It was getting tough in 2006 and the workhouse still threatens us in 2011

Red_Doe

I wonder if any of the kind folks here could settle something for me please.
I'm ill with an infection and a virus so not wonderfully mobile at the moment. In my garden are cabbages, parsnips, tatties and neeps and I had planned a mass freezing to stock the freezer up with much needed veg for winter.
Does anyone know if I can freeze any of these without blanching first, to save time and effort? I plan to cook then mash the tatties and neeps, and part cook wedges of them, but the cabbage, onions, and some kale, would that be ok to just wash, chop and freeze it?
Re Ceridwen's thoughts of women in the past just getting on with it, I do remember that kind of attitude from my granny's generation, who often had great hardships in trying to make ends meet during some very tough times. They just knuckled down and got on with it. But, under it all, there was an unspoken sense of pride at what they did...which was essentially keeping the family home intact and thriving, and the family hale and hearty on limited resources and, awful though this is, I do remember a few women subtly sneering at others who acted as if they hadn't a care in the world and would squander their resources or not bother to put things by for leaner times...like that children's story that my menopausal mind has totally forgotten the name of...um...ant and the rabbit, or fox and the squirrel? Argh, something like that!
As for hoping things would change in the future, I remember my gran's great, and misguided, faith in political change making things better for women overall. She grew up in the times of the Workhouse, as mentioned in the title of this thread and saw it at work through friends and had a lifelong horror of it. Even as she was old, having had three strokes, and essentially dying, she pleaded with me not to let 'them' put her in the Workhouse, that's how great her fear of it was.
Well, with my OH's disability benefit being slashed by 200 a month, and the loss of housing benefit and being on the verge of bankruptcy, there might not be any fear of a Workhouse any more but perhaps there is worse? I fear being left literally to starve. I know that might sound unreasonable and foolish, but with food prices tripling in my area, fuel skyrocketing, utilities likewise, well......
so in a sense I am sharing some of my granny's fears, those of a woman born in the 1800's. Maybe things don't change so much at the core when the country loses it's prosperity.
Anyway, that long winded rant was just to say, that's part of the reason I am so desperate to preserve what my garden did gift me this year despite inclement weather and all sorts of veg-devouring beasties.

ceridwen

Red Doe

Sorry to hear things are looking so bleak for you.

Re the housing benefit - would peeps on MSE maybe have some helpful comments we could give on this to try and prevent you losing that benefit? Maybe you have posted details up somewheres on this and not got any helpful responses back? - I dont know.

So - what is the problem with that specifically?

....and no you dont you sound "unreasonable and foolish" to feel that way at all. It is entirely understandable to feel fearful and worry about this sort of thing - and I hope indeed it wont come to any of us.

Red_Doe

Sorry to hear things are looking so bleak for you.

Re the housing benefit - would peeps on MSE maybe have some helpful comments we could give on this to try and prevent you losing that benefit? Maybe you have posted details up somewheres on this and not got any helpful responses back? - I dont know.

So - what is the problem with that specifically?

They say we are just over the limit to apply for HB, Ceridwen, though we won't be now as so much has been lopped off my OH's disability. My fiance is from Belgium and has just moved in with me, which is why they cut his benefit. of course since he moved in with me, the local Highland council say his disability is just too much for me to claim.
I can't ask for any help on here...call me a wimp but the few times I have, I've been sometimes in tears from the interrogation and wrong assumptions that crop up in the supposed 'answers' from a few who seem to delight in giving anyone asking about benefit advice, hell, on here. Not gonna subject myself to that again. I've also watched others go through the same thing. I've appealled to the council and will send them the proof of OH's disability cut and hope that does the trick.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who is uncertain about the future here. Given the bad news about the economic climate we are constantly bombarded with and being at the sharp end of it (rising food, fuel and utility costs) I'm betting there are others like me, who worry about 'what if' things get so bad our income simply can't provide enough to get by on, what then? With benefits being slashed and less and less help available due to cutbacks etc, what happens to those who reach rock bottom?
Sorry, didn't mean to get so heavy first thing in the morning! *blush*

I do feel as if I'm developing a kind of wartime mentality, and find myself scouring my memory for things my gran told me over the years about how she managed during such tough times, and trying to apply it to here and now.
Over time I've gotten quite a collection of good (to me!) books, about the wartime, you know, the Make Do and Mend kind, etc, and I love the info in them. But times are different now and we seem to lack some things that existed back then, notably a government that cared about it's people and actively put in place coping strategies for when things get bad. What's our governments done? Told us to 'plan ahead' for our old age....with what, precisely, when the resources simply aren't there?
And communities were different. I like to think this is a wee community, but it's online and back then folks could chip in and rely upon their neighbours, and even things like the communal pig bins helped out, nowadays you have so many rules and regulations about what you can and can't feed your own hens or pigs it's ridiculous!
I do seem to see a divide between folks who believe the economy is falling to it's knees and we should be expecting quite some disaster (and I fall into this camp, since I seem to be experiencing it first hand, like others) and those who think it's just a glitch as seen in times past and things will pick up again.
Meanwhile, the governments cut public spending and yet have enough to spare to give overseas aid to other countries.
Am I mad for wishing we had a wartime mentality government back again, Home Front style?

jackieglasgow

Red Doe, I am under the impression that disability benefit is not counted when they assess housing benefit needs, have you double checked on the benefits board?

