cuts - Wednesday's Spending Review

[mrsbaldwin]

Brace yourself ladies - these cuts are big, there will be tens of thousands of public sector redundancies and it's said (by the Fawcett Society amongst others) that they will disproportionately affect women.

Some workers will get some sort of payoff, and some will be pleased to go. Some will find new jobs.

But I reckon the overall effect (licks finger and holds it in the wind) will be to drive down women's wages, meaning that once you are made redundant from your public sector post you may find more work but it will be at a lower rate and the extra competition for jobs across the board will drive wages down across the board. This may be true for men as well but I think it will affect women - mums - more.

If you are watching the press coverage on Weds, what do you think the effects of the cuts and the job losses for women (and mums) will be?

"Your rent will be increased to 80% of Market Rate. You can still claim HB to cover the cost of this, up the capped amount.

I think."

But that would increase the amount of HB they'd have to pay out.......

alicatte I think it proabably is true as current debt interest payments are 43 billion a year so it seems reasonable that they will rise to that figure.

Mole this isn't the normal budget, that is still to come so this is likely to happen as well.

Oh and yes, Justgettingbymum

that's what I dont understand re EMA - the targeted help. I also thought that was what EMA was staggered in rate for - targeted help. Further information wasn't forthcoming, was it?

Ah, thank you Tootles. I knew it wasnt the normal budget but I did half expect them to be mentioned.

Why will they rise so far?

jesus he's a witless fool!

According to Nick Robins, council tax benefit to be cut by 10%.

How will they do that?

I see that not one benefit for exsting pensioners was cut, their pensions were protected and will rise in real terms and they get a permanent Cold Weather Payment enhancement.

That should bring in a few votes - of course children dont vote or feel cold so they dont need heat.

Thanks BTM. Just been reading the Shelter website, not sure if it's been updated yet.

I think if we had to pay 80% of our rent out of other benefits we'd be on the streets. Unless of course I cave and sleep with the landlord after all..

'jesus he's a witless fool!'
Agree, I always said that about Alan Johnson

Why do over 75s get free tv licenses? It's hardly esssential like heating is it?

bigchris - I think the BBC are taking over the cost for that???

The increase in the state pension age is only right, why should women get to retire earlier than men when they live on average longer than men? This isn't an attack on women.

Agreed re the bus passes though.

Rent won't be increased - it doesn't affect existing tenants. This is going to be brought in for new tenants. People already in social housing will keep the current rents (although I bet they creep up anyway) and keep their 'tenancy for life' status.

I am getting a sense that there was another way. Can they change their minds?

I think its right that the state retirement age should be the same for men and women. In fact there's an argument that the female retirement age should be higher as we have a higher life expectancy

Fuck them all to hell.

The largest amount of 'welfare' is spent on pensions.

But they are untouched.

We're talking about people who, often enough,were still in school at the time people like me were, too, there's that little difference in ages.

Yet they are exempted from all cuts!

Fuck that for a game of soldiers.

That's one little gravy train I'll be happy to form a posse to storm onto and derail.

Becuase it's not fair that children and the children of the poor are being punished, but not 'pensioners' who don't need extra money.

Why was it mentioned in the spending review then?

I imagine there probably were a number of different ways to cut the pie to get the savings but will have to have picked one which they thought was 'best'.

I reckon some of the cuts will be changed over the coming years, but I think that's fine too.

We all make mistakes - if the debt doesn't prove too difficult to service after all then perhaps they can restore some of the cuts.

Try this thread here to the Treasury website. Lots more info with some real numbers in it.

Same old Tories. Only with a little help from their neo-Tory friends. Good line about Nick Clegg having a conversion between the polls closing and the door of the Ministerial limousine opening.

Sorry if there's any repetition - haven't read all the posts.

The Tories shouldn't be allowed to get away with the line that the deficit was all Labour's fault. They supported Labour's spending figures until the crash. And the increase in spending after the crash was what stopped the recession becoming a depression. The Tories should be asked what they would have done differently, and why they didn't say so at the time. [hangry]

Can someone explain something to me please as im getting really confused by this now lol.

We couldnt qualify for working tax credits as dp earned £10 a year to much so we just get CTC.

With them uping the hours that people have to work to qualify for it does that mean we will now qualify.

On me reckoning if they are upping the working hours they must be upping how much people earn to be able to qualify for it.