Just been on a course about new benefit system

[buggyRunner]

Christ it's a big shake up.

I say this as someone who won't be personally affected- it is harsh.

Basically if you claim any benefits other than child benefit you're probably going to have a loss.

Has anyone DONE the maths on what the combined impact of Rent Controls and a £10/hr NMW are, in relation to reducing the Welfare Bill? If so, could someone please point me to that Impact Study, as I am seemingly unable to find it on the Internet...

If those measures wouldn't at least EQUAL the saving to the Welfare bill that the current cuts will provide, I would be very surprised. IMO, the combined effects of the two would soon far outweigh any savings made by cutting welfare to those in the greatest need, and would be more sustainable in the long term, whilst having the added benefit of ensuring that the poorest in our Country don't starve or become homeless.

I'd be quite happy to admit to being wrong if there are comparable Impact assessments I can be pointed to though...

Couthy, somebody must have done that! I imagine it's languishing in a never-visited archive on some civil servant's desktop ... :(

It is extraordinary how this policy was adopted before it was worked out, let alone subjected to comparative reviews. That, to me, signals gross incompetence.

I really, really resent being practised on.

ClaireBunting, going back to your remark I think if you are not brought up to take benefits ... [benefits] are the last resort, I was wondering how you got along with your enquiries about claiming JSA on top of your redundancy payment?

I'll bet she wasn't entitled due to combined savings of her & her DP/DH, and now thinks that if she can't get it, no-one should...

I cannot believe the 'attitude of entitlement' of many posters on this thread.

I was skint for years. I was a single parent. So - I did two jobs to make ends meet and pay the mortgage. Day shifts in one job, then onto a nightshift in another. It didn't kill me. I didn't make any mistakes at work and my son was too young to remember much about it. I also paid full rate childcare for my son - so subsidised nurseries in those days.
I also had no family living locally.

Too many people just want to be at home all day. Get off your backsides and do any work you can. Even if it means setting up a business from home.

And anyway, you have to spend your redundancy pay at the rate you would have received JSA + housing costs. I've been there before. It's not a great situation to be in, ClaireBunting, but it's a fucking lot better than a lot of people's situation. And having been in that situation in the past didn't make me think that no-one else should be helped. It made me realise that there were plenty worse off than me who DIDN'T have redundancy pay to live off!

Beetrootjuice - is it 'entitled' to be too ill to work? Just out of curiosity? Or is the fact that some people are too disabled to work FT, or are only able to work PT due to their disability but can't find anyone willing to employ them if their condition is variable (like, ooh, epilepsy which has lost me two jobs I DID manage to get, and another 100+ that I couldn't even get interviews for, despite having more experience in retail than the person who eventually got those jobs...)

I'd LOVE to not be so 'entitled' by way of my disability and those of my DC's fucking off, but as that isn't going to happen, I'll just sit here trying not to look so entitled, shall I?

Why, only today, I looked so healthy that whilst just doing my shopping concerned a community police officer that he insisted I sat down and rested in front of him. And he nearly called me an ambulance as i looked so well, of course...But I will just pretend not to be disabled so as not to confuse those people who think I sound too 'entitled', shall I?

Beetrootjuice - one of those jobs I lost was a 60 hr a week job, that I was sacked from after 11 months and 3 weeks when I had a seizure on the shop floor that resulted in me losing control of my bladder over a customers shoes. But of course, working so many hours didn't make me more sick at all, oh no.

My Neurologist from Queen's in London obviously agrees with you - oh, hang on, no he doesn't, that's right, I'm currently trying to fight to get him to sign me as fit for 16 hrs work a week. Which he is currently refusing to do.

CouthyMow
Other people manage it.
Work from home.
Set up your own business - online if necessary.

Don't have more children than you can afford to house (I'm speaking generally, not specifically here).

I'm 62, with certain health issues and I still work 60 hours a week.

The benefits system needs overhauling asap.

Are you talking about other people with uncontrolled epilepsy that are currently having at least three+ seizures a week, or other people with epilepsy that is currently controlled by meds, or people with physical disabilities that don't have a neurological disability?

Just wondering...

I had the first 3 DC pre diagnosis, working in a industry that is now barred to me by law BECAUSE of my disability...

I don't know how I could have foreseen that one. Oh yes, with the insurance policies that refused to pay out on the basis that my epilepsy had been previously misdiagnosed as depression...

