It's STILL tough and not getting better - so how are we coping?

northwest1965

Personally I'm not sure its going to be fair. Like some of you have already said, a single person earning 44k gets it stopped but a couple earning 80k combined doesnt.
I appreciate you have to make cuts, we cannot go on with the debt as it is. What I'm not 100% happy with is always hitting the higher tax people. There's not going to be any incentive for anyone to keep working for promotion or working harder for yourself.
One thing I would like to see if housing benefit paid directly to the landlord and not in the persons pocket. It then makes sure the landlords dont lose out as so many do. I'm also not a believer than people are in poverty in this country, how many do you know that say they are in poverty but have mobiles/sky tv/ smoke 20 cigs a day and can buy a couple of bottles of WKD.

ceridwen

northwest1965 wrote: »

Personally I'm not sure its going to be fair. Like some of you have already said, a single person earning 44k gets it stopped but a couple earning 80k combined doesnt.
I appreciate you have to make cuts, we cannot go on with the debt as it is. What I'm not 100% happy with is always hitting the higher tax people. There's not going to be any incentive for anyone to keep working for promotion or working harder for yourself.
One thing I would like to see if housing benefit paid directly to the landlord and not in the persons pocket. It then makes sure the landlords dont lose out as so many do. I'm also not a believer than people are in poverty in this country, how many do you know that say they are in poverty but have mobiles/sky tv/ smoke 20 cigs a day and can buy a couple of bottles of WKD.

Hmm...there are various different ways of looking at poverty - and I think we've all noticed that there are many people who plead "poverty" but still have various "indulgences" (actually I wouldnt count having a mobile phone as an indulgence though - but that is basing it on my own usage of one - which is that I have the cheapest I could buy PAYG one and doubt if I put more than £20 odd credit on it in a year - being the generation that regards mobile phones as more of an "emergency" thing and uses our landlines for everyday phonecalls).

Re hitting higher tax people - well it will often be the case that to earn that sort of money people are working every hour God sends. There arent many people who can earn good money in just a standard workweek of 35-40 hours per week. I was only reading an article yesterday that said how many men are working a whole day a week of extra time compared to what they were just 5 years ago:eek:.

I have been noticing for some years now there is a divide emerging (just taking into account those with jobs) between those who work every hour God sends and those who work a standard workweek or shorter. With many people working more than 40 hours a week these days and/or working antisocial hours then I have watched a lot of "the fabric of Society" get distinctly threadbare - as many people these days work at times when one would have expected they would be out & about or with their families and Society is the "poorer" for it. For instance - I believe its more difficult to find people to do voluntary work than it used to be.

I think it could actually be beneficial if people stop and think a bit about whether they wish to go for that next promotion/work those longer hours because if they do then they would go over that £44k threshold. Some of them, as a result, will decide not to do so - and will then have more time/energy available to put into their family/the wider Society - which surely must be A Good Thing I would say.

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On another point - re the thing about no household on benefit being able to pick up more than £500 a week - thats going to be my "thinking point" for today - as to what safeguards one can build into the system to prevent the "husbands" in a household moving out and having a pied a terre round the corner deliberately in order to keep their family income from benefit under that £500 figure. Goes off to w**k for the day reminding myself that the quiz I did yesterday as to what job I should do decreed that I needed one where I can sit in peace and quiet and use the problem-solving skills they said I had....so better get those brain cells tuned-up then.....

kezlou

northwest1965 wrote: »

One thing I would like to see if housing benefit paid directly to the landlord and not in the persons pocket. It then makes sure the landlords dont lose out as so many do.

Oh god no not a chance in hell, i know many landloards who have taken the money from housing benefit, then claimed they never received it. Ended up going to court to find out the landlord had defrauded a whopping £250,000 away off the local council. On top of children children being forced to sleep in B & B's with suspected !!!!!philes and undesirables.

I prefer having it paid direct to ME in my account so theys official records proving it has been paid. Yes it means i may have to pay an overpayment back but that's on MY head not the landlords.

