WTF are Frothers? Not a quiche, but a protest group. Fighting for the "basic line of British decency" against fiscal brutality.

[garlicfrother]

What are Frothers?

The term "Frothers" came about one dank and dismal November day in 2011. A frustrated user of the parenting forum Mumsnet started a thread about her dismay at the cuts that the Conservative/Liberal Democrat government was inflicting on the British public.

She stated that she was not "quite a frothing berserker but I am getting rather cross with our government messing with the good stuff".

The good stuff - policies, benefits, institutions that had taken years to achieve were being cut for no good reason, often leaving gaping holes in the fabric of British society.

The NHS, with which we Brits have a love-hate relationship, but like a favourite sibling, we wish to protect from harm.

Sure Start, a successful scheme that supported parents who were struggling and offered children from deprived backgrounds a better start in life.

Universal Child Benefit was cut for those families who had one earner bringing in more than £44k a year. If both parents each earn less than £44k, they keep their UCB payments. This obviously hit single parents and families with a single earner hardest.

Disability Living Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance - which enabled those with disabilities to live a decent life, without feeling that they were begging for assistance or were a burden to the taxpayer.

Student Fees, the introduction of which, contrary to Lib Dem pre-election promises, means that a whole generation of young people will have to think carefully before applying to higher education.

These and many other cuts are being made in the name of austerity. We are "all in this together", but some of us are deeper in this than others.

We all understand that there are sacrifices to be made but why should these sacrifices be borne by those who already have so little?

The general public seems oblivious of the dangers being faced, they are unaware of the injustices being wrought on the already disadvantaged.

The government is winning the war of the headlines. They have blasted the recipients of DLA and ESA as scrounger and cheats so often that the general public believe it. They misinterpret data to "prove" their points. Teachers are painted as being irresponsible and greedy, while the bankers rake in the money.

The poster on Mumsnet was not alone for long. Within a few days, a group of over 30 posters had formed. They asked themselves, "What can we do?".

The idea of a blog was born. Three days later the blog had over thirty authors signed up, a Facebook page and a Twitter account.

The Aims:

• to open the general publics' eyes to the injustices being created by the governement

• to inform those who are facing cuts about their rights

• to link with other activists and charities, in order to put pressure on the government

Are you a Frother?

Come and join us.

BLOG

FACEBOOK

TWITTER

The bishops pointed out that when the benefit changes were first mooted the govt were alerted by their own very selves that in a lot of cases it would be MORE EXPENSIVE to move people out of their homes and put a greater burden on local authorities and therefore was an economically extremely stupid plan.

IDCunt said that it was a pity the bishops didn't ring him up and get their figures straight.

Why not put all the energy and money into creating jobs so people don't have to live on fucking benefits?

And paying them decent wages so they don't starve to death while enriching Tescoes.

Hahahahahahahahahahaha to children having their own bedrooms when their parents are on benefits! I have a 13yo in a bedroom that my council classes as a walk-in wardrobe (!), an 8yo and a 9yo sharing a bedroom that is 10ft x 11ft (and is the largest bedroom in the house), and me and the baby are sharing a bedroom that is just 9ft x 10ft. And for that privelidge, we are paying £520-ish pcm. When they drop the HB, I'm screwed, because for this house, they will only pay a MAXIMUM of £480pcm - AND they are going to raise the rent to be 80% of the cost of a Private Let in my area - which is 80% of £900pcm, or £750pcm that the rent will rise to.

Leaving a top-up of £270pcm. When I am ALREADY struggling to afford basic things.

And I have checked with my Housing Association, and because I have an Assured shorthold tenancy, rather than an Assured tenancy (despite having been here for over 7 years), I WILL be affected by the rent increases, all they have to do is give me 8 weeks notice.

There's NFW I can find £270pcm - and this house is ALREADY way too small - in fact, my local council has put me on the waiting list for a 4 bed house. I am not sure whether to stop bidding for the 4-beds, because if I can't afford the rent on a HA 2.5 bed house (which is what the council calls this, they say it does not meet the legal min sq footage to be classed as a 3 bed), then there's not a hope in hell of me being able to afford the rent top-up on anything larger.

