To feel utterly miserable about a future with Andy Burnham as PM?

[OneWarmHazelQuail]

I feel like I'm being stung in every possible way at the moment- £15 a day on tube to work, high mortgage costs, high energy costs, private schooling for SEN child (I was told state wouldn't be unlikely to assist him as he isn't mute or violent). My parents have had to help fund schooling it felt like my only hope as son has behavioural issues.

I also have an unsold old home that I have to rent out as it wouldn't sell. Buy-to-let mortgage costs, agent fees, maintenance and tax put me in a loss position.

I can't bear what the future holds with Andy Burnham. I have no doubt that he will find new and imaginative ways to keep me in this financial nightmare. I'm literally struggling from food poverty but regarded as rich by policy.

YABU- Andy Burnham is actually going to make things better

YANBU- I'm screwed

@CountingDaisies why should we accept benefits fraud ? Why should we or any fraud ?

Why are we even considering upping the aid budget to pakistan to encroage them to take back rapists? We already give Pakistan 50 million. Why ? They have 170 nuclear weapons
And we have poor defences now. Does this make sense

So what do you suggest?

Appropriate and redistribute?

A level politics?

You don’t have to accept anything. Get out, find a job or found your own business and get on with it.

This isn’t helpful. @friedakleinis right you don’t need to keep kicking the op.

“town centres decimated and filled with homeless/drugs/drinkers that are intimidating to have to go past.”

This is the same in pretty much every town in the country though …

I'm not living in the past of any government and I'm certainly not endorsing the current Labour government. But what I haven't done is decided already that Burnham will be shit and everything will be shit and it's all shit, before he's even in the role. How ridiculous is that?!

That said, I don't think the OP really has a problem with Andy Burnham, so much as far too many things on her plate causing anxiety that she can't control, looking for an outlet.

I see no I have been far too quick to jump on your post. There has been some good advice given here.

As stated ,any safety net/centralised support has left the building and we are left scrabbling about or paying. It's a disgusting situation. This was a country where most things worked most of the time. Thatcher sold off the assets, the private school elite kicked everybody else into the long grass.
People are greedy, individualistic and mean.

OP, hide this horrible thread. You’ll be picked clean by the social warriors.

Try to get some practical help and hopefully this, too, shall pass.

It's such a pity the SEN board no longer seems to be active.

OP also has a difficult baby. OP, maybe make another post in Parenting or Schools and maybe people can help.

I think this isn't about politics. Call Samaritans or Mind if you want to rant.

The point of my original post was that people like me may seem wealthy on paper eg assets but actually are struggling and can't find a way out with the current economic climate.

The problem with the rental income as it is counted as income and makes me ineligible for lots of state help but in practice all of those funds are just going back out on mortgage interest, tax, maintenance. The property is in negative equity so what can I do.

The state is also underproviding for SEN children. I'm desperate for help with my son. I have called every number, spoken to everybody that I can. All the advice is the same, none of it works in practice. A lot of people who don't have SEN kids don't seem to realise how difficult it is and how little immediate help there actually is.

@OneWarmHazelQuailThis thread will not help you feel any better, I suggest leaving it now and perhaps post on the SEN boards for support. Please see your GP urgently if you and your dh have been feeling suicidal, I just saw you have a baby daughter as well as your son. I know you’re feeling at rock bottom but they need you. If your ds has aggressive behaviour have you heard of Yvonne Newbold? There is a Facebook group of hers for parents for support called Newbold Hope, I think you might find it helpful. Is your ds violent at all? Does he have a learning disability? There are other places I can recommend for support if so as volunteer in a SEN charity that signposts parents

This is (slightly) outing but whatever. I used to live in the south east, I never saw this in Bishops Stortford, Harpenden, St Albans, Sawbridgeworth, Ware. It was around a decade ago and I accept things may have changed, but no one will ever convince me that things in wealthy commuter belt towns are the same or similar to deprived northern unemployment hotspots.

I do hear your distress, and it's certainly not a race to the bottom, however there are some of us with multiple very seriously disabled children who do physically attack us and who can't use a toilet at all. Some of us can't work (I mean no private school, and sometimes no state special school, will take our kids). Some of us don't even own one property.

What makes you think a more left wing government approach will be worse for these families? The answer to SEN is not going to come from whether or not there is VAT on private schools. It's going to come from enough high quality state special schools of all types and mainstream schools that stop turning away children with SEN or creating hostile environments for them so they are pushed out.

