Changes to Pension Credit.

[HelenaDove]

From 15 May Pension Credit couple rate will only be paid if both are over 65

twitter.com/JosephineCumbo/status/1084920673296961536

www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2019-01-14/HCWS1249/

But this thread shows how many people believe the ideology and right wing media.

It absolutely astounds me the people who voted tory who are also benefits claimants, who aren't wealthy people, who can't afford private healthcare or even health insurance, who are sick/disabled or who have relatives who are. Do they really not "get" that they and their families are EXACTLY who the tories mean when they talk of "benefit scroungers"?

I think SOME are waking up to this fact - particularly those who previously didn't think tax credits were classed as a benefit and so thought that the tories "don't mean me" - well yea they do actually.

The tories see as "scroungers" anyone who isn't completely self sufficient. Anyone who needs support from the state via nhs, social care, tax credits, funded childcare, welfare benefits - as far as the tories are concerned you're all scroungers and lazy and didn't try hard enough at school to get a better paid job, shouldn't have had children etc.

They've ALWAYS been like that, why on earth would you think they'd change? Look at who the majority of tory MPs/members are - people born into great wealth, often privately educated, never done a "real" job in their lives BUT think they have what they have because they "earned" it

Yea, that wealth & privilege had NOTHING to do with it at all 🙄

Even the upper middle class types are "trade" as far as they're concerned. The rest of us are just a drain on THEIR wealth in their eyes.

The sooner the larger population wakes up to this the better.

That is not correct. The Tory party supports the welfare state. I know no conservative voters who want the NHS disbanded. Also many Tory MPs are not born into great wealth. Corbyn and McDonnell (Labour) went to private schools for at least some of their education and Mrs May's father was a vicar - hardly Mr Money.

Let us see if Labour get in at the next election or whether the British people sensible as ever, keep Corbyn out. Labour has not won an election since about the 2005 election.

The Tory party limited child tax credits, introduced benefit sanctions which are often unfair, brought in universal credit which is proving to push people into dreadful poverty and has unfair waiting periods, made negative changes to widowed parents allowance, brought in PIP and ridiculous and inhumane ATOS assessments but yes let’s lreywnd that they support the welfare state
The first thing they did when they came to power was announce that they would drastically reduce the welfare bill. They don’t care what impact it has on people to achieve that.

And whether you are born into wealth clearly doesn’t always equate to how you respond to others not born into wealth.

Oh come on Xenia! Support the tory party if you wish and dislike labour but do so with eyes open!

They've NEVER supported the welfare state OR the nhs and never will.

There are very few members of the tory party from a "normal" background and even if that appears to be the case if you dig deeper you find it isn't the case.

Corbyn has been highly critical of his parents decision to send him to private school and the majority of labour members are from more ordinary backgrounds similar to that most voters are from.

If you know no Tory voters who want rid of the nhs then they are wildly misinformed if they think voting Tory will protect it! The tories opposed it from the very beginning! They continue to do so, the only reason thatcher didn't target it was because she knew it would lose her votes!

What some of you are saying about the number of hours caring some carers do doesn't take in to account things that count as caring, shopping, collecting prescriptions, checking by phone that the person is ok, attending medical appointments, doing laundry, odd jobs around the home to ensure that the home is safe, like changing light bulbs, putting bins out, cleaning, writing letters, helping the person with finances & benefits & just being around for the person who requires care all count as caring. It isn't just the traditional caring roles such as washing, dressing & medication.

Even just driving to and from the person you care for needs to be added in as caring hours.

If the NHS did not want the welfare state they would abolish it. We Tories do want a welfare state. No Tory party has abolished it ever. Going to your GP remains free of charge. There are certainly presctipion charges and charges for an NHS dentist but Labour has not remove those (unless you happen to live in certain parts of the UK which of course is very unfair and hard to justify).

In fact the Tories (and Labour) are having to grapple with the issue of how we deal with more and more elderly people within a welfare state.

Are you confusing the nhs with the wider welfare state Xenia?
Do you even understand how the nhs and welfare state came about and how it has changed under the various governments over the years?
If you have ever studied political history at even a basic level you would be well aware that the Tory’s have repeatedly tried to privatise lots of areas of the nhs and been successful in some ways. I am by no means blind to the fact that labour were not perfect either but by no means as bad as the Tory’s if we are talking about privatisation and erosion of the welfare state.
Care in the community was a Tory policy way back before Labour under Blair cane into power. That policy was about families picking up the slack and the govt saving money on expensive care bills....except there is very very little care in the community, people have just been left to struggle and rot in a miserable existence.

And no party could ever totally abolish the welfare state because we would have unprecedented riots,, looting, chaos and death. The streets would be safe for nobody. But the tories have eroded the welfare state to an extent that food bank use is rife and lots of deaths have been directly linked to the punitive changes that the tories have made to the welfare state.

The changes were needed, they could have been far harsher but weren't. The Tories didn't want to abolish the system but it was so easy to see the mess tax credits made. Welfare was never meant to support those who didn't want to work, do part time, have children they can't afford etc.

Even now with all the changes people still post they won't work more or retrain whilst they get so much from the system.

Care in the community is not necessarily a bad thing. Back in the 1960s my father in his area as a psychiatrist in the NE was quite instrumental in getting people with disablities including children away from being locked up in really awful places and back into the community. It was a huge change for the better for most of them.

"The changes were needed" based on what?! Benefit fraud is minimal, and the stats include where it's the Dwp fucked up and overpaid! No system is ever going to be perfect and immune to the less scrupulous but the needs of the many outweigh the punishment of the few - for anyone with a heart anyway!