I'm going to try to do a breakdown of exactly HOW the benefits cap will affect me, in the light of the new info that Child Benefit WILL be included in it. (Which wasn't publicised anywhere I had looked before Idiot Duncan-Smith's interview on BBC News this morning). I am gald, TBH, that I hadn't already done the blog post, as it would not be correct figures, given this new info!

Listening to Any Questions on Sat (at least I think it was Any Questions, might have been Weekend Womens Hour - Sat was very busy!), one of the guests was saying that "150,000 families would be better off as a result of Universal Credit". Does anyone know WHICH families might actually be better off - because I can't see it anywhere . . .

Found another thing to get frothing about this morning - has anyone been following the Gizza Proper Job campaign that the Mirror have been doing about supposedly "self-employed" jobs being used as a way for employers to get out of paying tax and NI here

On R4 now - benefit cap

Oh Dear. IDS was on BBC breakfast new this morning. One of his witterings was about family benefit. He laughed and suggested that if Family Benefit was not included in the calculations, people could get as much as £50,000 in benefits.

So, starting from a base of £26000 in benefits without Family Benefit, you would need to have, by my calculations, around 35 children, all of an age to claim benefit for, in order for that to be correct. Somebody needs to have a talk with him about the birds and the bees.

I would definately feel sorry for a mum having twins every year!

Sheesh, I am royally frothing today. IDS sounds like a digestive disorder : about bloody right.

I really do think they should reclassify Carer's allowance. it should be considered a wage - a pretty shite one, yes. Aren't Carer's classed as 'not working'? Bloody ridiculous if so.

Apologies for total ignorance here.

Just posted this on the benefit cap thread. could someone nip over and give OM a big cuddle, cause she just got given a hard time by some wanker.

The government has just published its impact assessment into the housing benefit cap. The main points seem to be:

? An upwards revision of the numbers of households affected by the cap. Most analysts up to now have worked on the assumption that 50,000 households will be affected by the cap. But the impact assessment states:

The modelling suggests that, in the absence of any behavioural response to the policy, around 67,000 households will have their benefits reduced by the policy in 2013/14 (this is roughly one per cent of the out-of-work benefit caseload) and 75,000 in 2014/15.

It adds:

Within these households, and in 2013/14, the number of adults affected is 90,000 and the number of children 220,000.

? The Department for Work and Pensions assumes that the policy will save up to £515m over the four years from 2013 (on best estimates)

So who will be affected? The impact assessment states:

a. Larger than average, in the most part with three or more children, and thereby receiving larger than average Child Tax Credit payments and Child Benefit payments;
or
b. situated in high-rent areas, and thereby receiving large Housing Benefit payments; or
c. both of these factors combined.

In geographical terms the vast majority of households affected are in greater London (54%), followed by the south east (9%), and the north west (6%). It lists those local authorities where over 1,000 people will be affected by the cap. They are:

Barnet, Birmingham, Brent, Camden, City of Westminster, Croydon, Ealing, Enfield, Hackney, Hammersmith & Fulham, Haringey, Harrow, Islington, Kensington & Chelsea, Newham, Redbridge, Tower Hamlets, Wandsworth

Scotland and Wales will account for 3,000 and 2,000 families respectively, the bulk of them in the cities of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Cardiff.

How much will these 67,000 households lose? The impact assessment estimates that:

? 45% will lose up to £50 a week (in 2013-14)
? 26% will lose between £50 and £100
? 12% will lose between £100 and £150 a week
? 17% will lose more than £150 a week

So, that's more families affected than expected, the bulk of them in London and the south east where housing benefit payments are highest. Larger families - meaning families with three or more children - will be disporportionately affected.

