Benefits could be cut to fall in line with salary increases

[super jumbe]

Benefits claimants would see the value of their payments cut under plans which threaten to create new tensions between the Coalition parties.

Conservative ministers are said to be considering moves to break the link between benefits payments and inflation.

A senior Liberal Democrat yesterday warned that the party would oppose any such change, which would reduce the value of benefits in real terms.

Under current laws, most benefits rise in line with inflation. That meant a 5.2 per cent increase in many benefits this year, while many workers faced pay freezes or below-inflation rises.

The prospect of claimants receiving larger rises than people in employment angered many Tories. David Cameron raised questions about the inflation link in a speech this year. "Given that so many working people are struggling to make ends meet, we have to ask if this is the right approach," the Prime Minister said.

The Treasury is pressing for an additional ?10 billion of cuts in benefits spending from 2015, causing speculation about possible savings.

Link: Benefits could be cut to fall in line with salary increases - Telegraph

[scottymo76]

Only right.

Some of us work all year round and get pay freezes or 1.5% 'rises'

If society needs to cut back then it needs to apply to all of society

[GastonJ]

It's the wrong way round yet again. First you have "Public sector pensions are better than private sector pensions, let's give the public sector less" when in reality private sector pensions should rise (best way is to reduce the commission taken by those who manage the funds). So now we have this. Any right minded group would think that those working deserve more, rather than punish those that can't work for whatever reason, which is likely to lead to an increase in crime - the two are linked although they shouldn't be.

Usual Tory tactics apply, country will soon be f**ked even more.

[ChelseaBun]

the minimum wage rate should be risen long before benefits are reduced. everyone who is working should be given more than those solely relying on benefits, but taking away a junkies fix money is not the right way to go about it :/

desperate times and desperate measures comes to mind...

[tornado]

Why not save money by not paying for all these second homes the mp have and the rest u fxxkers do.

[firemouth]

Only right.

Some of us work all year round and get pay freezes or 1.5% 'rises'

If society needs to cut back then it needs to apply to all of society

but its only some sections that are having cuts. the very poorest.

how about a tax on the hundreds of millions of quid, taken from QE, that is syphoned directly to the top 1% of the country.
that would be fair, would it not?
the tax take @20% would pay the entire welfare bill on its own.

as stated. typical cowardly conservative agenda.
their chief whip proves the point, elitist prat

[Lainie]

some benefits should be cut in my opinion

i got a whopping 1% pay rise and im over ?2000 from the max of my pay scale. there is no progression so i will never catch those at the top.

people on the old incapacity benefit get ?105 a week and some get income support on top of that!! plus housing benefit plus council tax benefit, plus child tax credit (56 per week per child if you DONT WORK but NOTHING PER WEEK IF YOU ARE A COUPLE AND EARN OVER ?26000 BETWEEN YOU!!!) plus child benefit. obv last 2 to those that have kids.

my niece has returned to work after having her baby and gets NOTHING and so do thousands of people who work. however if she and fiancee split up she would get ?hundreds more per month.

system is ****ed and with universal credit coming next year imo will get worse.

ive emailed the "powers that be" re universal credit but unfortunately it falls on deaf ears. i wish to god they would ask the staff that actually process benefits the best way to do things.

[tornado]

The way the benefits r run at the moment is just mad like the work programme to let private companies come in and run it paid for by the tax payer, they get like 400pound the first time u turn up and if u find your own job all by your self u got it they get more money even if they did not help u at all,so far ive had a offer of a mobile phone from them maybe because i will not sign the data protection act in doing that they can not use my info.When i start back at work i never tell them so they dont get paid,its all a waste of time,cv r just so over done now full off lies and crap.ive also found while being on the work programme theres lots of people who dont want a job they give just about every reason they can but i also see some that r to sick to work.Heres what i say if u have paid tax u can claim if u have never had a job go away if your sick or left school u can claim stop giving people a free ride stop paying private companies that do not help with tax payers money and make the bloody thing fair once and for all.and last but not least if someone wants 7 kids thats fine but let them pay for it there selfs.

