Oh Come All Ye Faithful, Frothy and Triumphant! Oh Come Lefties, Come Ye to anti ConDem-nay-tion!

[KateMiddlet0n]

Fed up of the ConDems robbing the poorest and most vulnerable blind? Sympathetic to the squeezed middle? Have you eyes that can see the horrors that await the dismantling of our welfare state and all that is great and good in UK?

Then you're a frother. This is our safe-space to rally, vent and get organised. You are also welcome if you want to be better informed and/or do something.

#Frothers don't join - #frothers ARE. Check out the blog for information and actions you can take, like us on www.facebook.com/frothers Facebook for bite-sized chunks of frothiness you can read, like and share, or get ye to Twitter and tweet your frustrations using the #frothers hashtag or follow us @TMC_frothers.

Our blog toomanycuts.blogspot.com

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This is our 4th thread now!

From the Telegraph article linked above ("Lord Freud plans shake-up of benefits for widows"):

"However, under plans published yesterday, the benefits will end after one year as ministers seek to encourage more widows, widowers and civil partners to return to work...
"The DWP said no forecasts had been made about whether either of the plans would save the taxpayer money if introduced."

Why not?

Either they're lying. Or they're negligent and incompetent.

No professional organisation starts implementing a new strategy without doing the sums first.

Signing in again even though I'm being a bit pathetic and lacking in oomph atm

Even changed my name to show my frothiness. Love the blog so far BTW.

Oh wonderful. i care for my husband who has arthritis and ischemic heart disease and limited lung function. This is gonna sound selfish but i have given up any chance of a sex/love life (his disabilities mean he cant but he was never a sexual person to start with) no social life. ( ive been on nights out twice this year) he came home from his day centre today saying they had had their funding withdrawn and they expect to close sometime in the next two years or sooner.
And then to top it all off if GOD FORBID his conditions eventually mean he is no longer here (cant bring myself to describe it any other way) I will recieve 250 pounds a month ( 62 pounds a week) while i recover from it. The reason for the moan is because carers sacrifice a lot (and i dont mean me i mean the parent carers and the ones caring for elderly relatives with illnesses like Alzheimers) and yet we are shat on from a great height.

carer that is awful, I am so sorry

Thanks Any Fucker xx I am full of admiration for many of the mums on this site who love and care for their children under difficult circumstances. My hat goes off to people like Huntycat, Glitterknickaz and others. I am so glad to have found support on these threads with my fellow frothers xx

EDCM emails standing at 2207, let's get them up even more!

me too, carer, and I thankfully do not have some of the difficulties described here so matter-of-factly and without self-pity

I am humbled really, and determined to make my small voice heard in whatever way I can

Agreed Any Fucker. Youve explained it better than i did.

I'm still doing the TC's vs. UC calcs, but now we are getting into TAXED earnings, it's getting a bit more fun. Just to cover the majority of people's situations, I will have to do about 100! I'm trying to pick and choose, but it's difficult! It's keeping my brain active though, seeing how much EVERYONE who earns less than around £26K is going to get totally screwed over in 2013. .

Hello and goodnight. I'm off to bed. I probably won't be around tomorrow because DS is in for day surgery (good ol' NHS - god bless all who sail in her) and I haven't been round much due to doing bedtime with reluctant child who has to be up at 6.45am tomorrow.

I have also give up on the Tory thread. When you have people saying the Nazis were socialists because their party was called the National Socialists and that liberals are not socialists and occupy centre right territory it all seems a bit pointless trying to have a reasonable argument

Keep frothing and please keep liking and sharing stuff on FB and RTing on Twitter.

Funnily enough the mood feels much more buoyant today. I think we dipped towards despair last night and now we're getting ready to fight again. Excellent stuff!

night, kate

Marking my spot. Night frothers! Keep on frothing

Goodnight fellow frothers Sleep well.

God it gets difficult to do these calculations once you have a FT, tax paying earner in a couple - it's the HB that's tipping me over the edge!

I'm trying to do a comparison on a couple, 2 dc, one pre-school age, one school age. One working 35hrs/wk for NMW, one working 16 hrs/wk for NMW.

So far I've worked out the reduction to WTC due to income over the first income threshold, WTC childcare element, Tax and NI paid on income, all that is getting me is trying to work out how much their Housing benefit would be reduced by!

If I finish it before I go to bed, I will post it on here - but DS3 seems to think that sleep is for the weak, and Mummy's pooder is for slobbering on and picking the keys off, whilst trying to stick his toe up Mummy's nose. . It makes it a little dificult to concentrate on difficult sums.

As does the fact that I'm still feeling stabby, and I've run out of chocolate. .

Night to all that get to sleep before ME!

Keep up the good work Hunty. Is it too complicated to be amenable to Excel? Nighty night

I wouldn't know...Excel is too techy for me, I wouldn't have the first CLUE how to use it. I am doing it the old fashioned way - a bunch of crappy rules and regulations, earnings disregard levels and percentages taken etc, and a trusy old calculator, pad of paper and a pencil.

I have managed to sort out the HB thing - according to my Local Authority's HB/CTB calculator - they now pay both HB AND CTB to a much higher level of income than they did when I was last working FT.

However - I just CBA to do the UC calculation for it tonight. I will do that in the morning, then I will post the blog post. I will add a note at the bottom that if they would like a personal 'worse off calculation', to bastardise a DWP 'phrase', I will set up a thread somewhere on MN to do so. Or post my HuntyCat email or something.

I really should become a benefits advisor or something. Maybe it's something for me to look into for the future when I HAVE to work 20hrs/week...

I may have just hit on the ONE job I can manage. Do the CAB pay wages, or is it just volunteers? Where could I get a PAID job doing that?

I only want NMW...

Pertinent old thread has just re-surfaced: AIBU To find the term "economically inactive" offensive?

BeenBeta's post at Thu 09-Dec-10 18:09:19 is interesting.

I have bin looking into things and what I have found is that it is all a good deal more complicated than I like. I may yet just rant with a blatant disregard for Inconvenient Facts.

Hunty yes the CAB do have many paid employees - I was one. I started as a volunteer, then applied for jobs. I have heard of people who got jobs without being a volunteer first, they'll have had relevant experience, and then went on intensive training. So it's a possible, if there are any CABs left-

Ok. My argument for the case doesn't help apparently because my son has riding therapy.

glitter I thought you described your son's benefit from the therapy very succinctly on the blog.

Anyone pretending not to understand that is doing that "disability aids envy" thing, just like with blue badges.