Osborne to give the poorest yet another good kicking

[joe_bloggs*]

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/sep/29/george-osborne-benefits-tax-credits-conservative?com...

he announced that a re-elected Tory government would hit 10m households with a two-year freeze on benefits and tax credits.
Same old tories

[twohelmets]

---

@ianseymoursalvage wrote:

---

@lambsy_uk wrote:

---

@joe_bloggs* wrote:

Tories have never liked social security spending .Tories want you in a position to work for next to nothing or starve,

---

NO, they just want you to work; doesn't matter for how much or how little just work!!!

---

I know some people have a major misconception regarding benefits for instance

A family getting say £275 a week on benefits,and the father gets offered a job on £300 a week.

He will say "im not working for £25 a week!!!!"

Which is wrong,the benefits should be there as a safety net not a way of life!!!!!!!!!! Hes actually going to be "working" for £300 a week but unfortunatly many claimants dont see it like that!!!

---

Spot on Ian, the mentality is all wrong. They see their benefit as an entitlement with them under no obligation to work unless there is a very significant income rise to justify getting out of bed. Even if they were offered a job for 100 Pounds a week, they should be darn well doing it. and be getting it topped up to the 275 he had before!

Here in delightfully sunny Belgium, a guy I know has been on the sick with a mystery and unseen illness for some three years. Very generous, Belgian benefits. He decided he was bored so applied for, and got a job. Manager in a supermarket.

Come the great day, Monday morning, he simply did not go. His reason was that his file was all in order with the sickness people and he did not want to risk not liking the job and then have to go through the rigmarole of getting signed off as long term sick again.

There is FAR too much of this going on.

[joe_bloggs*]

If she is on benefits as you say she will pay towards her council tax

[joe_bloggs*]

If the unemployed do not take a job offered they will get sanctioned 4 weeks benefit for the 1st time,if refused a second job offer it's 3 months sanction,if they don't fulfill there job seeking commitments for a third time it's 3 years without any benefits,it might be cushy for some in Belgium but certainly not the case here

[lambsy_uk]

---

@joe_bloggs* wrote:
If she is on benefits as you say she will pay towards her council tax

---

No, her benefits will pay the Council Tax, she has no earned income, non that's declared anyway!!!

[lambsy_uk]

---

@joe_bloggs* wrote:
If the unemployed do not take a job offered they will get sanctioned 4 weeks benefit for the 1st time,if refused a second job offer it's 3 months sanction,if they don't fulfill there job seeking commitments for a third time it's 3 years without any benefits,it might be cushy for some in Belgium but certainly not the case here

---

I believe he was refering to incapacity/sickness benefit not unemployment!

[twohelmets]

it might be cushy for some in Belgium but certainly not the case here.

It may be different in the UK, but there are plenty in the UK who have played the benefits game like a harp and find it a perfectly good way to live. I know some of them.

[joe_bloggs*]

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jan/15/thousands-court-council-tax-arrears-benefit-cuts-bedr...

Thousands in court for council tax arrears as benefit cuts hit home

The poorest residents, unemployed, disabled or low paid, now find themselves paying council tax where previously they were exempt.

[bookhunter2007]

---

@lambsy_uk wrote:

---

@bookhunter2007 wrote:

Hence, it seems a bit misleading to imply "the poor" are to blame for "bankrupting the country".

---

The poor are not to blame; the Labour government that were in office for 13 years are to blame!!!

---

Well yes, the failure to regulate the banks tighter can be totally blamed on Labour.

On the other hand, had the Tories won power in 2005, they'd have matched Labour's spending, and more significantly, we'd have seen even LESS banking regulation considering George thought Ireland's economic blueprint was the way ahead. Check out this gem from the memory hole:

http://web.archive.org/web/20100106204745/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_...

Whilst Labour and Brown can be rightly blamed for lax banking regulations, it could have been so much worse:

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-09-12/gordon-browns-u-dot-k-dot-economic-record-a-reassess...

[lambsy_uk]

---

@joe_bloggs* wrote:
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jan/15/thousands-court-council-tax-arrears-benefit-cuts-bedr...

Thousands in court for council tax arrears as benefit cuts hit home

The poorest residents, unemployed, disabled or low paid, now find themselves paying council tax where previously they were exempt.

---

They are taking it with one hand and paying it back with the other which means they are not paying it; we are! They are merely giving back some of what they've received!

