campaign against welfare cuts and poverty

[BigTom]

Shed a small tear at work when I saw this morning. We're all pretty devastated, it's a lifeline to our service users, I dunno what we're going to do now.

I haven't a clue either. It's so bad it's hard to vocalise it, know so many people with benefit and immigration problems that went to the law centre. Everywhere else (and there's not that many places) is already overwhelmed with their workload increase/funding or income cut problem that they cannot possibly take the strain. It's just so completely fucked, loads more people with problems needing advice and help and less money and services to help them.

 

[purenarcotic]

I haven't a clue either. It's so bad it's hard to vocalise it, know so many people with benefit and immigration problems that went to the law centre. Everywhere else (and there's not that many places) is already overwhelmed with their workload increase/funding or income cut problem that they cannot possibly take the strain. It's just so completely fucked, loads more people with problems needing advice and help and less money and services to help them.

It makes me so angry and hopeless and miserable tbh. And powerless, because really, what can we do but pick up the pieces as best we can.

 

[Greebo]

Birmingham Law Centre has closed today <snip>

Oh fuck.

 

[treelover]

In the spending review today Osbourne announced JSA will not be claimable for the first week, with JSA and HB already paid two weeks 'in arrears' that means a 3 Week without an income. The food banks will be overwhelmed and more homeless

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

If I ever win the lottery (big money), I'm getting out of this country. I'm so fucking sick of it

Poor people won't be able to afford that once it goes up to £2

 

[treelover]

Welfare budget capped at 100 Billion, first time ever, if its runs out, no HB, PIP, etc.

 

[BigTom]

Welfare budget capped at 100 Billion, first time ever, if its runs out, no HB, PIP, etc.

This is totally fucked up. Unemployment goes up, your benefits go down. No idea one month to the next how much you'll be getting, completely out of your control. Suddenly other claimants are your financial enemy, turns us in on ourselves. Nasty.

The biggest weird freak result of this is in HB I reckon - if rents go up, HB goes down... unmanagable. Definitely will happen though I reckon. and then wtf will go on. craziness.

Have you got a link for the 100billion figure? I only looked at a couple of articles but didn't see a figure had been set.

 

[ViolentPanda]

If I ever win the lottery (big money), I'm getting out of this country. I'm so fucking sick of it

Poor people won't be able to afford that once it goes up to £2

Greebo and I agreed that if we ever won one of the multi-million euromillions jackpots, we'd endow a fund that helped people fight crap "welfare" laws.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Greebo and I agreed that if we ever won one of the multi-million euromillions jackpots, we'd endow a fund that helped people fight crap "welfare" laws.

Well I'd do something charitable as well, after I've had my luxury holiday and bought myself a nice little house somewhere

 

[Greebo]

Well I'd do something charitable as well, after I've had my luxury holiday and bought myself a nice little house somewhere

We'd also build properly disabled accessible housing (none of this "ground floor flat up a flight of stairs" nonsense) with rooms of a good size, and rent it out at social housing's rent levels. Oh yes, and we'd move to Berlin.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

We'd also build properly disabled accessible housing (none of this "ground floor flat up a flight of stairs" nonsense) with rooms of a good size, and rent it out at social housing's rent levels. Oh yes, and we'd move to Berlin.

Berlin gets cold in the winter though

 

[Greebo]

Berlin gets cold in the winter though

That's okay - with money no object, we'd move somewhere else in the winter.

 

[yield]

New care measure 'sets bar too high' for elderly and disabled, say charities
Telegraph. 28 Jun 2013

The national minimum standard will replace the current system of four bands of need, from “low” to “critical”.

It is intended to end uncertainty about what care is available in different areas and reduce the number of people having to fight for provision, said Norman Lamb, the care minister.

But he confirmed that it would be similar to the current “substantial” banding, the second highest.

Many councils already use this as a cut-off as they face budget restrictions and Mr Lamb said that the minimum would not preclude local authorities from making care available to people with lower levels of need if they could afford to.

But charities warned that in practice most would be highly unlikely to do so, meaning that around 135,000 elderly and disabled people who currently rely on state-funded care for “moderate” or “low” needs could be stripped of it when the changes come into force in 2015. Richard Hawkes, the chief executive of the disability charity Scope, and chairman of the Care and Support Alliance, said that frail vulnerable people looked certain to be “shut out” of the system.

Double think. Trying to prevent creating a "culture of dependency" means leaving the elderly and vulnerable to the wolves.

