Cap on benefits to 26k- am I missing something?

[buggyRunner]

As far as I can gather it's the normal benefits ie housing/ cb and wtc. This seems like a large sum. Is it accross the board or does it include disability related benefits? Are the figures misleading?

spike

do you have dc? and have you added your working benefits to your income

and your working so chances are LL will rent to you.

How can anyone save on £56 a week and that is for food to

I live in a fairly affluent town north east of London. The service industry around here is mostly (as far as I have come across) staffed by excellent young people from Poland etc. They come here to learn the language, work hard and make a living for themselves and I am not knocking them. These are jobs that have all opened up in the last 5-7 years, so where are the British people in this industry?

kitchen roll .

add in Cb and wtc and ctc and see how many are close to that £26000 line

Here are a couple of interesting facts:

1. The people that lose their homes WON'T be the single parent on White Lightening with seventeen kids and a plasma tv...because they live in affordable social housing.

The people that lose their homes will be the working poor, trying to live on the minimum wage and paying huge amounts of private rent.

1. If all benefits are cut, no one earning a low wage will be better off, the rich will be even better off as the savings will be ploughed into tax cuts.

1. Up unitl 2020 no low wages will rise, but higher earners will still see their wages increase.

1. WE ARE NOT IN THIS TOGETHER.

You do realise that disabled people are often expected to pay for medical treatment and equipment out of their benefits?

The NHS doesn't even provide real wheelchairs.

DLA isn't included in the cap, but carers allowance, ESA and industrial accident payments are...

Many disabled people will suffer because of this.

THC, I don't see what difference that makes. They are working.

what the act they are working well they move further away maybe ave £200 amonth on rent and that will go on getting to work so no better of

I've not read the entire thread (because this is just one of 7 billion) but I did just want to make a point.

If you were still on benefits, Spike, and you were told that the flat you were living in (in the SE - near to your family and support network - let's pretend we're back when you were a LP just for this) takes you over the cap.

Just think on that for a minute. SO you have a look round and there is nothing cheaper in your area because, well, there's LOADS of people in similar situations. So you start looking further afield (fair enough) and there still isn't anything cheap enough - maybe there's a few places in areas which are already becoming slums. That's what we're heading towards you know? More slum landlords, back to the Good Old Days.

Maybe you'll end up in a B&B temporary accomodation hundreds of miles from your family, support, p[eople who could watch the kids for you while you looked for a job. How unutterably depressing.

This is what WILL happen, and that just is not right.

te

I thought if got DLA we ar eprotected from the cap

spike next year WTC will no longer exisit so they will not be protected

WTC and CTC and CB will go .It will be called UC so can kiss good bye to any protection

Also, I realise this is likely to fall on deaf ears, but I have a request.

Please, when people are telling benefit recipients they have lots of money compared to working families, can they ensure that these working families they use as examples have the same disability related expenses as the benefit recipients? Otherwise, the example is utterly redundant because it just isn't the same. A family who get £1800 a month after rent and CT who need to spend say £800 of it on disability related stuff are shitloads worse off than a family who have £1150 a month after rent and CT and who need to spend £0 of it on disability related stuff. They just are. There isn't any getting round that.

People who have to spend lots of money on disability related stuff need more money than people who don't. This is why DLA is not an out of work benefit.

THC

DLA is exempt for now, but the gov. haven't said if PIP claimants will be exempted also.

Yes, DLA causes exemption for the household. So I think you should be fine, THC.

Sorry meant to add childcare to the above list too, along with rent/mortgage and CT.

DLA is exempt but other disability benefits AREN'T - so some disabled people will be caught out and others won't.

spike the sums i posted are what it would be with 4 dc and a single parent

I did not do the sums to do with DLA .

spike may i suggest you read up on UC becuase your about to get bitten hard .WTC and your protection will go

www.direct.gov.uk/en/Nl1/Newsroom/DG_191344
oh and it has been passed already

I was also capped when on benefits Spike - and I had to try and find the extra out of my IS. Not easy, not easy at all - and it's all very well saying that they need to go and get a job but we're not just talking about "lifestyle choice" benefit recipients here - we're talking about large families who are caring for elder members, families with 3 children or more who have fallen on hard times maybe due to illness, there are lots of reasons people are on benefits but what we're fed is the "lazy feckless" ones.

Some of us swallow that shit right down - even when RL people tell their stories here on MN, on heartbreaking threads full of fear and dread, I just don't understand it.

It DOES affect working people because you are only considered 'working' if you are eligible for WTC, aka earning a certain number of hours, that number of hours is also going up.

So many people who work part time, perhaps they can't find a 2nd job, or there's a reason they can only work part-time (mildly disabled perhaps) will be treated as UNEMPLOYED.

Which is really unfair IMO. People who work part-time are doing the right thing in working as much as they can.

They are also planning to cut the number of DLA claimants by ~20% and slowly migrate them onto PIP, which might not be exempt.

Ok I've only waded through about a third of this thread but I just don't understand why people have to be so MEAN.

Working families can't afford this that or the other and so why should anyone else get it? Why should anyone ever get any extra consideration just because they DARED to have a child or, god forbid, children?

Doesn't all that vitriol and bile make people feel sick with themselves?

I think most people would accept that a life on benefits isn't what they would choose for themselves or their children so why can't we be a bit more magnanimous and offer a little bit of kindness to those who are in a situation that is probably fairly miserable?

I really don't understand how people can swan about their comfortable lives without thinking that a certain part of why they are where they are is down to luck. Share a bit with those less fortunate and maybe let go of some of the anger. You honestly never know when you might have the rug pulled from under you and need a little kindness thrown your way.