Benefits Street

I felt I just had to comment on this programme. I didn’t really want to watch it, knowing before I did exactly what impression it would be making to the wider public. I was going to post a link but am not sure I want to up the viewing figures but I suppose in order to form an opinion you need it so http://www.channel4.com/programmes/benefits-street.

Having been in the position of being on benefits for a while I know it isn’t possible to live comfortably on them. You have to make sacrifices which in the opinion of some people is only right for something which isn’t meant to be forever. For those who find themselves unable to work through illness or can’t find a job no matter how hard they try, it may be something they have to do for the foreseeable future or for the rest of their life. It is not possible, contrary to popular opinion to have HD tv’s, the latest iPhone or computer, fantastic holidays (or any holiday in most cases) or posh cars on benefits. The reason people have these things can be many.

1)  They already had them before they claimed benefits.

2) A kind family member has gifted the item(s)

3) They are getting money from elsewhere.

Whilst I can’t condone people working on the side, shoplifting or drug taking I can understand getting to the point where you no longer care about anything but getting money from somewhere to feed your family or heat your home. It amazes me that people are so quick to label benefits claimants as scroungers but no one gives as much publicity to MP’s scrounging. What about the thousands paid by Diane Abbott or Iain Duncan Smith from taxpayers pockets for their portraits!  Surely in a country where children are going hungry this is wrong on every level!

I know the people on the street portrayed in Benefits Street could be classed as rough and ready, but one thing they do seem to have that a lot of us lack is community spirit and I applaud that. No one knows today where they will be in a year’s time. Poverty can be a paycheck away. Please look a little deeper before you judge these people. Circumstances have made them into the people they are. No one wants to live a stressful life like theirs.

And so it goes on………….

Things just ticking along here so not posted in a while. The effective cut in benefits is starting to hit home and we are struggling to keep up with bills and putting food on the table. Although I pride myself on being able to manage on a very tight budget there will come a point when even I can no longer do it! We have to begin paying council tax next month out of less money than we have ever had to manage on before! The business idea is coming along but slowly due to the other things I have to contend with and if I don’t manage to get it up and running before Universal Credits are brought in I will struggle more than at present to make a go of it. Have still had no news from any of the voluntary work I applied for – it really is that bad round here. Am not going to give up though….. as difficult as it is to keep motivated I need to know I tried my utmost to make things work out for us.

My partner has a WRAG interview at the jobcentre next week… not sure what good it will do but we’ll see………He also has an appointment for counselling re depression.

There are casualties of this government’s policies all over the internet due to the reduction in benefits, bedroom tax and no or very low wage increases which don’t keep up with increasing prices, while at the same time MP’s begin to talk about giving themselves a 10% pay rise. It beggars belief that they really are so out of touch with the ‘ordinary people’ in this country. Could they rub our noses in it any more than this…….. believe me they will if they get the chance!! What a bunch of self-serving b*stards they are!!!!!!!

Major meltdown

Not written for a while as not much to report. Our friends have moved and are very unhappy, in fact unhappy isn’t strong enough they have sunk into a depression. The place they’ve moved to is a shit hole and they have no money to fix it up. There is nothing you can say to them is there? Personally I would have stuck it out until I could’nt go on any longer but realistically unless the jobs market changes there is little chance of them getting employment so perhaps they had no choice. It’s a really sad place to be – pushing 60 with nothing to show for it.:(

Here my partner has had a letter saying he’s in the WRAG group and detailing his benefits breakdown but we aren’t sure if this is the result of his medical or not as there wasn’t any points breakdown. Or do you only get that if they refuse you ESA? He has also had a letter with an appointment for a work related interview next month. We’ll see what happens!

Myself I’ve just had enough. I’m in the process of trying to start a business but it is off-putting when they are changing the benefit rules to penalize even this. I’ve applied for a few jobs but no joy, have applied to volunteer, no joy, it seems I’m stuck in this trap. To be honest and I’m sorry if this sounds callous but I don’t want to be where the buck stops any more. I don’t want to be the one who sorts out all the bills, keeps the house something like clean, feeds everyone, washes and irons the clothes, sits doing anything they can to make a bit of extra cash on the internet, just so we can have the things we need. I don’t want to go out shopping and come back to find the same mess I left when I went out because him indoors can’t be bothered to do anything. I’m losing the plot. Being the one who runs the house I could cope with but being the one who runs the house and has to deal with someone who is negative from the minute he rises everyday is just too much and I want out. I’ve had enough!!!