[joneeboy]

First,
From the total unemployed there are hundreds of thousands of people on benefits right now who are desperate to work, but can't find a job, and the way it looks, there will be a lot more soon.
Thatcher publicly stated that a certain amount of unemployment was not such a bad thing, because it helped to keep the ones in work quiet.
As for the benefits, some have already been cut quite severely. Housing benefit is an example.These havenow been fixed according to some obscure formula which in many areas is much less that the rental rates. A friend of mine now has housing allowance which is ?130 a month below his rent, so has to pay that ?130 out of the other benefits he getsfor his family. He is worried because his actual rent is still well below the going market rate. He has lived in the house for 12 years and was working until a year ago. his last rent increase was 4 years agoHe is on an annual shorthold tenancy, and the agency has told him the landlord intends to increase the rent in November when the present rentalperiod expires. With the lack of new build housing, rents are spiralling, so many more will be in the same boat.
A problem for many on benefits is that there is a lack of help regarding spending their money wisely. So some can manage quite well, but others receiving exactly the same amount, just can't. In fact, the elderly hav no choice.They just have ti tighten belt and get on with is as best they scan, and they usually manage because their expectations are less.
I don't think things will get any better with a bunch of millioair schoolboys in charge. Before the next election, we should be asking ourselves why our money was used to bail out the banks so they can just go back to business(and bonuses) as usual). No use asking Osborne. He IS a banker..or at least he was until he became Chancellor.

[joneeboy]

some benefits should be cut in my opinion

i got a whopping 1% pay rise and im over ?2000 from the max of my pay scale. there is no progression so i will never catch those at the top.

people on the old incapacity benefit get ?105 a week and some get income support on top of that!! plus houising benefit plus council tax benefit, plus child tax credit (56 per week per child if you DONT WORK but NOTHING PER WEEK IF YOU ARE A COUPLE AND EARN OVER ?26000 BETWEEN YOU!!!) plus child benefit. obv last 2 to those that have kids.

my niece has returned to work after having her baby and gets NOTHING and so do thousands of people who work. however if she and fiancee split up she would get ?hundreds more per month.

system is ****ed and with universal credit coming next year imo will get worse.

ive emailed the "powers that be" re universal credit but unfortunately it falls on deaf ears. i wish to god they would ask the staff that actually process benefits the best way to do things.

Lainie, can you please explain how your neice would get hundreds more if she split with here fiance? My neighbour has split from her partner. While together she was getting working tax credit. Now she does not, and neither does the get anything else that she did not get before. Not only that, but she now has to pay some childcare, and has to pay all the house services herself. She does have a 25% single occupancy discount on her council tax, but even for that she is worse off, because preiously her and her partner paid 50% each.
I'm sure she would be very intersted to find, so any tips would be appreciated.

[Lainie]

If my neice and partner separated she would get child tax credit and working tax credit as she works. Just now they get nothing .

Girl in my work gets ?96 a week ctc and wtc. She works 16 hours a week and gets help with her rent too

Housing benefit is limited to a max of ?400 aweek and rightly so.

I dont stay in a private let as i cant afford it. In my opinion max housing benefit should be no more than ?750 a month max.

Please note my gripe is with long term benefit claimants who dont want to work but are better off than me!!!!

[firemouth]

Please note my gripe is with long term benefit claimants who dont want to work but are better off than me!!!!

I'm with you here.
but the real question is.
why have wages been allowed to fall so low, this is the case?

its not that benefits are too high, they are after all calculated on need.

remember, the vast majority of people who have had their benefits cut, WORK.
though this "government" (sic) would have us think they were all work shy layabouts.

[Meat-Head]

If my neice and partner separated she would get child tax credit and working tax credit as she works. Just now they get nothing .

So what would your neice get, if:-

1) Her husband is stolen
2) He is in prision
3) Drops dead

Then the reverse, if your neice is stolen, in prision or drops dead, what does he get?

[Lainie]

remember, the vast majority of people who have had their benefits cut, WORK.
though this "government" (sic) would have us think they were all work shy layabouts.

oh believe me there are thousands of work shy layabouts. ive had people shouting at me as their incapacity benefit was stopped - why? they had been an alcoholic for 17yrs!!! drink as much as you bloody like but dont expect to get paid for it. its obscene. there are thousands of stories like that.

dont want to stray off track of the name of the thread but there are a lot of changes happening in the next 12 months which will cause outrage at those on long term benefits.

i would also like to point out i have every sympathy with those that are genuinely ill and cant work

[bobwill]

A local well known to most people in uk company employs most of it workers though it own agency .This agency gets alot of its workers from Portugal who only work 16 hours a week and make there money up with tax credits, housing and other benifits I think all benifits should be paid to those that have paid in not to help the poor of europe .I do think that the ones that should have help the genuine sick , disabled or those who have been diagnosis with an terminally illness should have a lot more help than they are getting now.