It is tough NOW. So how are we coping

mardatha

It isnt Nov yet.... wait and see what transpires. Maybe with all the changes they will need you, pet x

smileyt_2

mardatha wrote: »

It isnt Nov yet.... wait and see what transpires. Maybe with all the changes they will need you, pet x

That's true. How can they cut JSA staff when so many people will be out of work?

Also you have five months to try and find something else, if that's possible.

Hope it all works out. Fingers crossed!

The_Thrilla

elizabunny wrote: »

As for completely abolishing the default retirement age, I'm not sure I agree with that either, does this mean that for example an eighty year old person cannot be asked to leave their job, even if they are clearly unfit to do the job correctly? Does it mean that if you choose to retire because your health is not so good, you would not get Pension Credit etc. etc.should you need it, because you could have carried on working? Is this the start of medical assessments to see if we are frail enough to retire?

I'll tell you what the problem is, Elizabunny. They can't afford to pay pensions like they could in the past. The pensions are supposed to be paid for by National Insurance. Instead of taking your National Insurance money and investing it for you on your behalf, like they're supposed to, they treat your NI money like any other tax, and blow it the minute they receive it. Your pension is paid for by those who are in work, and each succeeding generation supports the old generation. Now, I don't know about you, but to me this looks like the dictionary definition of a Ponzi scheme. Well, there have been a reduction in the number of youngsters in work, and they can't afford to support a huge number of pensioners anymore. I'm not making excuses for the government. On the contrary, all Ponzi schemes will collapse under their own weight in the end. But I think the general public are ultimately responsible. Instead of voting these incompetent people out, like they recently had an opportunity to do, they vote for the same people who got us all into this mess in the first place. ("Leaders! They couldn't lead me across the street!" Gerald Celente.) So far as I can see, this budget does not balance, and the debt is going to get bigger.

bluemoon wrote:

This is a budget based on ideology. I'm afraid I am nowhere near as optimistic about this as some of you. I see very hard times ahead. Yes, we will get through it, but that isn't the point. My DH and I have swapped stories of our childhoods in the 80s where we lived on rice or porridge for every meal because it was all our families could afford. Having cereal for breakfast made with water because it 'saved the milk'. Spending winter evenings with the whole family huddled under a duvet because they couldn't afford to put the heating on. Yes, we can do these things again, but is it really right that we should? And when our sacrifices aren't even being made to save our services? They've already announced student loans, air traffic control, the royal mail, even the schools being sold to 'private interests'. And who knows what is in the small print.

I don't know what motivated this budget. Frankly, I think that the economy is in such a bad state that there is only one move left, which will probably be taken in conjunction with other countries. There will be a "bank holiday." No, not a public holiday. The banks will shut down for a few days, and you will not be able to get your money out. When they open again, they will have devalued the currency. You may have had a thousand old pounds in your bank account, but they will give you, say, one new pound for three old ones. That's what I think they'll do. And the services in this country will become like a third world country. Water will no longer be available round the clock. The leccy will go off frequently. There will be holes in the road you could lie down in. And the NHS? Forget it.

Sorry to sound like Private Fraser, but we're doomed. DOOMED.

charlies-aunt

smileyt wrote: »

How can they cut JSA staff when so many people will be out of work?

I have been told that when they did the mass recruitment last year that they were using unemployment forecasts that were 3 years out of date - when they calculated the up to date stats, they found themselves massively overstaffed....and now that the number of unemployed has fallen significantly over the last six months, they cannot justify the high staffing levels.

I work on Income Support claims - when my customers youngest child is 12, the claim transfers to JSA - in October this year, the age drops down to 7 ...and when the budget kicks in will go down to 5 years old so we will lose customers to the JSA regime. Coupled with this, if they cut DLA, the number of customers who currently claim IS as carers will also reduce.

The budget has also slashed big chunks from the Jobcentre - Future Jobs Fund & Local Employment Partnership have gone and its looking like JSA customers will be sent to external providers at 26 weeks not 52 weeks which will massively reduce the work that JSA currently do.

Big changes ahead but all aimed at reducing services and funding so not much hope of retaining a job really as there will be a lot of permanent staff that will have to be redeployed.

I will be actively jobseeking from now on and using my last few months wages to stockpile as much as I can on the home front. My biggest worry is for my pets and being able to afford to keep them. My DH is on minimum wage but as he works for a funeral services business - hopefully he will always be in work...but the firm has had to take the decision recently that unless families can pay 50% of the costs upfront, the funeral directors will decline to offer their services because so many people have failed to pay.

I'm buckling my seatbelt and gritting my teeth - its going to be a bumpy ride....but I am determined to get me and mine through this

icelandic_queen

I was made offically redundant last Thursday although I had been on garden leave from 31 March this year. I worked for a company that dealt with the Northern Ireland Civil Service, a massive employer here. A lot of the work was outsourced from NICS to us, recruitment, payroll and support services and the forecast was not good even at the start of the year and they effectively put an embargo on recruitment. I have stockpiled quite a bit and been saving like mad thanks to all the brillant people on this site, especially this thread. However, I have now become a carer for my father who has MS and I have to go and make a claim for IS today to top on my carer's allowance. I dread this and feel sick to the pit of my stomach. I have never 'signed on' in my life and have been lucky to be in employment from I left school. I'm just hoping I get the nice gentlemen I spoke to on the phone!

ceridwen

The_Thrilla wrote: »

I'll tell you what the problem is, Elizabunny. They can't afford to pay pensions like they could in the past. The pensions are supposed to be paid for by National Insurance. Instead of taking your National Insurance money and investing it for you on your behalf, like they're supposed to, they treat your NI money like any other tax, and blow it the minute they receive it. Your pension is paid for by those who are in work, and each succeeding generation supports the old generation. Now, I don't know about you, but to me this looks like the dictionary definition of a Ponzi scheme. Well, there have been a reduction in the number of youngsters in work, and they can't afford to support a huge number of pensioners anymore. I'm not making excuses for the government. On the contrary, all Ponzi schemes will collapse under their own weight in the end. But I think the general public are ultimately responsible. Instead of voting these incompetent people out, like they recently had an opportunity to do, they vote for the same people who got us all into this mess in the first place. ("Leaders! They couldn't lead me across the street!" Gerald Celente.) So far as I can see, this budget does not balance, and the debt is going to get bigger.