Universal Credit spelt out

A Lone Parent, with four children aged 13 years old, 9 years old, 8 years old and 11 months old who is unemployed because she has epilepsy (which she doesn?t receive disability benefits for any longer), and also because she is caring for two Special Needs Children (both have Autism, the 13 year old also has two leaky heart valves that will require open-heart surgery in the near future, mild epilepsy, Hypermobility Syndrome, Learning Difficulties AND is partially deaf, the 8yo has Hypermobility Syndrome, Ehlers-Danloss Syndrome, Hypotonia, and brittle asthma that is often life-threatening). The Lone Parent has ALSO been turned down for disability benefits for BOTH of her Special Needs Children. She claims Income Support on the basis of being a Lone Parent with a child aged under 5yo.

If we assume this Lone Parent is living in the South East, and is paying rent on a 3-bed Housing association house of £522.73, which will rise to 80% of the local rent for Private rented houses after the change-over to Universal Credit. In this area of the South-East, the average rent on a 3-bed Private rented house is £900. This means that this Lone Parent?s rent will rise to £720.00pcm. Although this Lone Parent is a current resident, who the Government are claiming will be unaffected by the rise in Social housing rents, because her Tenancy agreement is an ?assured shorthold tenancy agreement?, rather than the (currently) typical ?assured tenancy agreement?, she WILL be affected, as her housing association can raise her rent with just 8 weeks of notice. Also, the maximum Local Housing Allowance paid in this Lone parent?s council area for this size of property will be changed to just £480.00pcm.

This Lone Parent?s council tax bill is £109.37 in her Band ?C? property. She receives £288.33pcm maintenance for her 4 children.

Under the current Tax Credits/Benefits system, the Lone parent would get:

Child Tax Credits - £897.00pcm
Child Benefit - £262.17pcm
Housing Benefit - £522.73pcm
Income Support - £292.50pcm
Maintenance - £288.33pcm
Council Tax benefit - £109.37pcm

This comes to a total of £2,372.10pcm. However, once you take away the cost of her Council Tax (as that goes direct to the Local Authority, so isn?t ?income?, that leaves just £2,262.73pcm. When you take away the cost of her rent (which isn?t direct ?income?, as it goes direct to her Landlord currently), That leaves just £1,849.37pcm.

Under the new Universal Credit system, the Lone parent would get:

Child Benefit - £262.17pcm
UC personal allowance - £292.50pcm
UC 4 dependent children - £851.67pcm
UC Housing - £480.00pcm

If there are housing costs included in the UC, the maximum amount of UC that can be paid to the claimant will be reduced by 1.5 times whatever those housing costs are.

Now it gets complicated...1.5 times the housing is £720.00pcm

The maximum amount of Universal Credit that can be claimed by ANY family, other than those in receipt of Disability Benefits is £26,000PA, or £2,166.67pcm. You must note that this Lone Parent has been turned down for Disability Living Allowance and Employment Support Allowance for herself since the Coalition Government have changed the criteria for qualifying on the basis of epilepsy, and also that this Lone Parent does not receive any disability benefits for the two children with Special Needs. All of which mean that she has no protection from the cap on Universal Credit Payments.

Maximum Universal Credit that could be payable to this Lone Parent is £1,894.17pcm. Less 1.5 times the amount of help with housing costs that this Lone Parent has claimed for leaves £1,174.17pcm. So the most Universal Credit this Lone Parent can receive is £1,174.17pcm.

THEN you need to deduct the Child Benefit that this Lone Parent receives for her children from that amount. This leaves just £912.00pcm Universal Credit that this Lone Parent will be paid per calendar month.

Universal Credit paid to this claimant is £912.00pcm, made up of an allowance for herself, and an allowance for her 4 dependent children. She will also get £480.00pcm as the housing costs element of her Universal Credit. She will get her £262.17pcm Child Benefit, and her £288.33pcm maintenance. This is a total of £1,942.50pcm. BUT out of that, she will have to pay £720.00pcm rent. This leaves her with just £1,222.50.

SO, under the current Tax Credits/Benefits system, this family receives £1,849.37pcm after housing costs. Under the new Universal Credit, this family will receive £1,222.50 after housing costs. This is a drop of £626.87pcm, or £144.66 A WEEK.

