How is austerity affecting you?

[CandyLane]

I'm wondering because I keep hearing Labour supporters complaining about Tory cuts, I know they're happening but I haven't experienced first hand any real difference and I don't think know anybody who has. I know people who work in the NHS who aren't happy about the cuts being made but as far as people struggling to survive financially, I've not seen any evidence.

We're a pretty average family, I work part time and earn about £15k and DH works full time and earns about £30k.
We're actually better off under a Tory govenment, I hardly pay any tax and DH pays less too.
We get CB for our 2 children but other than that we don't get any other benefits but I don't think we would if Labour were in power either.

I've just seen an advertisement for a protest against Austerity in Manchester, which has got me wondering who is being affected and to what degree?

Sorry I don't mean to sound ignorant, just trying to get facts rather than what the papers decide to let us know.

As a family, we are better off under the dreaded Tories (as a country, not so much).

As an individual, scary. I'm a clinical worker.

Locally, our out of hours walk-in centre has been closed and consequently a&e waiting times have gone apeshit (not particularly joined up thinking there)

We have lost child benefit for 2DC under the last government but the fact that we pay less tax makes up for at least part of it.

I think those who are losing out are those who don't work and are effected by the benefits cap or bedroom tax?

We would be a lot worse of under a labour government and so would a lot of people I know.

We've lost cb and will more than likely lose carers allowance for my ds.

The services needed for my ds aren't currently available and with the cuts in funding, it's unlikely they will be anytime soon.

So we have the fun of no support services, soon no education services, I've had to give up work with no prospect of going back soon and this government want to take away the £60 a week I get to cover for the fact that we can't access facilities that most families can.

Hurrah

I haven't had a payrise in 4 years and am guessing won't get one for another 4 years now

I am a nurse and see first hand how policies such as the bedroom tax have unfairly penalised the disabled and most vulnerable people in our society.

As a nurse we are constantly being told to do more with less people and for less money.

My tax credits have gone down (single parent) and I am seriously concerned the tories may stop them altogether.

Am so depressed that they got in - I despair that so many people voted for them.

From the Guardian, this might make it clearer

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/may/13/tory-win-disabled-cuts-benefits

All the children's centres near us have just closed down as part of the cuts, meaning that if you want to take pre-school kids to groups or classes you need your own car, to be prepared to travel and the money to pay for groups.

I haven't had a pay rise in five years. My salary has gone down in real terms. My pension is worth much less than it was previously.
My service has been decimated by reductions in funding. Referrals however in to the service have gone through the roof due to other services being closed. As a result I work way over my supposed hours and have no work/life balance at all; I'm constantly stressed and knackered.

We don't get child benefit, but that is fine. We have a household income of just under £100 thousand. But I know of vulnerable people through work who are financially pressed and worried that things are going to get more difficult.

My experience of austerity tends to be around public services. This is pretty wide-ranging from difficulty in getting prescription medicine to more rubbish in the environment (we have 5 local parks sharing two caretakers) to the state schools system cutting back in the range of services and activities it offers.

I think a lot of public services depend on the goodwill of employees. The service will erode still further as this goodwill evaporates under more pressure.

Well we lost CB, but as higher-rate tax payers I think that's right and that it was ridiculous that we qualified for any benefits.

TBH the things that irritate me more are the reduced hours at the library and the recycling centre - both of which mean I'm always turning up when they're closed!

Oh and litter picking - our local parks are full of rubbish and they never used to be

I keep meaning to flyer my neighbourhood for a litter pick up day - maybe I should just do it.

To be fair I think people really affected by 'austerity' have more to worry about than reduced library opening hours...

My eldest son is severely disabled. His respite centre used to provide a service to 33 families. Now it's 7. They used to do things like archery & hydrotherapy. Now they go for a walk at the park.

When he turns 18 there's a very real risk that he will not be able to stay at home (I intend to spend the next two years fighting for that).

Families in my council now have to pay over £400 a a year for disabled school transport (post 16). Even thoigh it's distinctly dodgy (legally) charging for it.

He needs emergency SALT - will wait 9 months for it - although all other professuonals are pushing for it and the SALT is in his school.

I have had to get councillors & MP's involved repeatedly this year to get him emergency services when things were getting very dangerous.

We are very lucky to have a SW - many don't.

Austerity is damaging his childhood & threatening his future.

Ds2 (state secondary) had barely bern affected (yet)

Ds1 (private primary) not affected at all.

Social care is being destroyed by austerity which is why it affects the most vulnerable so heavily.

Sorry ds3 (private primary) unaffected. Ds1 very affected

We were starting out with dc when they came to power. So for us it's just how it is, I've no idea if it could be better.

