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Too Many Cuts...come join the #Frothers and have your say

942 replies

AnyFuckerForAMincePie · 07/12/2011 21:23

This is the 3rd thread in a series.

It is for people who are horrified, frustrated and downright sad at the erosion of human rights with respect to how this country is being run, just now and in the recent past

it is apolitical in nature, but of course due to many recent initiatives by the recent govt, there will be rants against our current "leaders"

please join in

I shall post the link to the old threads, our "Too Many Cuts #Frothers" blog that is attracting a lot of widespread attention and a little bit of what we are about in a moment

OP posts:
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MmeLindor. · 13/12/2011 21:19

oh, come and be miserable among friends. That is what we are there for, to support each other.

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Tianc · 13/12/2011 21:08

Thanks, MmeL, I didn't want to crash the new thread by being pointlessly miserable on it.

Meaningfully miserable, now that's a different matter! Grin

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MmeLindor. · 13/12/2011 20:58

Tianc
We have moved on to a new thread.. see link below.

I know what you mean

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Tianc · 13/12/2011 15:47

Is there still room to be miserable on this thread?

For months I've been talking about the cuts when I go out (which isn't often) to taxi drivers, staff who are helping me in shops/railways, etc, and they largely move straight onto fraudsters, asylum seekers and whatever their other personal hate group is.

So instead of challenging their views I'm clearly being built into their narrative that the cuts are all the fault of , who must now be hated even more.

"She's after your biscuit" replayed with endless variations.

It's like living in a 1930s historical reconstruction.Sad

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KateMiddlet0n · 13/12/2011 15:08

I've posted a jolly rallying call on the new thread so let's start with an upbeat tone and hopefully that will help us a little bit when the glums take hold.

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AvadventKalendar · 13/12/2011 15:08

had a similar convo myself yesterday - they were ok they didn't claim any of the things under threat so they didn't care. "I'm alright Jack"

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Peachy · 13/12/2011 15:06

That, themouse, is indeed the reality.

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MrsHuxtable · 13/12/2011 15:04

Thanks TeWihara and everyone else who replied so quickly. I will certainly keep up to date with this thread from now on. What a scary time for so many people. I need to get myself informed properly as I still have no idea what all this means for us.

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TheMouseRanUpTheClock · 13/12/2011 15:04

I haven't caught up yet, just feel quite disheartened. I was speaking to someone about the above today, their attitude was there are too many people making fake disability claims and the money has to come from somewhere at the end of the day when I said about disabled children's benefits and csa taxing. I responded have you ever made a disability claim, she said no, I said well how would you know then if people are making fake claims easily? She didn't care, and wasn't interested, as far as she was concerned, it was shrug of the shoulders. This was the attitude of a (well educated, pleasant, middle class, lives with well off parents, average joe person, I know her family distantly through others) young hairdresser!

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KateMiddlet0n · 13/12/2011 15:02
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TeWiharaMeriKirihimete · 13/12/2011 14:59

Being on MA is fine - I was, it just means your official income is zero (MA is not counted), but you will ALSO be counted as working.

As general advice, fill in all the forms whilst on the phone to DWP - then you can query everything!

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MrsHuxtable · 13/12/2011 14:52

And this is where it gets more complicated again. I'm only working part-time, actually I'm on sick leave but what happened was that my fixed hours were 19 a week but I was the person to cover everyone else's sick days, holidays etc so was actually working closer to 30 a week on average. I then got pregnant and my boss went into a huff, saying I wasn't allowed to cover other people anymore due to being unreliable after having 1 DAY off sick due to hyperemesis.

So while I would have been working enough hours on average had I not become pregnant and developed complications, I am now not since official hours will only be 19.

My maternity leave starts in the middle of January. Dh also teaches at uni but they are not regular hours as obviously they are term-time only. It's all very confusing.

What I find most shocking about this whole business is that there seems to be so little information about these changes out there. Our situation won't be great but by no means catastrophic. We will somehow manage. From reading this thread, however, I get the impression that A LOT of people will be hit harder than us and with very little notice.

There must be many, many people out there who don't realise the implications of these changes and then what? Will they just get a letter one day saying "From next week, you are expected to find a new job with more hours or you won't have money to eat."???


Oh, I'm also not getting SMP but MA as being sick pushed my income under the threshold. Not a problem, as this way I actually get more after my boss had "cut" my hours so much.

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KateMiddlet0n · 13/12/2011 14:47

Ok, I'll do the thread. I'll save your title for the next one Hunty. We'll fill the new one up in no time. Don't wanna spoil your fun!

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AvadventKalendar · 13/12/2011 14:41
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CardyMow · 13/12/2011 14:36

Aw bums - someone else'll have to do this thread - I've got to go! (My net connection went). Will be back later.

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Peachy · 13/12/2011 14:35

Be aware for FB events atm that for many people FB is down.


Have sent blog to my MP Paul Flynn and also to my AM Rosemary butler: on balance I think Rosemary is a good bet as she is alright although her twitter feed consists entirely of things like 'I visited a fish farm' and the like.

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TeWiharaMeriKirihimete · 13/12/2011 14:35

Are you on official Maternity Leave from an employer MrsH? If so you are still legally 'working' whatever contract you were doing before hand, and this will be the case until 1 year after you left for Maternity Leave. If so are you getting any maternity pay from your employer? This will be your income for the tax year.

Student parents is horribly complicated, but I might be able to help as we did this.

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KateMiddlet0n · 13/12/2011 14:33

Mrs H, while you are on maternity leave you are still employed on your previous terms and conditions. So if you were full time employee before, you're a full time employee now.

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CardyMow · 13/12/2011 14:33

I'll look into it tonight, MrsHuxtable. But I might be on the new thread. I'll try to PM you whatever I find out about PhD's and Uc...

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MrsHuxtable · 13/12/2011 14:27

I'm just starting to look into this issue as we have DD1 due in 8weeks time. I don't really understand our situation. DH is a full-time PhD student.
Would that mean that he counts as not working at all and therefore I have to work all these hours by myself? How does that work while I'm on maternity leave?

I also keep reading about children over 5. What happens if you have children under 5?

Where is all this information about the Tax Credit Changes outlined in detail? I thought we had the financial side of things figured out til DH finishes said PhD in 2013 but obviously not. Am very scared now.

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AvadventKalendar · 13/12/2011 14:27

Ok I've done a lot of RT today, if you click on the #frothers hashtag and select all, you'll see who I have targetted so far, but am rapidly running out of spoons though so will do some more later. I wish I could do something more constructive to help Sad I'm in awe of you guys.

Also RTing for the vote of no confidence FB event which I feel is something easy for people to be able to do that should make a noticeable impact.

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CardyMow · 13/12/2011 14:25

"I'm dreaming of a Frothy Christmas, Too Many Cuts, #frothers"

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KateMiddlet0n · 13/12/2011 14:24

Yes I saw that on Twitter peachy. They're next. I RT'd something for @TMC_frothers

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Peachy · 13/12/2011 14:23

There's something floating around FB as well about lord freud moving on to widow's benefits, but FB crashed and I never got to find out the details (said telegraph but I can't find it on Telegraph site, although I suspect that site and I are mutually allergic).

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