I know bluebag but this person in particular needs a boot up they backside. Just going let stew for an hour for a night or so while i seethe with rage for a bit, words are cheap but can also be extremely hurtful.

today i'm off to my course, oh DS2 is waking up, better get sorted for sort x

Have a good day all x

ceridwen

When I was unemployed/claiming "dole" back years ago I was very glad that I was paid all my "dole" money direct (including rent) - so that I could keep that aspect of my life "normal". I would have felt humiliated if my rent had been handed direct to my landlord. I could trust my landlord - but that isnt the point. The point is that I expected to still handle my own finances regardless of my employment status.

Actually too I would have hated the fact that I had to "keep track" of whether my landlord was being paid okay and doubtless things would have "gone wrong" and the System not worked as it should at some point - so I would have had to do the "chasing up" to get things put right.

As it was - knowing that all my money came direct to me each week made it easy to deal with and meant I retained my independence. All I had to do was check I was getting:
- personal and bills money
- fuel allowance (now no longer payable)
- water rates (same amount as water bill payable) (now no longer payable)
- rent (same amount as rent payable)

That was easy and meant I only had to check I'd got my "cost of living" rise on the personal/bills money if I was unemployed when the yearly rise took effect (errr....have feeling I might have forgotten to do that actually......DUH! <slap head smilie>).

csarina

I cannot help but feel that the issue over family allowence is a two edges sword in some respects.......espeically the two partners earning a maximum of say £87,500 it is rather unfair but we will have to see how it works out.

As a pensioner my beef is with the fuel allowence and it being paid to people who live abroad.......why should they get it when they choose not to live in this country?

On the housing and council tax front I want my housing bebefit paying into my account where I can see its going in each month.......we pay our rent by standing order so the money we recieve helps to pay it and I know the full rent is being paid. I have the proof in my account.

I do think that there is a case for altering the pension system so that pensioners are paid a realistic pension and there would be no need for HB and CTB, they would have the money to pay it. Our council tax is high because of where we chose to live, so is the cost of living if it comes to that, but because the water rates are included with the council tax and we do not pay for drainage (Cess pit) we actually pay less than we did when we were living in the city. Its not a lot but it is less. My OH is over 75 so we do not pay for the TV licience, if they cut that the TV will go.

We are finding it difficult because we have to pay back the cost of moving, but according to the snowball calculator we should be debt free in less then 3 years.......I am hoping to cut this down to 2 years by cutting things back to the bone, mind you a dentist bill for £90 this month does not help!! One thing that is essential and I will fight tooth and nail to keep is the car. It enables us to get about and visit family. The road tax is only £25 per year I have just paid out for its service, I put the money away each month to cover our motoring costs, insurance etc, diesel costs us around £30 a month and driven sensibly we can do up to 600miles on s full tank. I filled the tank before we left Leicester on Friday and there is more than enough left to cover us for this month.

Hopefully we have enough oil in the tank to lst through the winter supplemented with the wood and coal for the stove in the sitting room. I do need to visit our local butcher and stock up with mince and stewing meat etc for the winter, the forecast for us is not great.......

Annie56

Hi and good morning

Reading all the posts this morning makes me wonder how some will cope.
Not been around for a wee while as Im too :mad::mad::mad: at the exOH, he has gone on a cruise with blonde floozie and not paid the workers last week at the garage he owns. The fuel delivery company want paying upfront so no petrol/diesel means no business then he informs me that hes going Bankrupt when he comes back.

Have had various folk confirm the rumours re his gambling debts, and my dads on the warpath that he has supposedly paid of blonde floozies parents mortgage and given them 2 of the newer cars of the forecourt sales....have had to post on the BR and Living with it board I need some advice as part of the original business loan was secured against the house,how can one man grind a perfectly very viable business into the ground in just 4 months:o:o I now need to protect myself from his stupidity, wish I could be at the docks when they get into port hed be swimming the bleedin channel by the time Ive finished with him...

Hes now responsible for 3 mechanics and an apprentice and a old chap who was the general handyman maybe losing there jobs, what an idiot as I said in a previous post his brains are in his trousers am trying to fathom out how the hell I missed all this happening, then again I trusted him.

I have been given an interview for a midwives position in kthe Aberystwyth area, so am off down there Saturday for the interview on Monday next....have been looking at properties to rent in the area, some beautiful places, though have to hold on till I find out what my financial position is if he does go Bankrupt, I might have to be paying for his daftness and stupidity and my ignorance in trusting him.