We get by although I've just reigned in our grocery spend as fuel costs have gone up, winter is hard as dh is seasonal work but it's how it is and we will just have to wait to see how the next 5 years unfold.

Libraries closed, museums under pressure, funding for early years and schools being crushed, hospitals seriously under funded.

I don't get CB anymore - which seems fair enough (DH and I earn ~£120k between us).

I don't think austerity has really touched my life much - possibly because the DC are privately educated and we're lucky enough to be in good health.

I do appreciate that I am incredibly fortunate.

childcare tax credits have gone down by far more than I gained in lower taxes.

hell will break loose when csa expect XP to pay more. at best I'll lose £20 a month, at worst the police and women's aid will be involved again and the children, who don't know their dad, will suffer.

had to give up OU due to the fee's.

working single parent. y'know, one of the people who caused this mess .

Our council run nursery is about to close, I have no idea what to do with my two LO we can't afford another £20 every day for a private nursery as neither mine nor my DH's wage has risen since 2007 :-(

I have had only 2, 1% pay rises in 7 years.

I work in education and we've had around £3million cut from our funding each year, resulting in a lot of redundancies. When people leave, they don't get replaced. I am doing the equivalent of a full time job in three days.

And whilst I believe that there was probably a lot of padding out pre-recession, it's gone to the other extreme now, people doing huge amounts of work with not even inflationary pay rises. I see more stress related sickness now.

I had to pay thousands to get my children diagnosed and supply a treatment plan for the NHS as there is poor Nhs facilities for our conditions.

I had to wait about a year between appointments for a specialist unit tests and treatment plan. People complained and I gather it's now a three month wait should I need to return.

I have struggled getting SEN medical recommendations
for my dc in education.

I was unable to walk and could get no support to parent my dc get them to school nhs medical appointments hundreds of miles away for a 9 am start. I got no advocacy and no help to claim dla.

I do appreciate that losing cb due to earning more isn't exactly the hardship to end all hardships but it does grate that other families earn more than us and still get cb due to the way it was implemented.

Still think losing carers allowance is crappy.

I'm a public sector - Education.

Not had a pay rise since the last election, not likely to get one any time soon either. Govt spending is being cut in my sector (FE) all the time, and I think we're at breaking point.

Every year, I'm asked to do more for the same amount of money. Bigger classes, teach more hours per week... This has been going on for the past five years, and is set to continue. However, I'm not complaining on my behalf - it's the students I feel sorry for. If my classes are now 1/3 bigger, I can't afford to mark essays as frequently - so the students get less input from me and so on... I no longer feel that my students get the best from me, because I'm spread too thinly. I can't do everything I ought, there's just not enough hours in the day.

Everyone I know is trying to get out, and is looking for other jobs. Teachers are leaving in droves, and who can blame them...?

During a period of joblessness I was told to go for a commission only job or face sanctions, I fully believe if I had refused and we were sanctioned we would have been better off (hindsight is a wonderful thing) and now that dh has a stable job (apprenticeship, literally the only one to reply to application out of 500+ positions applied to) we rely heavily on benefits even though we 'bring home' significantly less than we did while unemployed. Personally I know there are people who are a lot worse off and have relied on food banks etc, we are lucky enough to be very good at living on a tight budget and seem to be doing ok

As a self employed couple with no children and just on the housing ladder we do ok on a personal level under the Tories. That is, we don't have childcare to find, school places to worry about, illnesses to treat (touch wood), and so on.

However our Council's income and spending has been absolutely decimated. It has had to find £94 million of savings over the next five years. I can see it in the shabbiness of the streets, the overgrown litter strewn verges, the closed down public toilets and amenities like tourist information centres (we have a tourism economy in Cornwall of course), and I hear anecdotes about social services, parents waiting for years and years to get appointments for their children who may have special needs, and declining social care for the elderly. Bus services have been cut, both the ones primarily used by tourists, and the ones which were rural lifelines. They are trying to claw back money from every possible angle and it looks like a very worrying time for businesses which rely on tourists like ours, as the council increase their car parking charges and start charging businesses new taxes and "concessions" for the privilege of operating their companies, providing employment for people and bringing money to the area. Existing charges for council provided amenities have shot up because they are unable to increase council tax by more than 2% without a referendum.

The whole thing is completely arse about tit.

My dad who has dementia in Wales, has faced increasingly awful service from the NHS.

The organisation I worked for delivering govt contracts at unsustainable rates became unviable when the central govt grant was cut in the last govt. It folded last year, and I was made redundant. I am now doing similar work self employed but getting paid far less and with lots of expenses which my workplace would have paid for.
I would be better off claiming jobseekers.