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Benefit cuts timetable

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Comments

  • System
    System Posts: 178,374 Community Admin
    10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    Miroslav wrote: »
    I'm worried.

    I can only work 22 hours per week @ £6.95 p/h, due to a medical conditon and get £69 p/w WTC due to originally getting the job 2 years ago after coming off of ESA, so have the disability element.

    I get no housing benefit or council tax credit.

    Losing that £69 would be a disaster.
    I'm a very similar position and also worried.

    They talk of cutting tax credits yet don;t realize that to those with disabilities, who are not able to work full time, it's the difference between being able to stay in work and being unable to stay working. :(
    This is a system account and does not represent a real person. To contact the Forum Team email forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com
  • Miroslav
    Miroslav Posts: 6,193 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    I'm a very similar position and also worried.

    They talk of cutting tax credits yet don;t realize that to those with disabilities, who are not able to work full time, it's the difference between being able to stay in work and being unable to stay working. :(

    I don't think they realise that we wish we could work more to earn more money.

    I've done the sums and when I was on ESA with full Housing/Council Tax Benefits I was only £65ish p/w worse off than I am now with the £69 p/w WTC. Take that away and i'm slightly worse off than when on ESA whilst risking my health, although with possibly changes to Housing Benefit and maybe nobody getting full benefit, i'd be a nominal amount better off, but it certainly doesn't tell me that financially i'm better off in work when my body needs as much rest as it can get. How much is your health worth eh?
  • bloolagoon
    bloolagoon Posts: 7,973 Forumite
    From here https://speye.wordpress.com/2015/07/06/the-disabled-are-exempt-from-the-benefit-cap-not-even-severe-disablement-allowance-exempts/


    The £20K cap will affect even relatively small families in many areas.

    Including families on ESA-WRAG and Single Parents with children under school age.

    They could work - what is this obssession with parents not working, there are millions who do just this.

    Yes, the Housing Benefit Bill needs to come down, but this is not the way to do it.


    All your examples (I am basing on 20K) which is £384.62p per week TAX FREE. They also get CTB and Free School Meals and free denistry, free prescriptions and possibly others outside of the cap. How they spend that money that is up to them. It's around a working pay (including average commuting costs, Tax/NI and work related deductions) £33K per year.

    Lone Parents can work and 16 hours is really not a lot of hours - in addition they will receive maintenance from the father(s) of their children.

    you think the above is harsh I assume

    Why then are workers left with similar if not lower amounts?

    When we lived in London we had combined salaries of £60K - clearly too much for benefits. After rent, childcare, commuting and work costs we had less than £100 a week.

    When you talk of children in poverty do you know the measures?

    £375 a week AFTER housing and childcare costs for 2 adults and 2 young children. Teenagers raise this figure. This is poverty benchmark. Therefore my children grew up in poverty - severe poverty with wages of £60K.
    Tomorrow is the most important thing in life
  • rogerblack
    rogerblack Posts: 9,446 Forumite
    bloolagoon wrote: »
    Why then are workers left with similar if not lower amounts?

    Because they are not.
    'I had 100/week to spare'.
    Is very much not the same as 'I had -10/week spare' (or in many cases, -several hundred)
    Plus, I extremely doubt you were living in a property for which HB would be paid, which of course would have left you with a lot more money if you'd downsized.

    Workers moving into low-paid work from being on benefits - even NMW*40 - will in most cases be entitled to many income-based topups - WTC, HB, ...

    As to 'don't have that many children'.
    A couple I know had their original partners (who they had been taking care of the children for) die.
    They then got together, and are now a couple with four children.
    Due to poor qualifications and no CV as they've spent years doing childcare, and childcare issues, they are finding extreme difficulty keeping work.

    The new benefit cap policy means that they will receive 0 help with their rent.

    'It's around working pay' fundamentally misses the point that it's not.
    For everyone except the very luckiest, moving into work means you remain entitled to a large slice of HB and ...
    At a 20K limit, for one mother and two children, large swathes of the country are simply unaffordable.

    According to DWP figures - most people affected by the cap are single mothers (without excessive numbers of children)
  • BJV
    BJV Posts: 2,535 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    OP No one will know for sure what the cuts will be. Benefits are there to help people like you. People who want to do something positive with their lives. But Op before you can do anything you have to get yourself better. The government is under pressure to cut the benefits bill largely due to programmes and newspapers highlighting the abuse of the system. So sad but genuine cases of people in need do not sell newspapers . I really hope that they strike a balance as benefits should never be taken away from people who need them. EVER .So please don't worry it is out of our hands and get better soon.
    Happiness, Health and Wealth in that order please!:A
  • rogerblack
    rogerblack Posts: 9,446 Forumite
    BJV wrote: »
    The government is under pressure to cut the benefits bill largely due to programmes and newspapers highlighting the abuse of the system.

    Which in many cases come directly after press releases by the DWP.
    which are later criticised by the government statistics body for inaccuracy. (speaking specifically about disability benefits)
  • BJV
    BJV Posts: 2,535 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    TBH and I hate to say it I watched one episode of one of those benefit !!!!!! programmes. To begin with I was so annoyed but what changed it for me was at the end. The was a blonde woman who to start with was portrayed as benefits abuser. It turns out she has a severely disabled son who needs 24 hour care. People like this lady deserve a gold clock, holiday and a pat on the back, as well as a huge nod of thanks for her care and dedication. Not instead to be vilified and not tarnished with the same brush as benefit cheats.


    Well the budget for small business's is out, minimum wage up, and corporation tax down. So I guess it is overall a good policy and a way of encouraging people to see the benefit in working when possible.


    OP I honestly do not know how the cuts will affect you but I genuinely hope they don't and that you get better soon.
    Happiness, Health and Wealth in that order please!:A
  • jonnyjackov
    jonnyjackov Posts: 330 Forumite
    Thank you BJV for your kind comments. It looks like it won't affect me as much as I feared, so a lot of worrying for nothing really. I feel for other people who will be affected more than me. My main aim now is to get all the help I can to get better and back into work.

    I agree with your comments about the lady with the disabled child. I think the child died. So sad.
  • Mersey_2
    Mersey_2 Posts: 1,679 Forumite
    tomtontom wrote: »
    I'm not convinced it is scaremongering, I think we are in for some almighty changes this week - some justified, some not. I'm also not convinced changes will not happen until April, changes in the law can happen very quickly, and I wouldn't be surprised if cuts start to be implemented from October.

    OP I'd try to put it out of your mind until we know some facts, there's nothing you can do before then.



    The change restricting Tax Credits & Universal Credit to those with 2 children or more will affect children born after April 2017.


    GO has clearly eased off and delayed the cuts over 5 years.
    Please be polite to OPs and remember this is a site for Claimants and Appellants to seek redress against their bank, ex-boss or retailer. If they wanted morality or the view of the IoD or Bank they'd ask them.
  • Gavin234
    Gavin234 Posts: 92 Forumite
    edited 8 July 2015 at 2:24PM
    Mersey wrote: »
    The change restricting Tax Credits & Universal Credit to those with 2 children or more will affect children born after April 2017.


    GO has clearly eased off and delayed the cuts over 5 years.
    What does this mean for families with kids born before then?

    Will there be a baby boom before then, after that date not so many babies from now on?
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