[lambsy_uk]

---

@bookhunter2007 wrote:

---

@lambsy_uk wrote:

---

@bookhunter2007 wrote:

Hence, it seems a bit misleading to imply "the poor" are to blame for "bankrupting the country".

---

The poor are not to blame; the Labour government that were in office for 13 years are to blame!!!

---

Well yes, the failure to regulate the banks tighter can be totally blamed on Labour.

On the other hand, had the Tories won power in 2005, they'd have matched Labour's spending, and more significantly, we'd have seen even LESS banking regulation considering George thought Ireland's economic blueprint was the way ahead. Check out this gem from the memory hole:

http://web.archive.org/web/20100106204745/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_...

Whilst Labour and Brown can be rightly blamed for lax banking regulations, it could have been so much worse:

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-09-12/gordon-browns-u-dot-k-dot-economic-record-a-reassess...

---

There's no dining out on 'Ifs Buts and Maybes'; the fact is Labour won 3 elections in a row and were firmly in office during some of the nation's darkest times! The curent government are now in the difficult position of having to sort out the mess created my the previous government. This is making them rather unpopular but at least they have the scruples to sort it out rather than run and hide and hope it all goes away!!!

Times are indeed tough for many, not just the poorest, unemployed and low paid either, but the deficit has been reduced by a third, we have the strongest economy in the modern Western World, employment is up and unemployment down and cuts are being made in wasted resources. All this in one term in office compared to the failure of the previous 3 terms!!!

[joamur_gosof]

I know the very cheek ,living on 'our' hand outs ..those blasted politicians need to get a job 🙂

on the other hand  IF you mean the unemployed ,well just living is an outrage eh eh

(sarcasm is under rated and lost on tory voters,which is a shame,is it not )

[joe_bloggs*]

The national debt is rising under this government,even the right wing spectator magazine say "Osborne has borrowed more in under four years than the Labour Party borrowed over 13 years"

[ianseymoursalvage]

Labour at the moment astound me they are blasting the Tories (who i also think are clueless btw) for the NHS while refusing to accept an estimated 2 million immigrants must have also hardly helped the NHS budget.

Jobs they refuse to accept migrant workers hardly help our own jobless numbers!!!

Economy,they convieniently forget Gordon Browns firesale of most of our gold reserves at a sixth of the market value.

Miliband manages to preach about Tory values while living in a £2.5m house and drawing a massive salary,this from a man whos never grafted in his life.When Ed starts shopping at Lidl,eating out at his local chippy,driving a Ford Fiesta and wearing clothes from Primark then he can lecture on Labour values,hes no better than Cameron imho.

[bankhaunter]

---

@joe_bloggs* wrote:
If the unemployed do not take a job offered they will get sanctioned 4 weeks benefit for the 1st time,if refused a second job offer it's 3 months sanction,if they don't fulfill there job seeking commitments for a third time it's 3 years without any benefits,it might be cushy for some in Belgium but certainly not the case here

---

You can be sanctioned in the future even if you do take a job, like the woman who had two job interviews, got the job at the first one so didn't go to the second and then when she was later made redundant, was sanctioned for not attending the second interview.

Or the woman who had a job interview at the same time she was to attend the Job Centre.

She rearranged the Job Centre appointment but still lost four weeks money for not going to the original one.

According to a Job Centre employee, if you are large and aggressive you are probably fairly safe but if not, you are a sanction target and if you also have some learning difficulties you are the proverbial fish in a barrel.

Like wages any benefit freeze is a permanent lowering of the rate paid, it's not just temporary as it may at first appear, a graphic illustration would be the £10 Christmas bonus, not quite worth now what it was in 1972 when it was introduced.

[0125arwen]

---

@lambsy_uk wrote:

---

@0125arwen wrote:

If you want more people in work enforce the minimum wage for everyone,

stop letting foreign workers force british workers out of a job,

put a stop to zero hours contracts.

Oh and stop advertising hundreds of thousands of jobs that don't even exist, in jobcentres.

---

So, how will the ceasing of advertising jobs, whether they exist or not, get more people into work?!

Whether of British origin or not, those living in this country contribute to employment/unemployment figures, so if you kicked a foreigner out of a job and gave it to a Brit, surely the number of people in work would remain unchanged! How would this get more people in work?!

Lots of people work on zero hours contracts; they are not unemployed on zero hours they are employed; so how would stopping such contracts result in more people in work?!