Re tax credits - they are really subsidising employers anyway! They keep wages artificially low. Should never have been introduced, instead an actual living wage should have been and still should be.

The changes to widowed parents allowance were abhorrent.

The government are cutting benefits through universal credit & personal independence payments, more claimants are having to go to tribunal to get the correct benefit that they are entitled to. Tribunals take around a year to get a tribunal date, that's a year of not having enough money to pay for help & care. Most tribunals are won by the claimant, think about how much it must cost to fund these tribunals? That's why the welfare budget is increasing, plus the payments to the assessment companies Atos & Capita who are paid to fail as many claimants as possible, most who go to tribunal & win the benefit they claimed, I've been told by a welfare rights worker that the "medical professionals" who do the assessments get paid £50 for each claimant they refuse or reduce benefit payments to, on an average 8 assessments a day per assessor that soon adds up. The cut of around £7000 per year of pension credit for a couple where there is a partner age gap is frankly disgusting, as are the waspie women cuts who now have to work until they are 67 before they can draw state pension.

Care in the community is not necessarily a bad thing

It would be a good thing if they properly funded it and actually provided care to vulnerable people. Instead people are too often left to their own devices. Elderly and disabled people reliant on families and if their families can’t orobide the care required then their needs just go unmet. People with significant mental health needs unable to get a bed in appropriate provision.
Whilst previously some people were institutionalised who shouldn’t have been we have swung too far the other way. Tories expect the ‘big society’ to do it all.

In the 60’s disabled children being institutionalised was mainly due to prejudice and people with disabilities being seen as no worth. It’s only within the last decade that a Tory said disabled children were too expensive and shouldn’t be allowed to live.

Apologies- it was actually 13 years ago www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/tory-deputy-mayor-owen-lister-558677.amp

Them caring tories eh!

What some of you are saying about the number of hours caring some carers do doesn't take in to account things that count as caring, shopping, collecting prescriptions, checking by phone that the person is ok, attending medical appointments, doing laundry, odd jobs around the home to ensure that the home is safe, like changing light bulbs, putting bins out, cleaning, writing letters, helping the person with finances & benefits & just being around for the person who requires care all count as caring
Nat, I agree with you to an extent when such care is given to someone who is not a close relative to you. I disagree when caring is for a parent or more a partner. All the above are things partners should do for each other. I don't put the bins out as a favour to my husband.

If it is your partner you would normally share all the above tasks but when you are a carer doing 100% of those tasks a portion of that is being done due to the persons inability to do be able to do it themselves. So yes, even if it is your partner some of those tasks are now due to your status as a carer.
Anybody who is doing all of those things for a partner who is physically able to do it themselves is not in an equal relationship and that’s another issue.

Partners can help in different ways. One could do all these tasks but the other one offer emotional support. Marriage makes it clear that it is for the best or for the worse. If my partner was unable to perform thesextasks, of course I would take them over without considering that the relationship is no longer because he can't. That doesn't mean that the government should have to pay for doing what are normal everyday family/couple tasks.

CA should be increased and only provided to people who provide care for non loved ones or those who provide care to loved ones beyond what would be normal tasks performed everyday by people in relstionship/parents of kids.

Here’s an example swing: a woman I know cares for her husband. She has to cook him breakfast before she goes to work, she also has to prepare him a lunch and leave it in a cool bag next to his chair in his room because she won’t be there at lunchtime. Those are caring tasks because if he was able to do those things for himself she would just get up and go to work. She doesn’t need to provide breakfast or lunch for herself because she works in the food industry and eats at work during the day. When she comes home she has to prepare her husband his dinner and he can only eat a soft diet of a limited range of foods, so she has to cook a separate meal for herself.
She has to change his bedding and clean his room daily because he sometimes utinates on the floor and has a skin condition which means his bedding needs changing daily. It isn’t her bedroom as they can’t share a bed due to his disability. Her bedroom is a different room. She has to wash clothing twice daily due to the extra bedding and clothing her husband needs. She would only need to do two loads of washing a week for herself.
She has to collect his prescriptions and spend time making appointments for him - he used to do those things for himself.
She does lots of other things for him including applying creams and showering him, brushing his hair, transferring him from bed to chair etc, pushing his wheelchair whenever they go out, giving him his medication because he can’t manage himself and doesn’t understand which ones to take. She is up all night turning him, getting him on and off the commode, attending to him when he is crying in pain.
None of that is part of a normal relationship. This is now a carer and cared for relationship but she still loves him and sees him as her husband.
Obviously based on your logic she shouldn’t be considered a carer though because she is his wife and she married him for better for worse, in sickness and in health.
You will be glad to know that she doesn’t get carers allowance though because she works 45 hours a week because they have a mortgage to pay. Her husband has to sit in a chair watching tv for the 9 hours she is at work and sometimes wets himself and has to stay wet until she gets home because he has been refused help from social care.
This woman is saving the local authority a huge amount of money.

And that Level of caring is not unusual in a relationship where one is disabled. We can’t deny that the cooking and laundry tasks I lost above form part of that woman’s caring hours. I certainly wouldn’t begrudge her claiming carers allowance if she was able to give up work. Her quality of life is currently non existent and she is no doubt shortening her own life expectancy due to doing so much.

Although many of us do that and mor and don't expect an allowance surely? When I had 5 children at home including 2 babies and worked fulltime there was never a day I was not changing a wet sodden bed neve rmind breastfeeding half the night. It is just part of love and relationships really.

Changing a baby is not the same as changing a grown adult and we choose to have children and expect they will need nappy changes and feeding etc. FFS!