One good thing Im alive, have my health and food in the cupboard anything else is a plus in my book, am going down the allotment to take my frustrations out on the weeds lol and have a chinwag with another newbie who looks lovley in his wellies ( old Annie56 has been watching him flex his muscles as he turns over his soil :p)and cheer myself up...


Might just measure 6` x 6` plot for the exOH beats the patio anyday....:cool::D:D,

See you all laters:p
Annie56

LannyLee

Annie56, /i can sympathiose ( although not to that extent) I was still getting bills from when I lived with an old boyfriend 6 years after we'd split up, as the utilitiesn council tax etc were solely in my name (not a mistake I'll make again) I got stung when he didn't pay his share.

Good luck with the job interniew :j

sammy_kaye18

£26,000 a year would eb a god send to us. We (me and boyfriend both working) earn little over £15,000 a (good) year when the works available and that's Owen working all the hours god sends and a Sunday off and then me in a 12 hour a week job but this is basically so I can be at home to look after the kids in the week, I work a Saturday night and all day Sunday (well 3 - 10) so I've sacrificed time with Owen and the kids to provide what I can for them. Plus now that I have babe I am not able to do much overtime because I would always take hours when Ben was in work. My theory is I had the kids so I want to be the one raising them but I want to do and provide what I can. Not be one of these people sat on benefits taking from the tax payers.

There is a mum down the school who gets loads in benefits. She has 4 kids and is pregnant with her 5th who is due February to an alcoholic father. all the kids are in designer gear, neither of them work, she gets her housing paid for her, council tax paid for her, she must be bringing in nearly £3K in child benefit a year alone. child tax credit at about £7K a year so there's most of what me and Owen work to earn a year in just child tax credit and child benefit alone (that's not taking into account the new baby that's due! Not to mention she is on income support. Yet she is always shopping and out every weekend.

I have to use all my wages and benefits to provide for our little family but at least I know its hard earned money (ok I work on a till but the abuse I get on a Saturday night for having to decline people who are intoxicated really isnt particularly worth the basic pay! and jsut before I left for maternity -- at 7.5 months pregnant we had to lock down the shop because of shop lifters and I ended up having to be locked in an office phoning the police for mine and baby's protection whilst there was a 21 year old man and a 69 year old woman left to deal with the culprits). Bloody horrible job - Ive been thrown into shelves, pushed and shoved round the shop, spat at, had things thrown at me, had drunks piddle in the doorway at me! and the company I work for doesn't think we need a security gaurd! :mad:

lauren_1

I dont think these now CB rules are going to plunge anyone in to poverty and neither will the new £26k benefit rule.

For years there have been those that manage to work around it and beat the system, I can see a lot of new DLA claims flooding in soon as having 1 recipient in the household exempts them from that rule, and to be honest that seems DLA is easy to get if your not genuine but blood form a stone if you are!

Dare I say it but I think it can only do GOOD that benefits are being limited, I do sympathise with those who didnt ask for large families though (yes triplets and quads are seldom asked for).

ubamother

I'm quite interested in the breakdown of the quoted £26k
I presume that includes all benefits - child benefit, housing benefit, council tax etc. Is this based on a family or a single person or if a family how many in the family. I wonder how much it leaves after these type of payments are removed (at source many of them presumably).
I wonder how it equates to working tax credit top ups/housing benefit/council tax benefit for those on low incomes plus their earnings as a total in the year. For many of us, working, even if we don't seem to be earning this much has got to be better in terms of building up work history, and skills which are bankable in money terms as we get more skilled etc.

I'd just like to put the other side of housing benefit payments. I rented a house (as in I was the landlord!) for some years. I was always happy to rent to those getting housing benefit (unlike many landlords at the time) as long as it was paid direct to me. The only two times I didn't get it paid direct to me I lost in total over £12k in unpaid rent (paid to the tenant who then didn't pay it to me) eviction costs and damage to the property. It's ever so easy to think 'everyone is like me and will be a great tenant', but sadly from a landlord's point of view it is not always the case.