 

POLITICIANS MUST HAVE HEARTS OF STONE

Any ‘normal’ person couldn’t fail to be moved by the plight of those on the receiving end of the bedroom tax but despite campaigning to highlight the misery all this is causing, they are still refusing to budge. My friends have in effect thrown in the towel and are exchanging with their daughter. This way they don’t have to rip the house apart but they do have to make some ‘repairs’ (I use the term loosely) to meet council criteria. ( I refuse to call them standards!) They are still going to have to pay the tax for one room even with this move and their daughter will also have to pay for one room as her children are under ten. My friends are distraught that they are moving from their home of 30+ years, even more that they are moving from the area where they themselves grew up and where their elderly relatives live. They are now a bus ride away from her mum who is also unhappy about them moving since she relies on them for help and company. They have all been in tears about the awfulness of the situation. Only a heart of stone could inflict such misery on those who have no choices in life. My area is going downhill fast with shop after shop closing, together with other business so try as you may there are very few jobs to be had round here. To have the only place you could call your sanctuary, your haven, the place you feel safe taken from you in this way is nothing short of barbaric. I’m thoroughly disgusted by those who voted for this tax especially the lib- dems who could have stopped it in its tracks. I hope they all live to regret it!

If you didn’t laugh……..

My friends who are threatened with the bedroom tax have been visited by not one but two council representatives to inspect their home so that they can apply for a smaller property which begs the question why does it take two of them? Isn’t that a waste of council tax payer’s money?

They have been told they can apply for both a 1 bedroom and a 2 bedroom property because yes you’ve guessed it- there aren’t enough 1 beds to go round, so they may still end up paying  the tax for 1 bedroom. If they refuse any property offered they go to the bottom of the list. So in effect they may wait for ages, be offered a shit hole and either have to take it or carry on paying bedroom tax on their present home.

Then comes the really laughable bit. My friends have over the years improved their home, having put ceramic tiled floors in, nice light fittings, wooden doors and they’ve tiled the bathroom walls. The council representative says they have to rip up the tiles, take down light fittings, replace doors and replace the tiles in the bathroom with fixtures and fittings up to council standards.!! ( mouth hits the floor!) I have council standard floor tiles (shit ones!), I have council standard bathroom tiles  (falling off!- and keep coming off when council fix em), I have council issue doors ( complete with holes I’ve had to fill in where kids when small knocked them with toys), they are not much better than cardboard. I also have council floor tiles, uneven, cheapest of the cheap. My friend home is far and away above council standards and someone would be lucky to get it in its present state. I can’t believe how stupid these people are!! Surely if these people can’t afford the bedroom tax they can’t afford to replace all this stuff as well, together with the costs of removal and carpets etc for a new property. Don’t they see that if they left suitable fixtures it would help all the people who find themselves having to move. Oh wait sorry silly me they just want to make people’s life a misery, the word help just isn’t in their vocabulary!

bad dreams!

I woke the other night from a dream where we had lost the local authority house we live in and were back in the previous home we occupied, it was more like a nightmare actually! Our previous house was mortgaged and as we had a young family and a very poor wage to live on was in a state of disrepair. As the interest rates rose we fell further and further behind with the payments, my partner became ill with mental health problems and began to need sick leave and this forced us further into debt. The upshot was we were repossessed.

We then moved to our present home and always thought we would be here until the kids had grown and then we’d opt for an old person’s bungalow. Instead we will probably be in a private rent in a worse state than our first home was. Although as I’ve previously stated we are unaffected by the bedroom tax, we will be affected by the changes in council tax benefit which begin in April. A friend affected viewed a private rent which was damp, mouldy and disgusting! Obviously these things must be playing on my mind, hence the dreams.

Together with the fact that those on benefits are being threatened by the sceptre of payment cards all these changes are enough to give anyone nightmares.  The fat cats bringing in these changes don’t understand the hardships faced by being poor in fact I’d stake my life on me being better at budgeting than them!! Once more these schemes are designed to put money in the pockets of rich private companies providing the cards, whilst charging the poor for something they never wanted. I can see many more people having to resort to food banks if this scheme goes ahead. Cameron should be ashamed of his country needing food banks not congratulating them for caring where he doesn’t and smiling whilst he does it! I hope the chaos in April costs him his job!

More pain -council tax benefit changes

Yet another shock to the pockets of the poor and vulnerable is set to be upon us in April when changes to council tax benefit take hold. Whilst it is in the hands of each local authority to decide how to distribute the money allocated for this benefit many have taken the decision to abolish 100% benefit for working age people. This means that many of those in poorly paid work, ill, disabled or out of work will have to find something out of their meagre income towards their council tax. In the case of my friends facing the bedroom tax, our local paper is reporting that their council expects to collect at least 8.5% from those who previously received 100% benefit, which they are saying will amount to approximately £85 per year for a Band A property. So now on top of the bedroom tax of approximately £25 per week they now have at least an extra £2 to find towards their council tax. To those who aren’t struggling this won’t sound much but when you are at the bottom end of the income spectrum, every penny counts and this is just pouring more stress and hardship on top of  the already immense pressure they are under. Where will it end?

On a brighter note momentum seems to be growing in the highlighting of the bedroom tax with members of the group on facebook appearing on radio 5, channel 4 news, newspapers (details can be found here https://www.facebook.com/groups/antibedroomtax/) and pieces cropping up on various local news programmes. Well done to all those helping to highlight the cause. Here’s hoping we can get this unfair tax reversed.