 

[jake12]

Smith is at it again, in the Telegraph, claiming "over a million people on benefits could work", interestingly journos seem to be getting their critical faculties back: on the paper reviews, one said it was aimed as "a distraction from Thursdays news that we may be in a triple dip recession", another said it was "a pre-emptive strike before UC comes in", even Digby Jones agreed there were no jobs, I think his propaganda is weakening...

Wonders if they have any fast track explosive courses? , I am sure they would find me a job! No matter how unwell i am! Joking of course.

 

[jake12]

Try this i thought they had tapped my phone .....??? ludicrous ....they tried to say i had committed fraud last year ...just after winning my second tribunal, and yes there was no case to answer! This year won another one , i am waiting for the next bombshell!

 

[jake12]

Ian Duncan Smith is a flucktard!

 

[jake12]

 

[jake12]

This is terrible and David Cameron needs to hang his head in 'shame'

 

[jake12]

Translation:

"We were actually quite open about having sanctions targets"

Yes... i believe someone resigned over it and whistled all over the papers!

 

[jake12]

Greebo and I agreed that if we ever won one of the multi-million euromillions jackpots, we'd endow a fund that helped people fight crap "welfare" laws.

That would be fantastic!

 

[jake12]

Tell you something, whatever government gets in it will more of the same, however , I will vote labour purely because David Cameron has no morals!

 

[jake12]

New care measure 'sets bar too high' for elderly and disabled, say charities
Telegraph. 28 Jun 2013

Double think. Trying to prevent creating a "culture of dependency" means leaving the elderly and vulnerable to the wolves.

have you two ever read the book Solent Green , i think Dave has read it ! [ It is a brill book, google it ]

 

[UhOhSeven]

Masterful takedown of the horrible IDS and his myrmidons here:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/149776210/DPAC-Report-on-DWP-Abuse-of-Statistics-Final-22-June-2013
Long, but worth the effort.

 

[treelover]

This is really like the old Eastern Bloc countries, where people could decide peoples futures at the touch of a telephone: losing benefits for four months for such a minor infringement gives immense power to Govt dept's and these training agencies that should not be accepted in a democratic society. I wonder how these apparatchiks sleep at night, infact I wonder how Purnellm, the progenitor of these 'reforms' now on 300'000 at the BBC sleeps at night.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Tell you something, whatever government gets in it will more of the same, however , I will vote labour purely because David Cameron has no morals!

Problem being that Miliband, Balls etc, while they have morals, have flexible morals, just like that wanker Blair. I don't see Labour being any better, because they're signed up to the same neoliberal economic programme as the Tories.
If they were actually a socialist party, I might vote for them, but socialism isn't sometyhing Labour will ever do again. They're no longer the party of the poor and the oppressed, if they ever were.

 

[ViolentPanda]

This is really like the old Eastern Bloc countries, where people could decide peoples futures at the touch of a telephone: losing benefits for four months for such a minor infringement gives immense power to Govt dept's and these training agencies that should not be accepted in a democratic society. I wonder how these apparatchiks sleep at night, infact I wonder how Purnellm, the progenitor of these 'reforms' now on 300'000 at the BBC sleeps at night.

I'd argue (and not flippantly either) that those Eastern Bloc countries still held to their own version of "due process", even when they were rounding up dissenters. There's no due process to the sanctions regime. It's arbitrary, unmonitored and unpoliced/unsupervised.

 

[ViolentPanda]

have you two ever read the book Solent Green , i think Dave has read it ! [ It is a brill book, google it ]

"Soylent Green" (as in "soya" and "lentils") was the film (starring Charlton Heston), the book (by Harry Harrison) was called "Make Room! Make Room!".

 

[coley]

Problem being that Miliband, Balls etc, while they have morals, have flexible morals, just like that wanker Blair. I don't see Labour being any better, because they're signed up to the same neoliberal economic programme as the Tories.
If they were actually a socialist party, I might vote for them, but socialism isn't sometyhing Labour will ever do again. They're no longer the party of the poor and the oppressed, if they ever were.

Quote in today's papers where labour is moaning about the recent Osbourne ' reforms' being their ideas originally!

 

[ViolentPanda]

Quote in today's papers where labour is moaning about the recent Osbourne ' reforms' being their ideas originally!

Yep. Same shit, different arseholes.

 

[phildwyer]

I'd argue (and not flippantly either) that those Eastern Bloc countries still held to their own version of "due process", even when they were rounding up dissenters.

In that case you know nothing about the Eastern Bloc.