A million WORKING adults face benefits cuts next year.

[Darkesteyeswithflecksofgold]

If they cant find additional hours or higher wages they will have to do direct mandatory activity.

www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/oct/04/million-working-adults-benefits-cuts?CMP=twt_fd

There is a shortage of jobs - that is why there is unemployment and 1.4 million people working part time that will be effected by this.

if you can work and claim between 5-16 hours then how come you need to work 35 hours or be penalised? that is the two parts that I don't understand. On the one hand the government seems to be saying they are lowering the hours you can work and claim and on the other hand they are saying they are raising the hours you can work and claim.

Just heard on the news that 53 pc of people now take more from the state than they put in. 47 pc put in more, only 20 pc put in significantly more. Sorry but it can't go on.

Pistaposto: the policies that turned houses into mansions were Labour policies, a boom based on credit, much of it based on equity, firing the property market into an empty boom.

This needs to be in Chat with higher traffic.

Those of us who have been dealing with the begining of this for the past couple of years know only too well where this is going to lead.

Finding several part-time jobs is pretty much impossible.

i have a cousin who works 20 hours a week in M&S. When she took the job she hoped she would be able to cram these hours into two or three days and look for additional work, but she isn't allowed to. She has to spread them over five days - what's more the store won't guarantee set hours. So one day she'll be doing mornings, the next afternoons.

I don't think you can blame the Tories for this. The cuts would be just about the same under Labour, and they created the need for them. It's amazing thtat people don't realise this.

that's rotten Nancy. do you think M & S think want her to be at her best and another job would be too much. i would hate that. i work p/t but it is spread over 4 days'.

sometimes i think i wouldn't mind finding another job at the weekend but it i am not fussed and am fortunate that i don't really need to as my DH earns a reasonable wage.

Brycie, sorry but that's nonsense, of course you can blame the Tories for this.

Cuts would have had to have happen, whichever party got in, but which cuts, how many and how deep is the issue. Also, crucially, we desperately need the economy to get going again, to prevent the need for further cuts. However the Tory's policies have pushed us further into recession, rather than getting us out of it. Borrowing has gone up!

Many (if not most) of the Tory's cuts are ideological. Universal Credit is a shambles and the blame absolutely lies at the feet of the Tories.

Many people - including children - are going to suffer homelessness and poverty as a direct result of policies the Tories are bringing in now.

....but dont worry Brycie you can keep that £2million home tax free!

Labour would be carrying out 90 pc of these cuts. They put the country in the state it's in in the first place. And what's mroe they put NHS trusts into hock with ridiculous PFI contracts. I blame Labour and so do many taxpayers. Remember the note? Welcome to government - "there's no money left".

I don't have a two million home. And I stopped having children because we couldn't afford more.

Which tax payers Brycie???Those with money will certainly not be worse off under the Tories no higher taxes to pay 4 them. Tories are screwing single parents and disabled people yet again. You agree with this???????

Oh and goody 4 you with your idealist opinions re kids. I had children when I could afford them. My husband screwed another woman and left me as a single parent with no job. I do a full time degree to insure that I can put a roof over my kids heads in the future (I hope). Without the tax credits I would be fucked. (I note there are no published regs on claiming universal credits as a student at present - what a surprise). Sometimes life has a way of changing your circs and your needs. You may do well to remember that!

There's a global recession, haven't you heard? Um, the clue is in the name.

Do you think Gordon Brown caused the US recession too?

I'm certainly not saying I think everything Labour did was great, I don't. But what the Tories are doing is systematically destroying the welfare state, it's not an inevitable consequence of hitting a recession, not at all.

Are they saying that one person in a couple should be working 35 hours a week, so that won't affect childcare, right?

I wonder about single parents, will they be left with less money than they have now if they don't work 35 hours. Harsh that. So glad I am out of the system now I'm no longer a single parent.

I found it difficult to find 35 hours when I was responsible for DD so used to work 2 or 3 jobs to make it up to 30 hours a week. Was claiming some TC and it really helped with appointments and things to be at home one day in the week that I needed to do for DD.

Save the Children say that UC will make 150,000 lone parents worse off.

Article here

Ike: I'm sorry for your situation, it sounds awful, but it's not entirely relevant to the question of having more children while still on benefits.

Which taxpayers? regular people who pay tax. They don't contribute the huge amounts that higher taxpayers do, but they pay their share.

Aufanie: did you not see? Under Labour, the proportion of people who take more out of the state than they put in rose to over half the population. During good times for jobs, by the way. These are real facts. What do you say to that? Is it fair? Is it sustainable?

Actually I tried once to claim benefits, I'd paid a lot in but I was refused because I'd paid in the wrong year. So I know about circumstances changing too!

Its all well and good blaming whatever politicians you want but ultimately its the poorer people in society that are getting pushed further and further. Childcare is still expensive, utility bills are still expensive, food costs seem to be raising, public transport is costly, fuel is pricey...how are people going to be able to put a roof over their heads and feed their children if they are being penalised for not earning x amount? How about creating jobs? More flexible working hours? Ensure employers pay a living wage thus reducing the need for tax credits/ benefits? Instead of taking money from those that may actually need it survive?

The point I am making Brycie is as someone has already pointed out, there are many ways to dodge paying tax if you are in a high earning bracket and the tories have not addressed this, yet the dividends for doing so would be considerably more than trying to law back money from single parents and disabled people. My situation is relevant, I have always been grateful for living in a country with a welfare system, and when my reasonable standard of living changed I was even more thankful that the labour government had created a credits system whereby I could indeed survive financially and reeducate myself. Something that is now in doubt with the new and vague universal credit rules

How about focussing on companies like Tesco who do not pay tax? or vodafone? or arcadia group?? I agree with ike1!

I have earned a decent wage in the past and never begrudged supporting a decent welfare system by paying tax. The reason? I have worked with homeless people and fully understand how life can change very easily leaving a person with family, a house and a job on the streets with nothing! I have been so thankful for tax credits.

MissPricklePants, absolutely, I know someone living in Hampstead Heath earning towards a million a year himself. Why? He works for these companies insuring that they benefit from Tax loopholes. Fuckin laughable. AMMMMAAAZING people dont understand this??? Eh Brycie.

I have a friend who works only 16 hours in the NHS - she was bored with the dc at school all day, so got a dog . SHe was begged to take on more hours offered more hours by her manager, but explained she cou;dn't as her benefits would suffer... which is a crazy situation.
Someone else i know works 16hrs in a haridressers, who also would prefer her to wrok more housrs as they are tuirning away customers. However, same reason...(and she does peoples hair cash in hand in their homes). even crazier.
The situation has to be sorted and tehre will be no way to sort it without making some individual circs worse in the short term, but is smply not sustainable to keep the current system.