---

1. People can then spend their time and resources applying for jobs that actually exist.

2. I never mentioned kicking any foreigner out of a job.

3. Zero hour contracts that stipulate the worker can't work elsewhere help who, and how?.

Add to that people would then be able to get jobs that have at least a semblance of security and may even help then get a mortgage which in turn helps the housing industry by creating jobs, somethimg that can never happen with zero hours contracts.

And you neglected to mention the minimum wage part, why is that?.

[upthecreekyetagain]

The only way to get more people into work is to create more jobs and the way to achieve that is to make it easier for companies to employ people, not more difficult.

[start-the-fire]

---

@joe_bloggs* wrote:
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/sep/29/george-osborne-benefits-tax-credits-conservative?com...

he announced that a re-elected Tory government would hit 10m households with a two-year freeze on benefits and tax credits.
Same old tories

---

Excellent news on the whole, regrettably it will affect some that are in need of it most, but maybe get the clampets that surround our area out of bed and do an honest days work, , but i doubt it.

Nothing worse than bleeting socialists, not that i support the tories, but another labour government will bankrupt the country next time round.

The government should protect and look after the most needy, not the scrounging money sucking, society owes us  , and tax dodging black economey hjefheufh that contaminate our society.

I believe it will be better in the long run.

[evoman3957]

I think it's amazing how the good old Brits keep that good old reserved, stiff upper lip character going; when one half hate the other half with a real passion. If we ever had a Civil War, it would be a real "Hum Dinger" and make the Shia's and Suni's look like Kindergarten.

[al**bear]

The Unemployed and sick may not pay Council Tax, but EVERYONE pays water & sewage rates  no matter how low their income.

They keep talking about the benefits bill being so large - well MORE THAN HALF OF IT goes on Pensions and pensioners, add that to the working poor and then you see, it is not the workshy that are getting all this money, even though the Torys and their media pals try to portray it as such.

Yesterday proves yet again, how we are NOT all in this together, after Osborne hammered the less well off, Cameron threw them some pennies yesterday in Tax cuts, then in the next breath handed the well off big Tax breaks by raising the level of when the 40% Tax rate kicks in, saying it will help Teachers and Police officers - what teachers and Police officers, Most teachers are about £9k under that and only Inspectors pay comes in the range of £40k+

[bankhaunter]

 AREAType2010-11, £bn2011-12, £bn% change, inc inflation

SOURCE: DWP Annual Report
DWP Total	Total	160.08	166.98	1.9
Benefit spending in Great Britain	Total	153.6	159	1.1
State Pension	Benefit	69.88	74.22	3.7
Housing Benefit	Benefit	15.74	16.94	5.2
Disability Living Allowance	Benefit	11.88	12.57	3.3
Pension Credit and Minimum Income Guarantee	Benefit	8.32	8.11	-4.8
Income Support	Benefit	7.79	6.92	-13.2
Rent Rebates	Benefit	5.28	5.45	0.8
Attendance Allowance	Benefit	5.23	5.34	-0.3
Incapacity Benefit	Benefit	5.56	4.94	-13.3
Jobseekers Allowance	Benefit	4.46	4.91	7.6
Council Tax Benefit	Benefit	4.79	4.83	-1.7
Employment and Support Allowance	Benefit	2.25	3.58	55.8
Statutory Sick Pay and Statutory Maternity Pay	Benefit	2.46	2.55	1.2
Expenditure incurred by the Social Fund	Benefit	3.81	2.37	-39.2
Carers Allowance	Benefit	1.57	1.73	7.7
Financial Assistance Scheme	Benefit	-1.44	1.24	184.6
Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit	Benefit	0.89	0.89	-2.3
Severe Disablement Allowance	Benefit	0.89	0.88	-3.1
National Insurance Fund	Benefit	1.09	0.82	-26.6
Bereavement Benefits	Benefit	0.61	0.59	-5.5
TV Licences for the over 75s	Benefit	0.58	0.59	-0.8
Other Benefits	Benefit	0.5	0.4	-22.7
Maternity Allowance	Benefit	0.34	0.37	4.2
Other Programmes	Benefit	0.2	0.18	-9.3
Departmental Operating Costs	Total	2.84	1.45	-49.9
Operational Delivery	Dept	1.29	2.49	87.7
Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit Administration	Dept	0.58	0.55	-8.8
Health and Safety Executive	Dept	0.2	0.18	-15.8
Executive Non-Departmental Public Bodies (Net)	Dept	0.39	0.38	-6.3
Employment Programmes	Dept	1.81	0.88	-52.8
Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission	Dept	0.39	0.48	20.9

http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2013/jan/08/uk-benefit-welfare-spending