£20k savings goes quicker than you think when it is your entire income.

Almost 9 years on from my diagnosis, and I am now as poor as poor can be.

Beetroot, did you miss the discussion on this thread about the lack of effective support for people setting up a business to get off benefits?

I'm rather envious of your health issues that allow you to work 60 hours a week.

Beetrootjuice, why don't you ask my Neuro why he won't even sign me as fit for 16 hours a week work, then. Because he has a million and one arguments as to why I shouldn't even work 16 hrs a week, much less the 60 I tried to in that job. Each job since then has been for less hours, and has lasted less time. I have now been unemployed for 4 years, despite applying for over 100 jobs.

YOU find me an employer...

I'm sure this has already been said but exactly WHERE are these jobs that people are supposed to all get coming from? Aren't unemployment rates going UP? So, um, who is going to provide all these "better paid with more hours" jobs, hmm??

Or are the rich wbankers supposed to start taking in staff again - housemaids, chauffeurs, cooks, scullery maids etc.? Perhaps we should start sending children up the chimneys (those that are left) and down the drains again?
I absolutely do NOT see how the Govt expects any of this to work because they simply do NOT have the infrastructure in place that ensures all these "workshy benefit scroungers" CAN actually get a job. There aren't enough!

It's all so fucking STUPID. And the latest news about widowed parents being expected to "get on with it, get over it, get married again or get a job" after just one year, regardless of their childrens' ages, just beggars belief.

Oh and Surestart is going to be cut as well. Just in case no one knew that.

Beetrootjuice.

Wow you did nightshifts too!

I can't even get after school care for my autistic son never mind holiday care never mind night care!

But I guess all that means I'm entitled.

I'd love to work, I am intelligent and resourceful and could do well at lots of things. I even had a career plan and was mid training for a career that wouldve meant I'd not need any benefits I'd not even be eligable for tax credits, but then my sons difficulties became more apparent and he was diagnosed with autism.

So here I am. But it sounds like you think my only problem is not trying hard enough.

....And yes to what Thumbwitch said

What fucking jobs!

Would those be all the jobs millions of immigrants have been able to find, keep and do over the last five, ten years jobs many of the unemployed Brits won't do because they are too hard or too dirty or well, simply don't pay as well as the taxpayer .

I cannot remember the last time I was served in a hotel or restaurant by an indigenous Brit.
And how hard is it too set up an ironing or cleaning round?

Erm, quite hard when you are not allowed to use an iron on your own clothes. Hot iron + seizures = injuries...

I'm agAinst benefits being taken from disabled or those with ill health. But the system DOES need reform. A relative of mine getting 400 housing benefit a month. Her dh is in work. She gave up work when she had dc as it was more cost effective to claim the benefit.

She lives a merry lifestyle. Regular Tickets to west end shows. Sporting events and holidays to Spain. Why should overs be funding her lifestyle when they are far from the poverty line. I don't resent her as the system is there and she is entitled but is seems crazy that this money is spent on luxuries not food childcare etc.

Beet
Did you miss the bit about some people being too ill to work. Some people having children with severe disabilities?

jupiters
Yep, the last bit of your name is more appropriate.
Many of the people to whom you (misguidedly) refer are working illegally for below NMW. The companies that employ them won't employ people who are here legally, because it costs more.
What is an indigenous Brit by the way, and how can you tell?

And how hard is it too set up an ironing or cleaning round

Maybe in you neck of the woods but round here people do their own cleaning.

Ha ha ha
Ironing round?
Cleaning?
Just who the hell do you think will pay for these luxury services?
Idiot

'certain health issues'
Most people have 'certain health issues'

Disability and poor health are not 'certain health issues'

And no, I don't pay for my ironing to be done since they have cut the SS budget for Direct Payments - my DC and I have to work the 'crumpled' look, as it is too dangerous for me to use an iron, yet I get no financial help to pay someone else to do it for me any more.

I only know one person who hires a cleaner - and her husband works in international banking earning £100k+ pa, and she works in a special school as a TA for fun, because she enjoys it, so hires a cleaner as she is working...

I know no-one else who hires a cleaner, despite knowing families as diverse as the single parent on benefits and those earning up to what my friend above's family does...

So who is going to pay for all these cleaners?