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Government now considering cutting or freezing the minimum wage.

41 replies

Darkesteyes · 02/04/2013 01:43

I remember DH saying the bastards would do this at some point when they got into power 3 years ago.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/9965039/Minimum-wage-could-be-frozen-or-cut-if-it-starts-to-cost-jobs-or-damage-economy-Government-suggests.html

OP posts:
Tortington · 02/04/2013 01:55

at this point i feel like just shrugging and shaking my head. they are openly persecuting the poor, making people work for free, giving tax breaks openly to millionnaires, charging poor people for 'spare' rooms that aren't really spare, hiking counci tax up and selling off the nhs.

ALL IN THE NAME of rebuilding the economy - which nyone with an ounce of economic literacy will tell you is bullshit.

i am angry at the tories obv. labour for not providing ANY kind of opposition whilst in power, they are beyond pathetic they make my bloody blood boil in fury.

and then the people affected still wont register to fucking vote

Booyhoo · 02/04/2013 02:00

there will be no fucking economy. no fucker will be able to buy a thing.

Angry

can we get a scared emoticon on here specifically for threads like this?

SchroSawMargeryDaw · 02/04/2013 02:02

I'm voting yes for Scotland. I hate this government.

AllPurposeNortherner · 02/04/2013 02:03

Me and my friend were just talking aout this. Terrifying.

Tortington · 02/04/2013 02:06

if yu vote yes scotland - we will be left with these tory fuckers forever

SchroSawMargeryDaw · 02/04/2013 02:11

I'm sure you won't. I'm sure all the people who don't normally vote, will be persuaded to this time!

AmberLeaf · 02/04/2013 02:38

No shcro seriously, if scotland goes, this lot will be in forever, labour will have no chance of a majority without scotland.

Re min wage. Nothing surprises me, if it wasn't so awful it would be funny.

AmberLeaf · 02/04/2013 02:40

People that don't bother to vote are thick. Nothing will change that sadly.

SchroSawMargeryDaw · 02/04/2013 03:16

I don't know, I think it will change it when people start being unable to feed their families properly or heat their homes. I am probably being naive though. I am starting to think the Tories want to of Scotland, surely they know all of these changes will affect the vote? Especially if 16 year olds are allowed to vote, when I started getting paid work at 16 the NMW for that age was only £3.30 an hour. Surely it can't go that low or even lower again!?

flatpackhamster · 02/04/2013 08:29

Booyhoo

there will be no fucking economy. no fucker will be able to buy a thing.

can we get a scared emoticon on here specifically for threads like this?

There's a Biscuit emoticon specifically for threads like this.

NorthernLurker · 02/04/2013 08:35

I agree Custardo - voter registartion is going to be a key factor for the next election. We've got to get the people who are hurting to feel that they can change things at the ballot box.

AmberLeaf · 02/04/2013 08:50

I am starting to think the Tories want to of Scotland, surely they know all of these changes will affect the vote?

Yep as I said, scotland has never been a vote winner for scotland. They love it if scotland was seperate.

MurderOfGoths · 02/04/2013 09:21

Ah yes, because the solution to NMW not being a living wage is to reduce it or freeze it. Makes perfect sense. Hmm

Also, surely while WTC still exists then reducing it means the benefits bill goes up?

usualsuspect · 02/04/2013 09:25

How the hell are people expected to live? Most people on minimum wage have to be topped up by benefits as it is.

This country is well and truly fucked.

NotDavidTennant · 02/04/2013 09:29

People overestimate the extent to which Labour are dependent on Scottish votes. Labour would still have won in '97, '01 and '05 even without a single Scottish MP.

Anifrangapani · 02/04/2013 09:35

Capping the minimum wage is a way for companies to get the state to subsidise their bottom line. Pay your workforce less than a minimum wage and the state tops it up with tax credits. The difference is profit.

You have to love it Hmm

Please register to vote - on the day dont let anything put you off.

usualsuspect · 02/04/2013 09:40

This government needs to make its mind up.

They bang on about how work pays, get off benefits and find a job.

Then this? where work clearly won't pay and you will need even more benefits to survive.

What the fuck?

AmberLeaf · 02/04/2013 09:45

That's reassuring notdavidtennant.

ThePathanKhansAmnesiac · 02/04/2013 09:51

If they get in again, work houses will be back, " Community enterprise settlements" where the poor can take patenting classes (run by a nice tory backed private co.), learn to give back to the community by doing manual jobs council were once responsible for.

Our kids can learn basic literacy and maths, but beyond that they,ve no need for education, the community settlements will help them break the cycle of 68 generations of "fecklessness".

Shrode if Scotland go, we are fucked.
If Scotland go, I,m going with them.

headlesslambrini · 02/04/2013 09:53

I agree that Labour doesn't seem to be interested in doing anything, makes me wonder if they are taking a longer term view - forget getting in this time round, as it seems like too much hard work, we will put more effort in for 2020 as there should be more money around.

I vote at every election and drag DH and DC's along as well. DC's are only 14 and 11 but it's important that they understand that they need to vote when they are old enough. DH isn't really bothered about voting but I remind him that his father fought for this as well as others and we go to make sure that it wasn't done in vain. DH always asks who is he voting for when he walks through the door and I am always more than happy to tell advise him.

ParsingFancy · 02/04/2013 10:00

you will need even more benefits to survive

See, that's the misunderstanding. I don't think people surviving particularly bothers them.

Eg, the changes to Incapacity Benefit/ESA actually designed a group of people to be destitute - too well for ESA, too ill for JSA or a meaningful amount of work. What's the plan for them? Er...

They really don't care.

And "they" includes Labour, who set all this in motion.

Itsjustafleshwound · 02/04/2013 10:13

Forgive me ...

I don't really understand. The article was just saying that the commission (who sets the minimum wage) has been asked to have their frame of reference changed to include the impact that an increas in wages has on the economy.

This COULD lead to a freeze in the recommended minimum wage.

niceguy2 · 02/04/2013 10:15

Has anyone actually read the details of what the 'change' has been?

"It has told the Low Pay Commission, which sets the minimum wage, that it must formally consider its impact on ?employment and the economy?, before agreeing future increases."

So now it's terms of reference include:

"the understood and accepted goal to raise the wages of the lowest paid without damaging employment or the economy"

I'd have thought that is sensible and I am surprised that it wasn't part of the original remit. You can't help the lowest paid by raising the minimum wage to the point that it damages the economy. That helps noone. So having that as a goal seems eminently sensible to me.

The implication that this may lead to a freeze in the minimum wage is stupid. Every day they do not raise the minimum wage can be interpreted as a 'freeze'.

A cut is merely theoretical and about as likely to happen as them finding Lord Lucan.

Anifrangapani · 02/04/2013 11:09

You don't understand civil service speak. That means that we are giving ourselves a reason to ignore the rpi increases that were previously used to calculate the min wage increases.

NiceTabard · 02/04/2013 21:11

No 10 have not ruled out a freeze according to torygraph

Freeze is a cut over time (quite a short time) due to inflation