricken children and severely disabled children are all a bit yucky if I have to think about it too long and anyway THEY won’t be CEOs of a tech company so who cares if they swap DLA for a new car - what’s wrong with the bus?
Why do disabled people need cars? If they can’t walk why aren’t they at home etc etc etc (and I’ve literally seen these comments).

I wonder if the OP would feel the same way if their house was in a lower tax band or if they or a family member had a disability? 🧐

@Overthemhills @Pasadena I don't place any limits on your daughter's life but I doubt it will stretch to 70 years. Once anything happens to you, and she has no advocate or parent, her future is very uncertain. I don't like to write this, because medical progress is so wonderful, but only 50 years ago your daughter would almost certainly not have survived the event that disabled her. It might not feel good enough to you for her, but the support available now is unlikely to get any better. I think we have reached peak empathy.

I tell you what, I’ll swap you my adapted, wheelchair accessible Mercedes van with its hoist, hand controls and clamps, (which I had to buy myself because Motability is so expensive I couldn’t afford to get anything suitable on the scheme) for your half million pound house in London.

Oh, and you will obviously want my disability too, as you won’t enjoy the “luxury” of my van without it.

I have seen a comment on here that the only disabled people that should be allowed cars on the Motability scheme are those that need cars for work. They said "if they are not working, why do they need a car?"
But then I have seen comments that say that if someone is on PIP and works, then they must be taking the piss and don't need PIP.
It shows a total lack of understanding about how PIP/Motability, and even UC works.
But they don't care because benefits and disability is what happens to other people. Never them. Not being disabled is just a temporary thing.

And yup, I was aiming for a User(long number), but went with Front 242. On a nostalgic YouTube trip right now 😊

Fucking hell, so should this girl be left on a hill to fend for herself and just die?

@Helpingout2000 and @Papyrophile - she’s the happiest person I’ve ever met.
do with that what you will.
and your oh so radical thoughts about whether she’d be alive or not 50 years ago? So what? You may not be alive if NHS care wasn’t available- were you born on the NHS?
Does your child/ren use it?
Do you avail of state schools?

No.. well you PERFECT little rich folks, yes?

We have reached peak empathy? You might think that’s supremely clever. It isn’t. And one day I’m sure you’ll want empathy for you or yours.

Don’t make me laugh too much now .. are you on the comedy circuits because you both should be.
Neither she nor I need or want empathy - from “people” like you or otherwise.
But I promise you I will be laughing a LOT if Labour or Reform fucks over people like you - and your children or partners or parents or when you develop a life-limiting condition you can’t just “work” your way out of. I’ll be laughing a lot when you can’t afford to live because someone has taken away the NHS or you are bullied out of employment and have no recourse because employers don’t have to refer to the Human Rights Act when it’s gone because everyone needs resilience and to work more. I’ll chuckle when there’s no State Pension for people you care about.
See it’s all just a big joke and how BOLD we can be online, eh?