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Tories are certainly getting stuck into our benefits system...
mitchaa
Posts: 4,487 Forumite
Wow, I'm staggered at how quickly George Osborne is ripping apart Labour's benefit system. So far, we have....
They are capping LHA.
They are reducing LHA/HB award to 90% of its value after 12mths unemployed
They have reduced income support eligibility to when a child reaches 5.
They have scrapped the HIP £190 grant
They have scrapped the SMG of £500 for additional children over the 1st.
They have scrapped the CTF
They have frozen child benefit for the next 3yrs
They have cut the CTC baby element
They have cut the thresholds for CTC to stop those on middle incomes benefitting
They have aligned benefits inflation with CPI rather than RPI
They are ordering a full review of DLA claimants to double check eligibility
They are cutting incapacity benefit
I would say that's a good start to be fair, quite a lot of changes already and they have only been in power a couple of months. This time next year, I suspect there will be even further cuts.
The tories are doing everything right to stop this country from wasting away as a benefit claimant nation in my honest opinion. Labour politicians will no doubt be in uproar though.
I wonder how much further they will go?
They are capping LHA.
They are reducing LHA/HB award to 90% of its value after 12mths unemployed
They have reduced income support eligibility to when a child reaches 5.
They have scrapped the HIP £190 grant
They have scrapped the SMG of £500 for additional children over the 1st.
They have scrapped the CTF
They have frozen child benefit for the next 3yrs
They have cut the CTC baby element
They have cut the thresholds for CTC to stop those on middle incomes benefitting
They have aligned benefits inflation with CPI rather than RPI
They are ordering a full review of DLA claimants to double check eligibility
They are cutting incapacity benefit
I would say that's a good start to be fair, quite a lot of changes already and they have only been in power a couple of months. This time next year, I suspect there will be even further cuts.
The tories are doing everything right to stop this country from wasting away as a benefit claimant nation in my honest opinion. Labour politicians will no doubt be in uproar though.
I wonder how much further they will go?
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Comments
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for once, we can agree. The days of giving money away for free are over.
Its time people started to earn their wedge again.0 -
all a good start... but i'm sure the Lib Dem cult on here will be a bit annoyed with you and disappointed that you say it's the Tories making decisions and they're just there for the moral support...I would say that's a good start to be fair, quite a lot of changes already and they have only been in power a couple of months. This time next after the next budget, there will be even more shocks.
The tories are doing everything right to stop this country from wasting away as a benefit claimant nation in my honest opinion. Labour politicians will no doubt be in uproar though.
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What effect will all these cuts have long term? Cutting all these benefits will mean less money going to places that it used to.
More civil unrest is also a possibility.0 -
What effect will all these cuts have long term? Cutting all these benefits will mean less money going to places that it used to.
More civil unrest is also a possibility.
Quite possible if you over analyse.
More burglaries, more car thefts, increase in shop lifting and muggings etc.
Or the vast majority can budget a little better? Instead of smoking 40, cut that down to 20 per day
Perhaps the sale of 50'' plasmas will start to dwindle aswell? 0 -
Less mobile phones sold.Cutting all these benefits will mean less money going to places that it used to.
Less X Boxes sold.
Less DVDs/CDs sold.
Less luxury holidays sold.
Less chocolate bars and crisps sold.
Less takeaways and meals out sold.
Less football kits sold, so footie players will have to be paid less.
Less celeb handbags sold.
Less copies of Heat magazine sold.
And other cr4p like that.
There are things the collective "they" got used to buying, that they now will have to think twice about.
The collective "they" won't be going without, they'll just have to forgo things, like hard-working people do all the time.0 -
Wow, I'm staggered at how quickly George Osborne is ripping apart Labour's benefit system. So far, we have....
They are capping LHA.
They are reducing LHA/HB award to 90% of its value after 12mths unemployed
They are reducing JSA to 90% of its award after 12mths unemployed
They have reduced income support eligibility to when a child reaches 5.
They have scrapped the HIP £190 grant
They have scrapped the SMG of £500 for additional children over the 1st.
They have scrapped the CTF
They have frozen child benefit for the next 3yrs
They have cut the CTC baby element
They have cut the thresholds for CTC to stop those on middle incomes benefitting
They have aligned benefits inflation with CPI rather than RPI
They are ordering a full review of DLA claimants to double check eligibility
They are cutting incapacity benefit
I would say that's a good start to be fair, quite a lot of changes already and they have only been in power a couple of months. This time next after the next budget, there will be even more shocks.
The tories are doing everything right to stop this country from wasting away as a benefit claimant nation in my honest opinion. Labour politicians will no doubt be in uproar though.
I wonder how much further they will go?
Not really to be honest:
The LHA cap is nominal, & will afect virtually no claimants.
They have reduced income support eligibility to when a child reaches 5. - Actually, no they haven't. This remains 7. What they have stated, is that when an eldest child reaches school age, they expect the parents to make themselves available for work.
They have scrapped the HIP £190 grant - meaningless, as will affect so few people.
