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

[AnyFuckerForAMincePie]

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

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Go for it, it is ok to have several a day.

The full welfare reform bill here : www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/lbill/2010-2012/0114/2012114.pdf

It's a bloody long bugger. Going to take a while to read through, not sure if I have time today. Shitting fuck bollocks.

Hunty - people on my facebook are saying it's not true re: maintenance - where did you get the info? May save me trawling through the bill if i can provide a direct link

oops www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/lbill/2010-2012/0114/2012114.pdf

Ah, stupid government website - the thread with the links to the uc summary docs was deleted and now I can't find it!

But basically there is a bit that shows how they work out "incentive to work" with an example. Eg, if you're unemployed you might be given £50pw in benefits. Working you would earn £75pw just in wages. By working you are 50% better off.

It's very cagily worded but the implication is fine, that's it - that person doesn't need any other "incentive to work" because they are better off on wages alone.

But what it totally misses is that TC are not about incentive to work! They are about reducing child poverty by making sure everyone's wages are topped up to an amount that is adequate to live on. Also that there are always associated costs with working - transport, childcare etc which will easily swallow the "extra" 50%.

even less incentive to pay maintenance for some absent parents.

this is absolutely shocking - I don't get a penny from my ex anyway, but If I were losing tax credits to maintain his lifestyle head bursts seriously, there needs to be a 'fathers for justice' style intervention here. dressed as suffragettes, chaining ourselves to things.

I've done a bit more research on potential charities to link to (hope that's not presumptous of me!):

Housing & Homelessness
Shelter - www.shelter.org.uk
Centrepoint - www.centrepoint.org.uk
HACT (Housing Action) - www.hact.org.uk

Disabled children / carers
Contact a family - www.cafamily.org.uk
Mencap - www.mencap.org.uk
National Autistic Society - www.autism.org.uk
Barnardos - www.barnardos.org.uk
Princess Royal Trust for Carers - www.carers.org

Lone Parents
Gingerbread - www.gingerbread.org.uk

General
CAB - www.citizensadvice.org.uk
Homestart - www.home-start.org.uk

I'm sure there are lots more, but hopefully that's a start.

Well I posted my bit of froth...

unfortunately because I have rather lazily been using my DH's gmail account it says that he wrote it. Which looks a bit weird since he's clearly a bloke and I'm clearly a woman but anyway!

toomanycuts.blogspot.com/2011/12/i-used-to-froth-alone.html

Lubey - maybe we could work together, me from the POV of a Lone parent who is out of work, and how losing that £55 a week will CRIPPLE me, i.e. is over half my FOOD bill each week, you on the effects on a working Lone parent? Because the £500 a week cap on UC is meant to include childcare help too, from what I can see...

Give me a minute and I will try to find the link to the doc that I got the info from - may take some digging, as I'm not certain if it WAS the one linked to in the last thread, or if it was one I found whilst doing some extensive googling on how UC was affected by maintenance...(Was worried...).

How would you write to someone in the Lords? Is there just general people you write to, or is it by area like MP's?

I have no idea Hunty but we need to find out... re: Lords.

Definitely a joint effort from at least us both, from the different POV's will have more impact.

I'm working here and posting in between but might not be around much in the daytime, but I'll be able to finish researching and writing tonight/early tomorrow

YY to the early hours finish off - I have a Carol Concert to go to tonight, at a church that is even further away from my house than the DS's primary school, doesn't end until 8.30pm, is a half hour walk away from the closest bus stop and AAARRGGHHH!

So it will be late late IYKWIM.

Still can't find that link - but one thread on my threads I'm on seems to have vanished. Bet it was on that blooming thread. Will google to find it, might be a while.

Right, I've found it, but it's a PDF file, and I have no idea how to link it. .

I can email it to you though, as I've saved a copy now?

Will try and make a start on a blog post, but how should we approach it, as it covers NUMEROUS issues? Especially as I haven't done a blog post about the changes that will be happening wrt when CSA changes to CMEC - and that will probably lay the groundwork for THIS post as to how the changes from TC's & IS/JSA system to UC will then be affected by CMEC maintenance?

Should I do a blog post FIRST about the CMEC changes? If so - I may have to use a lot from the thread I've already posted on here, for speed, as if the thing is in the Lords in 4 days time - we don't have much time to get this information out there, do we!

Thanks hunty, my email is t i n i j u n e at hotmail dot com (the first bit with no spaces)

Is there any way the CMEC stuff can be somewhat condensed and included in the first part of a joint blog post?

If not then yes maybe that needs to be first.

We also need to find the specific part (or parts) of the bill that refers to counting maintenance as income, to oppose that specifically as I think a blanket opposition of the whole bill

If theres any other specific parts of the bill that need opposing, we had better get those in out letters/emails too before this sits in front of the lords.

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck so much to do!

I want to write a letter to send special delivery as well as emailing, so I need that done by tomorrow to guarantee delivery on Monday. Fuckfuckfuckfuck

I don't suppose 100,000 signatures on an e petition is possible before Monday either is it? Fuckity fuckfuckfuck

I think a blanket opposition of the whole bill would stand no chance that should say.

Fuuuuuuuuck

Right, back to it. Laters all

Just found this

www.parliament.uk/get-involved/contact-a-lord/

How many users of mn is there?

? In tax credits, many types of unearned (non-investment) income are
completely or partly disregarded in the current system. Some income,
such as maintenance payments from former partners (which are
particularly important for lone parents), currently does not count as
income for the purpose of tax credits. This income will be considered as
income under the system of Universal Credit, and therefore will reduce
entitlement pound-for-pound.

From an IFS (Institute of Fiscal Studies) Preliminary Analysis paper...

Lumi, probably enough but we can't even start an e peptition until we know exactly which parts of the bill we are opposing, and not everyone will agree or care so

hundreds of thousands in theory. Not sure how many regulars though.

Unfortunately a lot of them seem to be totally fine with the concept of punishing low earners. [sigh]