It sounds like your son masks at school. What was he like in his state school before he moved to the private school?

So why are we attacking immigrants and each other for this? Why aren't we acting against the obscenely rich and telling them enough is enough? Why are we more interested in rallying around Farage like he's some sort of messiah when he is one of these obscenely rich and persistently proven him self to be a nasty, self serving weasel? Why are we more interested in torching down the homes of immigrants and creating a more hostile environment for everyone in the country for no gain? Whatever you believe about their right to be here or their value to the country refugees are some of the most vulnerable and least powerful people in the country. Why aren't we fighting the tiny minority of people who control the majority of the wealth that we contribute towards who are quietly becoming more and more rich and powerful and laughing at the rest of us?

I agree. Thatcher had lots of time to do lots of damage. I think a large portion of the blame for our housing shortage lies with her - she should never have sold off all the council houses. Or at least not in the way she did with no plan for reinvestment. Subsequent governments have then ignored the fact that the population is growing and done nothing to increase the housing stock.

Selling off the utility companies, especially water, has also been a total an utter disaster. They are now owned by foreign banks and are failing to reliably supply water and prevent sewage going into waterways and the sea. They also knew the population was growing and climate change is worsening and have failed to take appropriate action.

Much of the cost of living increase is probably largely out of our control - increase in energy prices, wars, the pandemic. Although Brexit has also hit our economy hard, which obviously was our decision.

All Properties sell. Perhaps not for what people want for them but surely you just reduce the price until it does sell?

Exactly. Under Chancellor Alistair Darling, the economy had started growing again after the financial crash and the austerity policies of George Osborne and the Coalition Government killed any growth stone dead. The international credit ratings agencies such as Moody's and S&P downgraded the UK as a result of these Conservative policies.

It baffles me that people still think that Conservative governments are good for the economy.

Very sorry for this but fear about Burnham won't help. This goes back to serious underfunding of services. There used to be professionals and support workers to assist, it wasn't perfect . Also break down of families and community is a part of this.

Exactly, I am so sick of working full time, paying my mortgage, raising my kids and getting very little back from the state but paying tens of thousands in tax.

Meanwhile, the benefits bill is now higher than what we generate in income tax.

1 in 4 working age adults is now classed as disabled rendering the term 'disabled' meaningless.

50% of children in Scotland have a EHCP (so 50% of future Scottish adults are also going to be classed as disabled).

Families with lots of children now can get more in benefits than a minimum wage worker working full time.

The country is going down the drain and we are just watching it happen. The Conservatives did a lot of damage in letting the benefits swell whilst in power but labour are making it far worse.

If I could I would emigrate tomorrow.

Why are we even considering upping the aid budget to pakistan to encroage them to take back rapists?
What on earth is this about?

Right, but OP still made a choice to move from house 1 to house 2 for whatever reason. And I’m sure those reasons were compelling and made sense for her family etc etc, people have free will of course, but sometimes the choices we make have a negative financial impact and it is NOT for the govt to sort that out.

If house 1 couldn’t sell at a price that was acceptable to OP, she could have stayed in house 1, ultimately. That a govt policy changed and made BTL less attractive is the risk you take when you roll that dice (and I’ve been there by the way). You don’t get to moan about your second home not making you money when so many people can’t afford homes.

ECHPs don’t exist in Scotland.

We don’t use the EHCP system in Scotland

“The problem with the rental income as it is counted as income”

yes because lots of landlords were living off rental income alone. They should have to pay tax like everyone else.

“makes me ineligible for lots of state help…The state is also underproviding for SEN children”

So you want lots of benefits and you also want better funding, without having to pay tax on rental income on your second home. Where’s the money for all the benefits and all the state funding coming from if not from tax?

Also as I asked before and was ignored- where is the children’s father in all of this and what is he doing to help you?

Op my own DD has sen issues and was massively struggling it was luck that at that time I was able to buy tutors for her to plug the gap and then during COVID I helped her myself and got her back in the game.

Unfortunalty people don't understand how poor and one track pony our education system is unless you have a child with Sen and understand ,our schools can't help

0.4% of school-age children in Scotland have CSPs (which are not quite the same as ECHPs but never mind).

Please stop lying on the internet, it really doesn’t help your case.