They have scrapped the SMG of £500 for additional children over the 1st.
They have scrapped the CTF (No issue with either of these)
They have frozen child benefit for the next 3yrs - will only affect the poorest.
They are ordering a full review of DLA claimants to double check eligibility - no issue with this (see my follow up comment next)
They are cutting incapacity benefit - not quite. Actually, what they are doing is pushing through Labours idea to increase conditionality for benefits claimants. ie there will be harsher conditions & an expectation of increased co-operation by benefits claimants.
As a person who works with benefits claimants, I think their suspicions that 1 in 5 ICB claimants could work is underoptimistic. I'd argue that there are more than this tbh. Also, DLA can & should be re-assessed, as there are many I see who (imo) don't necessarily qualify.
Big test for them, is how it is done. This will be key imo. If they do it carefully & fairly, & do root out the real lead swingers who are putting it on, then they will be praised. However, the fear is that there will be cases where genuinely disabled people will be extremely harshly treated, and the benefits system will be over-zealously policed.
In my view, it is all pandering to the masses though. I doubt that what has been announced thus far will reduce the defecit/government expenditure. Want a real way to reduce spending? Reverse Tatchers idiotic removal of fair rent assessment in the 80's, where she introduced the notion of the market rent in housing benefit legislation. THIS is the reason why we have thousands of private lets charging excessive rents of hundreds of pounds each week. And the bill is being paid by the taxpayer. Excessively high rents is covered by housing benefits owing to Thatchers change to the benefit rules, which has lead to a significant drain of tax funds into the pockets of private LL's via the benefits system.
Address this, save the country tens of thousands every day.
(Which, has also impacted on the building of BTL empires, & associated housing shortage we see, blah blah.)
How come no government since the 1970's has had a housing policy?It's getting harder & harder to keep the government in the manner to which they have become accustomed.0 -
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lemonjelly wrote: »Not really to be honest:
The LHA cap is nominal, & will afect virtually no claimants.
They have reduced income support eligibility to when a child reaches 5. - Actually, no they haven't. This remains 7. What they have stated, is that when an eldest child reaches school age, they expect the parents to make themselves available for work.
They have scrapped the HIP £190 grant - meaningless, as will affect so few people.
They have scrapped the SMG of £500 for additional children over the 1st.
They have scrapped the CTF (No issue with either of these)
They have frozen child benefit for the next 3yrs - will only affect the poorest.
They are ordering a full review of DLA claimants to double check eligibility - no issue with this (see my follow up comment next)
They are cutting incapacity benefit - not quite. Actually, what they are doing is pushing through Labours idea to increase conditionality for benefits claimants. ie there will be harsher conditions & an expectation of increased co-operation by benefits claimants.
As a person who works with benefits claimants, I think their suspicions that 1 in 5 ICB claimants could work is underoptimistic. I'd argue that there are more than this tbh. Also, DLA can & should be re-assessed, as there are many I see who (imo) don't necessarily qualify.
Big test for them, is how it is done. This will be key imo. If they do it carefully & fairly, & do root out the real lead swingers who are putting it on, then they will be praised. However, the fear is that there will be cases where genuinely disabled people will be extremely harshly treated, and the benefits system will be over-zealously policed.
In my view, it is all pandering to the masses though. I doubt that what has been announced thus far will reduce the defecit/government expenditure. Want a real way to reduce spending? Reverse Tatchers idiotic removal of fair rent assessment in the 80's, where she introduced the notion of the market rent in housing benefit legislation. THIS is the reason why we have thousands of private lets charging excessive rents of hundreds of pounds each week. And the bill is being paid by the taxpayer. Excessively high rents is covered by housing benefits owing to Thatchers change to the benefit rules, which has lead to a significant drain of tax funds into the pockets of private LL's via the benefits system.
Address this, save the country tens of thousands every day.
(Which, has also impacted on the building of BTL empires, & associated housing shortage we see, blah blah.)
How come no government since the 1970's has had a housing policy?
Income support drops down to 7 this October. From October 2011, claimants will be moved over to JSA when child is 5.
I think what you are forgetting about with LHA is that they are going to review all levels to the 30th percentile of rents, so as well as putting an upper cap on the limit, LHA rates round the country will drop in line with this 30th percentile figure.
The £190 HIP grant affects every pregnant mother so although the individual figure may be pretty meaningless as a 1 off £190 payment, multiply that by the number of pregnant mothers and that will prove to be quite a saving.0 -
You mean a government actually doing what the electorate want them to do?lemonjelly wrote: »In my view, it is all pandering to the masses though.
As a concept, I can't see it catching on...........;)Nothing is foolproof, as fools are so ingenious!0 -
What effect will all these cuts have long term? Cutting all these benefits will mean less money going to places that it used to.
More civil unrest is also a possibility.
Bring it on - Civvie coppers should have night sticks to crack scumbag skulls and a gun to shoot them with if threatened with a knife as standard.
The fact that certain areas are no-go to police at night in Bristol, manchester and Liverpool is a disgrace.0
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