Merry Xmas from DWP

I’m not much good with figures to be honest and I sometimes struggle to remember the names of MPs because many of them are so wishy-washy these days, but one thing I do know is the things this government are doing should not be happening to one person never mind the thousands it is affecting. I watched the programme on http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01pc1qb/Panorama_Britains_Hidden_Housing_Crisis/ last night and was particularly appalled by the treatment of the lady suffering from cancer. As she put it a few months of help would have seen her through until she could pick up her life again and get straight, instead she was offered a smelly flat. Disgusting!

Meanwhile Maria Miller claims 90,000+ for a second home occupied by her parents and Cameron stands up for her. This from the government that can’t stump up a few quid for housing benefit for the poorest in society. Just don’t know how they sleep at night. Whereas you or I would be prosecuted for such offences, what’s betting she gets off with it. One rule for them…..

And back here my friends’ struggling with the problem of bedroom tax have received a bill from DWP for £10 outstanding on a loan they had eight, yes EIGHT years ago! Somehow this got overlooked by DWP and themselves, possibly they were on one of their breaks from receipt of benefit and my friend had  a short period of work. They can’t remember. DWP have kindly said they can pay it out of their JSA over the two week Xmas holidays at a fiver a week. Couldn’t they have waited til after the festivities? After all they’ve waited eight years. Have those at the DWP got nothing better to do than go back over years worth of data to find such oversights? Meanwhile the likes of Miller claim thousands from the public purse for their own personal gain and that’s seen as fair. After all we’re all in it together, but some of us are in it further than others!!

 

Bedroom tax

What should have been an opportunity to put across the barbarity of the changes in the welfare system last night on Question Time turned into a discussion on, well to be honest apart from Israel/Palestine I can’t remember what! There was a very small section about the cap on housing benefit during which Iain Duncan Smith was heard to say the changes don’t come in til April as if that makes it ok. He also expressed the view that he was changing people’s lives for the better and that he was proud of doing so. For the first time for a while there was a significant amount of shouting from the audience. Try telling the people who are set to lose their homes or face paying the bedroom tax in April that he’s improved their lives. Where are all the supporters of those unfortunate to be jobless? Why does everyone believe it is our fault we have no job? Do those fortunate enough to have a job really believe this is a life choice and that there are jobs out there for the taking that will provide us with the means to leave the world of benefits behind? This government has demonized those on welfare  benefits making it all our own fault. Whilst they milk the system we are financially discriminated against because we are so downtrodden we don’t know where to turn for support. Please join the campaign against this grossly unfair tax on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/antibedroomtax

This also affects those on low wages in receipt of housing benefit so in effect it’s not just demonizing the unemployed, sick and disabled but also those in jobs which do not pay a living wage. It is financial discrimination! And there aren’t enough smaller properties to go round anyway. Please write to your local paper and your MP and stop this unfair tax.

Lets get this stopped before there are devastating consequences as people become increasingly desperate in the face of the increasing futility of existence on society’s scrap heap.  Make the bastards at downing street see they are doing the exact opposite of improving our lives. More houses are needed – this is what happens when social houses aren’t built and the floodgates to Europe are opened whilst private rents are allowed to soar. We need to fight not lie down in the gutter and let them wipe their feet on us. Please join us.

 

Housing benefit changes set to cause devastation.

I know posts seem to be like buses none for a while then they all come at once!

The groundwork for the proposed changes to housing benefit for those in under occupied homes is being done by some councils now with claimants being asked to sign a form stating they will make up the shortfall in rent (in effect to pay for the rooms the government say they don’t need). One couple I know who are on JSA of £111.45 per week have received such a letter and are devastated that they may have to leave their home of 30+ years. This couple are in their late fifties and prior to the pit closures both worked for NCB. Since these closures both have been in and out of low paid work (many of the companies they worked for have shut down). They have limited computer skills, the husband in particular can’t get to grips with computers and is ideally suited to manual work of which there is very little in our area. He attends all the job search workshops and DWP interviews as required but still he has been unable to gain employment, but because it is his own fault there are no jobs he will be expected to pay up to 25% of his rent! Just where he’s expected to find this from their £111.45 I’ve no idea!

This couple has saved the council hundreds of pounds in the past by doing repair and improvements to their home themselves. Anyone lucky enough to end up there will have a lovely home at this couple’s expense! The stupid thing about this situation is that should they be forced to move to a smaller home, undoubtedly it will be private rental, as council properties are like gold dust these days and the rent will be probably be higher than for their current home!

The truth is, unpalatable or not mass immigration has played a part in this. No country can open the doors to anyone and everyone without investing in its infrastructure, it’s common sense that eventually jobs and homes will run out. The infuriating thing about this situation is that the poor and jobless are considered to blame for being poor and jobless. In these times everyone has to realize ‘there but for the grace of God’, it can happen to anyone.

Meanwhile the self-serving pigs in Westminster continue to milk their expenses to their heart’s content with no moral conscience, at great expense to the public purse whilst continuing to kick the already downtrodden. No doubt they’ll step over the corpses of those who’ve decided to end it all due to the futility of their situation!! All in it together- Bollocks!!