Red_Doe

jackieglasgow wrote: »

Red Doe, I am under the impression that disability benefit is not counted when they assess housing benefit needs, have you double checked on the benefits board?

I haven't no, Jackie, but I have two letters from Highland Council that say it's because they count his disability and then add my income (I'm self employed) onto that and use that as the excuse to stop the benefit.
I have tried to tell them that for the last three months I haven't made literally a penny, and am just about ready to apply for bankruptcy but it isn't making any difference with them.

ceridwen

No - you're certainly not mad at all from where I'm standing.

I see the stuff you mention re people thinking this is all "just a glitch" and personally - I dont agree.

I've read your posts elsewhere before now and I see that you are a proud, independent person (nowt wrong with that - and I tend to be that way myself:)).

It DOES sound to me - from what you say - that you may well qualify after all for Housing Benefit (ie in view of reduced income coming in - courtesy of that cut to your fiances money) - so I would suggest asking your local Council again re that.

Have you seen the website:

www.entitledto.com

I've not used it myself - but its recommended a lot.

Also - I think a lot of people arent aware that its possible to pay lower Council Tax if the income is too low to pay it. That is - those on the Dole dont pay any C.T. at all (though I have my suspicions re Councils may tell even them to pay, say, 10% of it err long:(:mad:). But - for those in work - there is a sliding scale of payment and those on VERY low income can pay only a proportion of the C.T. due on their house. My own local Council has a "table" with the "sliding scale" on it. The amount of income hasnt changed for a few years (ie in line with inflation - as it should have) and they have proven a bit reluctant to hand out copies of this table in the last couple of years (ie when I asked for one - assuming there would now be updated figures to allow for that inflation) - but I think they were being deliberately obstructive there.

Your Council must have a similar thing - and if they start being obstructive about handing over a copy of it (eg by saying theres no such thing:cool:) then take it up with a Councillor and get the Councillor to make them produce a copy for you. Fortunately - I kept a copy of this table myself (just in case....) - so can look it up if you need to give a few sample figures to you...

It IS unnerving when one has been brought up with the concept of Welfare State/safety net in place to realise that its all a bit more fragile than that and theres a lot of "politics" involved it would appear as to who gets what (note to self - must find a good readable style book at some point explaining exactly the reasoning on why money was given for x, but not for y, etc...having never realised one benefit was introduced it would seem in order to get women to give up their jobs and go back "into the home" after World War 2).

mardatha

http://www.squidoo.com/depression-era-cooking

Here is a good site - if you scroll right down then you'll see an ad for a pressure cooker/canner.

mardatha

Posted the above without having read any posts above - sorry RD this was not in reply to you at all. Your words are so true -
"Maybe things don't change so much at the core when the country loses it's prosperity."
When things get tough, everything changes. Things you felt solidly beneath your feet can drop away, leaving you in limbo. You can protest and argue and rant all you like, but officialdom isnt listening. That's when you need good friends and neighbours -- and you haven't got any.
There's always a way round things, but you need to know the system and to sit and think think think. If you closed your business would that help? (and then at a later date you could always start up again) ?
My eldest son is 40 and his g/f is 43. She is terminally ill with a lung disease that hit out of the blue (used to be very fit and a runner) - she has maybe 5-8 years left, if she's careful. They want to get married but the money would'nt be enough for them live on as they both have loans etc. So he stays with her and they hope nobody finds out. I think you have to what you have to do to survive now, just as always. But things are and will get tougher, so we need to get tougher as well, and for that we have each other in this forum :T
Am sure somebody who cooks will advise re the veggies. I know nothing about cooking and even less about veg ! :rotfl:

ceridwen

Red Doe

Just sent you a PM - and darn well forgot - but our own GreyQueen might be able to give you a few pointers specifically on housing benefit:)

I understand where you are coming from in your determination not to go bankrupt - as I expect you'd take the same viewpoint I would of "It wouldnt make any difference whether the law let me off the hook - I would still intend to pay back any money I owe anyway if I ever can" - and good for you for feeling that way:T (thankfully - I no longer have any debt personally ....ie because I paid it all back).

redlady_1

RD - in relation to freezing I am a proper lazy old trout and never blanch before freezing. The cabbages will be fine just a little limp after cooking. Chin up x