I don't know what motivated this budget. Frankly, I think that the economy is in such a bad state that there is only one move left, which will probably be taken in conjunction with other countries. There will be a "bank holiday." No, not a public holiday. The banks will shut down for a few days, and you will not be able to get your money out. When they open again, they will have devalued the currency. You may have had a thousand old pounds in your bank account, but they will give you, say, one new pound for three old ones. That's what I think they'll do. And the services in this country will become like a third world country. Water will no longer be available round the clock. The leccy will go off frequently. There will be holes in the road you could lie down in. And the NHS? Forget it.

Sorry to sound like Private Fraser, but we're doomed. DOOMED.

"It's being so cheerful wot keeps 'im going" to coin a phrase......

...and there was me pondering on whether there might be "generational war" (younger people getting really angry that they might not be able to have what older people take for granted), "class war" (resentment of those who manage to come through relatively unscathed) and you find an even worse scenario to think on than the ones rolling round in my mind....:rotfl:. ......and...er...my bit of money isnt being held in the banks <cough>..so where does that fit in to your scenario?

I DO have strong reservations about how the NHS will cope - having read recently that it looks possible that they will refuse to do a lot of treatments they currently do for people...I can see clearly that NHS money is being spent/wasted on luxuries to suit peoples personal wishes (eg gastric band operations, IVF, stop smoking campaigns) - but they were also mentioning things like hernia operations, cataract operations, varicose vein operations (I don't know - but I suspect even slim people might sometimes get varicose veins???), heart operations. Those treatments are necessities - and not peoples personal lifestyle wishes or self-inflicted - so I do hope they won't be cutting back on things like that. I'm the first person to say "If its a lifestyle wish or a self-inflicted ailment - then its back of the queue for that person for any money there is..." - but a necessity is a necessity and these should still be funded. (Can I be the first to propose that all money currently spent on dealing with drunks in Casualty is re-routed to necessities? Personally - and I know it sounds harsh to some - I would simply make any excuse I could not to treat that sort of self-inflicted injury - to make sure it was available for health problems that HADNT been self-inflicted. I would like to tell them "The waiting room for drunks is that bench across the carpark over there".....).

Well....let's just hope it's a nice sunny day to brighten things up a bit - if only "just for today".

Charlies Aunt - sorry to hear your news and hope things come right for you soon.:kisses3:

ceridwen

icelandic_queen wrote: »

I was made offically redundant last Thursday although I had been on garden leave from 31 March this year. I worked for a company that dealt with the Northern Ireland Civil Service, a massive employer here. A lot of the work was outsourced from NICS to us, recruitment, payroll and support services and the forecast was not good even at the start of the year and they effectively put an embargo on recruitment. I have stockpiled quite a bit and been saving like mad thanks to all the brillant people on this site, especially this thread. However, I have now become a carer for my father who has MS and I have to go and make a claim for IS today to top on my carer's allowance. I dread this and feel sick to the pit of my stomach. I have never 'signed on' in my life and have been lucky to be in employment from I left school. I'm just hoping I get the nice gentlemen I spoke to on the phone!

Just nipping back quickly to wish you luck with this - fingers crossed that you make a good start by getting the "nice gentleman" you refer to.

Primrose

charlies aunt. Sorry to hear about the end of your contract. It's a worrying time. The only good thing is that at least you have a little notice to try and get your thoughts in order. Hopefully something may happen before then to change circumstances for you.

catznine

mardatha wrote: »

I found it the most humiliating thing I've ever had to do, was to go through an appeal for DLA. much much worse than having 3 kids. I won't go through it again no matter how much money I lose. Some things matter a lot more than money
I think the budget was ok, could have been worse.

Mardatha this is why I never claimed! ME is made worse by stress and getting worse was the last thing I needed! It is one of those "invisible" illnesses that can be treated so badly by healthy others. We live on dh's income, after the budget he will be on a 2 year pay freeze and his dept is subject to a 25% cut :eek: but we will manage, luckily he has a pension, which he paid 11.5% into over the years, it was a struggle over a lot of those years as well and most of our friends were not paying so much in and enjoying their money while they were young (overseas hols etc while we went camping) but at least we have it (for now) it is however dependant on the younger generation paying into their pensions to keep it going and that may not be the case in the future! We still have a mortgage to pay down but I have no idea when that will happen now!

Thanks to a thrifty Mum and this site I have cut our grocery costs to the bone and am learning to garden (2nd year of serious veg growing) The pendulum is swinging back to how we used to live before credit cards etc took a hold of us and that needed to happen. Unfortunately a lot of folk are going to pay the price for the worlds careless and greedy attitude to finance.

Just to add that my lovely nephew works on the call lines for benefits and he really does care - it must show because he is frequently asked for when people phone in but the call centres cover the whole of the country so although he is near Cardiff he could be looking after folk in London.

Hester - how awful! Glad you got it resolved!

Chins up friends! We shall ride this storm better armed than most!
(((hugs))) to those facing redundancy!

Catz x

icelandic_queen

Thanks ceridwen! Hope so!!