To think some posters need a "reality check" re. views on benefit changes

[lesley33]

I have some concerns about some of the proposed changes to benefits and how these may adversely affect people. So this is NOT a thread about that. But I am getting increasingly fed up at some of the frankly ridiculous reasons some posters are giving against the proposed changes. Examples include:

1. That children 12 and over will be traumatised if both parents work - even if second parent only works 20 hours a week.

1. That a parent with children 12 and over shouldn't have to commute up to 90 minutes each way to work. Far from ideal I know and if someone is on low wages this might not be affordable. But perfectly doable.

1. That childcare is impossible to get for teenagers. Ignoring the fact that many parents, myself included use a combination of kids home alone and afterschool activities.

AIBU to think some people need a reality check? Plenty of people with children already work, many with both parents working full time by the time their kids are teenagers. Plenty of people have long commutes, struggle with childcare, etc. Things might not be "ideal", but these are things that many many working parents already do.

totempole - Just to say that it is mainly people on high wages who commute long distances - because of cost. But many people on low wages commute for long periods of time because they are using public transport.

Ooh, I bet you've been just desperate to use that one ...

well people who have a different opinion than you are obviously arseholes.

Tilly I blame the Brown adminstration.

Even when the economy was on the bones of its arse the state was growing. It became a big fat flabby target with 'catch me if you can,' painted on it in red.

There was dissention coming from the ranks of the party but it was closed down quickly and efficiently.

If the wefare program was at a reasonable fighting wait we'd be able to protect it and things like Wubbly mentions would be safe. But when they are part of a package that the world and his wife are just itching to take a shot at...

Honest;y, it makes me so angry.

weight

funny that you assume i meant you.

I didn't state which "side" i was one. guilty conscience and all that

Yup, can't sleep at night, me...

the govt were just trying to stay in power werent they? this lot will be the same...different but actually the same.

who were you referring to valar?

Oh wubbly
Its so utterly fucking wanky crap that this website is full of crappy fucking threads like this that make your life feel that little bit worse.

I wish it wasnt. Its not fair.

It is sodding ironic that those preaching how they get through by thinking of those worse off than themselves are making those worse off than them feel like shit.

You know what? When my DD had cancer I DID used to think 'thank God' I dont live in Haiti and thank God we have access to pain relief'.

It didnt stop my life being almost unbearable because I knew how much worse it was for a mother thousands of miles away.

you can tell by the language. explain to me why i should have a guilty conscience?

They were. But if they had actually listened to what voters were saying they might have actually managed it.

Any talk of reduction in the state, immigration or the deficit was silenced. And yet, this was what we were hearing on the door steps every fucking day.

The condescending attitude was breathtaking. Vulga's post pretty much summed it up what it was like. Little people with contrary opinions were made to feel like arseholes.

Another thing that isn't getting much media coverage at all is the Health and social care Bill on its way towards royal assent, which is likely to happen in the spring of 2012.
This is going to have a very major impact.The BMA and many many health service workers, are concerned that the legislation will lead to increasing commercialisation, fragmentation, and privatisation of the NHS.

Lesley33- the Conservatives are in very strong position by vitue of their so-called coalition government with the puppet Lib dem party.If they had won the election outright they would not have been strong enough to get all this through.Labour just don't have the numbers to form an effective opposition.If you want someone to blame , I'd start with the sell-out lib dems.Conservatives -well we all knew what they were, but lib dems I am disappointed with.

Look everyone wants to have a go at me. please form a queue.

YABU. I think it should be fine for one parent to be at home before and after school. I think it should be fine for a lone parent to work school hours only when their youngest is at school. I think it should be fine for them to volunteer instead. I think 90 mins commute is ridiculous. With extreme workfare, the benefit poor often become working poor and their kids have less parental time.

Thanks MrsDeVere

Every night before I go to sleep I try to think of at least 3 things I'm grateful for. They always revolve around my DH and DS, but I usually manage it. It helps me get up each day.

Despite that, I still wouldn't dream of telling any of my non terminal cancer friends to count their blessings, it's just crass and total lacking in any kind of understanding.

Hope you're okay right now.

'towerhamlets is central london. do you really think there are no jobs? what explains its unemplyment rate higher than liverpool?'

Well I don't know the area at all, what with only having being to London twice, lol...but I'd wonder how static the population is, is it a case of that is where people live whilst unemployed and the sort of place where no-one would live there if there was any other option so move if they can and new unemployed people then move in?

Is it an area with a large stock of social housing, considerably larger than surrounding areas for instance? So that anyone unemployed and looking for social housing from the surrounding areas ends up living there which would artificially inflate the statistics. Again if there is a large stock of social housing that would also affect the amount of unskilled workers applying for the same jobs and of course being unskilled affects how far you can commute in terms of cost, so yes it's entirely possible to have a job shortage in one area.

Social housing creates skewed demographics because people who are always going to need support are more likely to be housed there, schools on council estates have a higher percentage of children with SNs for example, most likely because disabled children are more likely to have an unemployed parent leaving them with a lower income or dependant on benefits depending on whether there are one or two parents living there.

Looking at wikipedia it looks like it's got a few areas that I think fit what I've just described - but I'm literally hundreds of miles away so I don't know really.

wubblybubbly so you do a different version of what i did, & yet i shouldnt tell anyone?

you & i have both said it helps. but i shouldnt mention it?

wubbly emerging from the gloom of DD's birthday but getting there thank you sweetheart.

x

in fact quite a lot of people have not just said i shouldnt have said it but i am an arsehole for saying it.

something that helps you, & helped me.

jellybeans - And those things are fine if you can afford them. I think though it is unreasonable to expect the benefit system to fund those "ideal" situations. Benefits should be a safety net, not just to fund our volunteering if we want to do that instead of working, or if we want to avoid a long commute, or avoid ever having to put our children in any kind of childcare so we can work.

I do think think saying you can get the average wage even if you do not have a job is treating people cruelly, or tearing the welfare system apart. And I think for all people are syaing about the tories they will end up winning our right in the next election because the average person supports a cap on benefits to the average wage, and disagrees with those saying that the unemployed should get more than the average employed.

No Tilly, you really shouldn't presume to tell anyone to count their blessings.

I read what you said and you didn't actually make that comment with any consideration for those in difficult circumstances, you did it to minimise their experiences and that's just plain mean.

Who are the arseholes *valar?

How is a 90 minute commute rediculus, that si what you do when you cannot get work near you, you commute rather than do nothing. Its not ideal, but it is either that or not working, and why shoudl people be able to refuse to work because they want to volunter. Volunteering is fine, but do it in your own time. Expectign everyone else to pick up the tab for your lifestyle choices is ridiculas. Fien you do not want to commute 90 mins, stay at home, but do not expect others to give you money for that choice. If everyone who commuted an hour or more suddenly decided they woudl only take locla jobs there would be thousands more people on benefits, and not paying tax which would mean the welfare state would collapse with no-one to pay for it.