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.

I haven't had a pay rise for 11 years. Work continues to get harder and harder, a few people are now saying the work is "impossible" because far too much is expected of us. Quite a few people I know are really terrified of losing jobs and are suffering stress. Financially most people I know are much worse off. Nobody seems to smile much anymore. I feel very sad about the next 5 years. If I lived in London or I was a middle or high income earner I might feel differently, but I'd still feel sad for all those having a really tough time. Some people love it that others are suffering, shame on them.

Agree with Hestershaw that the cuts have become as much ideological as they are economic. We've hardly been affected at all as a household - DP is on a pretty decent private sector salary and we're sufficiently comfortably off not to have to worry about the basics like food and utilities. I consider myself incredibly lucky.

However, austerity has disproportionately affected those who are least able to bear it.Working in education and living in London, I see its effects on a daily basis, and as a result could never bring myself to vote Tory, even though we'd probably be a bit less well off under Labour. Schools are being run on a shoestring - teachers propping up the system by purchasing their own resources. Many of the ancillary staff - Ed Psychs, Speech and Language Professionals, school counsellors etc - have already been made redundant, and I'm beginning to hear of teaching jobs disappearing too. Mental health services, especially those for children and young people, have been cut to the bone, resulting in extremely long waiting times as a the few remaining services are swamped.

Cuts to social care mean that my 100-year-old grandmother, who has severe late-stage Alzheimer's, had to wait almost a year for a psychiatric assessment to determine whether she would qualify for any financial help (she didn't). Several other elderly acquaintances had their home care allocation dramatically cut, which means they only get to shower once a week and are regularly put to bed at 6pm by a carer who is so overstretched that they only have 10 minutes to do the job before rushing off to their next 'client'.

As someone who's passionate about literacy, it also angers me that my borough's dozen or so libraries have now been reduced to three 'digital hubs'. Our local foodbank, which we donate to, is overrun. I suspect the situation will worsen once the next round of cuts kicks in.

I have a severely disabled DS but we've been lucky not to be affected too much by the cuts - well 'lucky' in that his disabilities are so severe that he can't go to a local school so is sent to a residential school run by a disability charity. The school provides almost all services for him and they aren't cutting back on services as they charge the council a lot so he is provided with everything he needs through school, including respite and medical/mental health services.

I was a single parent and carer for him when the coalition took power but I remarried a few years ago and DH is a very high earner. My tax credits, child benefit and housing benefit have gone but I'm now a joint property owner and we can manage without any state support, though I still get Carers Allowance. I have some health issues but DH has private healthcare with his job so I've been getting everything I need. He's had significant promotions and payrises in the past few years (private sector in a thriving industry).

Locally I don't see general public services suffering, but we live in London and parks, public transport and libraries are well funded here. I know there are cutbacks but they are generally things which don't affect our family.

OP - what's your response to all this? I'm not asking in a challenging way. I'm just very interested. My friend & I have spent the last year or so saying 'people have no idea what's happening'. And I can see why - if I just had ds2 & ds3 I'm not sure I'd realise what was happening.

Cameron's rhetoric in 2010 was: 'there's not enough money. So we'll take from the scroungers & give to those who 'deserve' to be looked after (such as the severely disabled).

That's not what's happened at all. Those who are the most severely disabled (such as my son) are often very expensive to provide services for. So if you're sat in the council having to make cuts - what do you do? Cut something affecting many, or just remove services to expensive people (as that only affects a few).

The Human Rights Act is a powerful piece of legislation protecting the vulnerable. For example it protects those with disabilities from service cuts by imposing certain Duties on councils. If you want to help please write to your MP (especially if they're a Tory) and ask them to vote against getting rid of the Human Rights Act.

Cuts to children's psychological support locally have affected me. My son is not being supported as he was before.

Cuts to the amount of funding a local education authority gives towards a child with a Statement, the school now has to fund a much larger chunk so it comes directly from the school budget. This impacts upon my son and every other child with a Statement of SEN.

I now pay a small amount a month towards my council tax, I personally am happy to do so as we all benefit from the services this provides. I only have one child though and I guess this contribution must be harder for bigger families.

Cuts to local services mean there is less support locally so I have started a support group for other parents in my circumstances...we started with five parents and now have over fifty.

Otherwise I am unaffected, I get nothing near the benefits cap, am in the right size housing so no bedroom tax etc.

Looking forward to the day I can go back to work though.

Husband has had 20% pay cut over last 4 years as he works for a company with a govt contract which keeps getting cut. Holding on to job by skin of teeth. Waiting for the next cut .

I am originally from the north west and the cuts seem so much more extreme but I believe that is because it is an area reliant on public sector work and so effects all business whereas living in hampshire the cuts and pay freeze are visible but work in the private sector supports the community and money is still flowing (slower but still there). Services for my disabled child have risen in cost but there is still some respite available and the charities are helping to make the shortfall again due to the private sector.

"the charities are helping to make the shortfall again due to the private sector."

I'm on the board of a local (to me not you) charity...they're struggling too, lots of support services were being provided by charities because it was cheaper and more efficient to fund a third sector organisation than to use public services to do it.

But they've cut funding to those too.

This year we've had to make staff redundant to try and save the frontline services provided...next year?....