There?s not many of us in this country who could survive if we lost £144.66 a week of our current income, and this is one of the poorest people in society, who is a carer AND has a fairly severe disability, and is therefore ALREADY struggling to cover all their essential costs. That is actually the cost of my food shopping, my electricity bill AND my gas bill combined that I will be losing. Yes, readers, this Universal Credit breakdown is my own, personal breakdown of how the changes will affect ME.

I haven't included Council Tax Benefit in the second calculation at all because it will be administered in a different way, each Local Authority will have the power to decide WHO they pay help towards Council Tax costs for, AND how much of the council tax that is due for that property they will pay. So I may be EVEN WORSE OFF if they decide not to continue to cover the ENTIRE cost of Council Tax for someone who is unemployed. I may be losing MORE than the £144.66 already stated.

Still think that the new benefits cap is the right thing to do?

I am about to go copy and paste this on that thread - wish me luck, I'm gonna get a flaming...

Don't worry about me, I expected it from some of those posters.

And I fail to see how Essex isn't on that list - Housing costs are ASTRONOMICAL in some towns in Essex (as you can see from my breakdown, I LIVE in Essex, and I know of at least 25 families, off the top of my head, who will be affected by this, as they are either currently in private rented houses with 1/2/3 children, or are in HA houses that WON'T avoid the rent rises due to the type of tenancy they have and they have 3+ dc).

Good luck hunty.

Though they will probably not try to read or digest it but just carry on benefit bashing and saying the same thing. Which is actually more annoying than being told you shouldn't breed.

That's the incredibly frustrating thing though about some people, isn't it? Not reading, finding out the facts and informing yourself, just carrying on bashing.

I'm finding the IDS interview online - didn't see it first thing.

Dear God, the benefit bashers are out in force.

And this gem:

'I would cut libraries and sure start centres, pregnancy benefits ...'

OMFG the posters on TOT (the other thread) [shocked]
Only minutes before one of them stands up in the biergarten and starts singing, you know, that one about the Fatherland and tomorrow belongs to me

Yummy, I'm answering your post before catching up as it's my quote that offended you: on the previous page there's a comment about "making the rich pay their fair share".

I don't mean well-off, I mean very rich people and companies. People like Philip Green and Bob Diamond; companies like Vodafone, Tesco, Boots and the major banks. If you & DH are actually so rich that you hive off your assets to Zug, Monaco or some other resort in order to avoid tax on your earnings in the UK, then I do mean you.

But I don't think that's what you meant, was it?

SGM
YES!! Seems the financial aspect has persuaded DH. We worked out that he can have a wee flat in Munich, and we still have enough left to buy a small house in Scotland for the price we would have paid for us all to live in Munich. Less in fact. Munich prices are mad.

Looking for a house now. Have found one but it needs a lot of work.

I am goign to do a piece on DV this week too, so will link to yours. Go have a look at the relationship thread that I started. About women who have escaped DV.

But take your kleenex.

There are links to "tax gap" data here: www.ukuncut.org.uk/blog/message-from-the-invisible

I have some friends who earn hundreds of thousands a year. Some aren't "filthy rich", due to family commitments & so on. They're very rich compared to me, but not different-universe type rich. Some others, earning bigger numbers, invest in Caribbean assets and I'd include them amongst those who aren't paying their whack.

Right, I'm having to drag myself away from the benfits threads now before I lose it.

There are a couple of posters doing my head in. Gawd love their fluffy little brains and bigoted ways.

I'm particularly loving the idea that folks on benefits shouldn't keep pets unless they are rabbits that they can breed and therefore eat

Kitchenroll is deliberately irritating me. It IS the benefits cap that is going to affect me, yes it will only be affecting me because I am unable to get disability benefits for my DISABILTY, but I was barely managing on what I am getting right now. (Well, I'm not, as I can't afford to fix/replace anything that breaks but YKWIM). To take an ADDITIONAL £144+ (don't forget they MAY not pay all my council tax either ,and we STILL don't know if maintenance is going to be deducted from UC, it will probably be worse ) from someone already struggling to buy clothes and shoes fortheir children, and trying to feed a family on £2.86 per person per day, is just bloody incomprehensible.

knotty shouldn't we be eating our own young?

It's ok Hunty, the answer is rabbits.

Problem solved