I work in NHS and its on the brink of financial collapse. We're expected to keep expanding services offered for growing numbers of people with no budget increase and PFI payments crippling the system. When we are allowed to recruit we can't get anyone to apply for jobs so we have unfilled professional posts. Pay hang kept up with inflation for years and increased pension contributions to get less. Lost CB.
The roads need resurfacing desperately and there is litter everywhere. All non essential community services are closed. Many poorer towns are full of charity and pound shops.
The well off people I know are richer than they have ever been!

timetodrive I'm in Hampshire too and in a Tory area. It's a total bubble here so I can see why people can't see how the cuts affect the vulnerable. We are looking at family homes around £400k. (Standard nothing fancy type). And they are going within a week! The viewings are back to back and I can see all my competitions are same as us. Young families with babies, preschoolers and at most young primary school aged children. Plenty of people have money it seems.

My sector is very hot with huge skills shortages. Pay is rising rapidly.

I think the recovery has been very uneven. Those who are better off are not getting any pain. I mean if you aren't getting benefits you won't feel the cut will you? We aren't in it all together at all.

I voted lib dems because labour won't win here. They are the ones keeping the Tories from the worst acts in the last five years. Like the human rights act.

So if you're sat in the council having to make cuts - what do you do? Cut something affecting many, or just remove services to expensive people (as that only affects a few).

Quite. Friends have been made redundant, as the the respite care facility for severely disabled children they were working in closed. Bad for them- devastating for those kids and their parents.

ExP is a housing support worker for some of the most vulnerable people in society- there are far fewer jobs in this field than there were 5 years ago. And there is far less help out there for them- it's almost impossible to get any support from mental health services, especially if their conditions are chronic and entrenched. His clients are always getting sanctioned, too- in order to BE his clients they have to have "complex needs"- usually a mix of mental health and addiction issues, which means they just cannot deal with the rigorous sets of hoops the Job Centre makes them jump through (not that many of them have reached the point of being employable yet anyway). Luckily, they have him to fight for them and wade through the bureaucracy, but many don't.

Personally, the only reason I have only been mildly affected so far is that the proposed introduction of Universal Credit has been such an omnishambles and clusterfuck. As a self employed LP on a low income though, the assumption that I am earning the minimum wage - profit- for all the hours that I'm working, and the removal of that from my UC, could be devastating. Probably, I'll survive- just- but am anticipating losing about £200 a month- so paying to work, really. However, anybody in the position I was in 5 years ago, trying to start up a part time microbusiness with a small child in an economically deprived area, will be shafted.

I mean if you aren't getting benefits you won't feel the cut will you?

Well, yes and no. Everything will be going swingingly until you're suddenly in need of help. I'm thinking particularly of my parents in their massively-inflatedly- priced house in the Home Counties, surrounded by well off peers and neighbours in shiny cars, in their leafy little town which is pretty much a Poor Free Zone, planning their 3+ holidays a year (one of which is normally a cruise). None of this is going to help them if and when they get seriously ill, or elderly and frail and in need of home care.

I work in social housing and see first hand that austerity is making life difficult and desperate for an awful lot of people. In addition, from an organisational perspective, we spend thousands of pounds that we could be spending on useful stuff like creating and improving homes on just trying to keep our tenants' heads above water, prevent them from starving and from losing the roof over their head, and trying to make sure they're able to pay us enough rent to provide the services we need to. It's senseless and demonstrates that a lot of the cuts simply mean services robbing Peter to pay Paul. The bedroom tax might save money in housing benefit but more is spent on trying to mitigate the negative consequences of tenants being subjected to it.

From a personal perspective, I'm better off now than I've ever been. But I don't do the job I do because that's what's important to me, innit.

My dp has a slow degenerative virus that could potentially be eradicated from the entire globes population in 2 generations. The drugs are ready. Trials have been done, the drugs work.
If we lived in Spain, he would be treated. If we lived in France he would be treated. If we lived in the USA (insured) he would be... U get the picture.
The British NHS are unable to get him treated because there is no money for the drugs.
Were one of the wealthiest global economies. Dp could die without these drugs we are still waiting.

For me the NHS and appointments has gone noticeably downhill. At least half of appointments seem to get cancelled. That's when you get one in the first place.

It would have been polite to have come back and addressed your thread OP as people bothered to reply. I will just assume you've been too busy and aren't yet another lazy arse journalist doing research .

Posting history suggests genuine, but yes I would be interested in whether any if this has changed your mind.

Should also point out that we're presumably not all 'Labour supporters'. I voted Labour tactically this time but would not describe myself as a Labour supporter.

I worked for children's services which was having funding slashed ( from an already poorly rated service) , working with health/schools daily I saw what went on. I've seen a lot of harm done by disability cuts and the massive increase in food banks.
My pay didn't increase in 5 years ( actually got cut)

I'm now a student but likely to lose money if universal credit comes in whilst I'm on my course as it'll say I should be in work not studying.

Reduced respite for dd2, severely disabled. She is still receiving her NHS continence products though.

I work in the charity sector. Severe funding challenges over the last 5 years. We are partially state funded and this has been pruned back endlessly. We've had pay cuts and redundancies to survive. Large numbers of clients in crisis, with nowhere to go for help.

DH works for the government. Pay and recruitment freezes but huge workload. Everyone very stressed and wanting to leave.

It's impossible to get proper therapy for my daughter. She used to have weekly speech therapy. .no longer..she used to have a resident occupational therapist at school who worked on essential life skills like feeding and dressing...no more.

We may well lose carers allowance and child benefit.

We worry what will happen to DD when she leaves school as the schemes which allow people with disabilities to work or attend college are disappearing fast.

We are dreading applying again for her DLA next year already. The list goes on.

We rely on charities to help DD and they have enormous waiting lists and can't help everyone due to funding cuts and increased demand.

Getting respite is very difficult and you need to almost be at crisis point.