Great for the likes of my parents who are both retired and paid their way all their lives (middle income, not high flyers), now scraping to get by on pensions but not actually on benefits as such. My dad is terminally ill (cancer) and my mum is in and out of hospital at the moment as well so would be nice for them to see out their days without worry of finances. His car is getting so difficult to drive due to age that he really needs to replace it but doesn't think it's 'affordable' to do so and wont accept help from me to get a replacement.

I lost my nan a couple of years back and whilst she scrimped and saved to afford her stairlift so she could stay in her own house, her friends were in awe at how she 'got that off the council'...she worked all her life and was living off her pension and savings, they got benefits as they didn't have the savings that she had built up whilst working so the stuff she had to whittle her savings away for, they got for free.

Personally I don't think means testing for living expenses for pensioners is fair at all She saved all her life to have the same living standard that they had paid for for them.

You get two tiers of 'struggling to get by' Those who struggle to get by on benefit as they are below the thresholds required and those who struggle to get by who are above the threshold. In some circumstances I think it makes more sense to spend all your money rather than save it as you then fall into the 'low income' bracket rather than resting just above it.

Way to go WILBAR! I can still remember the days (thankfully now long-gone) of trying to decide whether or not In could afford a BIG can of baked beans for my tea.


Snorri

and why are we sending ANY money abroad when we have people born and bred in this country who have paid into it all their working lives who are losing their homes due to lack of income?

I worked for the local government 15 years ago and was made redundnt(I never thought it was a job for life and neither did the 16 others that were paid off at the same time.

I found other stop gap jobs and got by

After working in Social work trying to help others for a mere 4 years I left for reasons of my own sanity and health.

I am now back working with the local council I get £14037 a year, I work 14 hour days for 6 month of the year from 6am - 8pm. The law states you must have 11 hours at home but because our hours drop to 12 in the winter averaged out they are covered. Yes there is the working time directive but we signed a clause. No signature = no job.

Prior to this job I was unemployed for a year and a half applying for any and everything. I don't particularly like my job, yes I moan about it yes if I could get another I would ...if only I could.

Yes I pay into a pension...it is not nearly as good as the pemsion I had whilst working in the private sector. yes I get sick pay but if we have more than 3 occasions of sickness in 5 years we face dismissal...that is including illnesses backed up by doctors notes and includes operations etc, the only saving grace there for some is that obviously some things are covered under the disability discrimination act.

I, like others in the public sector and the private sector, work very hard under sometimes questionable conditions, yes there are people who are surplus to requirements and who take the P but that happens to in the private sector.

People abusing the system is not unique to the public sector.

Yes something needs to be done and yes the private sector faced this before the public sector....but knee jerk ill though out plans rarely work and it is of no consolation to someone facing redundancy that thousands go, in child tax credits, to the families of foreign workers working in this country when their children have never set foot on our soil, and thousands go to pensioners in winter heating allowance when they live in the costa del sol, and those are just two of many examaples. Common sense laws should prevail but doubt they ever will

For a while maybe, whilst this is all sorted out

Do you know, I honestly can't answer that one!!!!! We were only saying that last night hubby and I when we heard that they had INCREASED foreign aid???!!!!:shock:

Had the very same thing here when mum came to live with us, we couldn't get the help with the starlift either, in fact we got no help whatsoever, as she had bothered to be prudent all of her WORKING life We got nothing, zilch coz we could pay! So we spent all her money, so they paid for her end of days care when she needed it, on her instructions! You are better off with nothing, because you then get everything, and that's much better than trying to struggle! I might just jump on that bandwagon when it comes round!!!

That should get sorted, I'm sure it will, at least I hope it will, when the whole welfare bill is brought under scrutiny. (and now I'm even more angry as I didn't realise that!!!!)

Oy get orf my chest!!!

The FTSI is down today, watching the stock market it usually does rise after any fiscal announcement but will change after full analysis.

Growth in the economy does not always come for one thing. But it comes from basically from employment being high, thus creating more demand for goods, thus creating more demand for labour, thus increasing GDP. Not necessarily what jobs people are doing, and I disagree there will not always be plenty of dosh to splash about – thats what recessions are (slumps in growth) and depressions (stagnate growth).

Demand can of course be a problem, the less disposable income people have (unemployment, less benefits etc) demand for goods and services will drop, labour requirement drops, GDP drops. This is when many governments step in and try to create a economic growth by increasing public spending, building schools, roads etc. Its a very fine line to draw as you can imagine.

And there endith you economic lesson for the day – hopefully not too boring. Its a fascinating topic and one I used to study in depth so sorry if Im either boring you or telling you something you already know.

Politics are not my strong point, as I say Im more interested in macroeconomics but it would take an extensive redefining of the boundaries to increase the polling areas, so you could end up with an MP from inner city Manchester representing people living in rural lancashire for instance. It has been done before the problem lies in that which ever party is in power will always skew it to their own advantage (not all MP's are honest dont ya know).

Im not sure about Jols method of cutting MP's in half! Just think if they survived it would double the amount of MP's!!!

We could of course just get rid of the Lords.

To get into microeconomics and the police etc. the Home Office budget is being cut by over 20% and whilst many effected will be those pen pushers people hate so much, that amount of cut in budget cannot feasibly only come from that sector. The government have not actually said that front line police will NOT be cut.

At the end of the day with these cuts it will still be the poorer section of society that will lose the most and the top end lose the least.

The anti-public sector cr*p being spouted here reminds me of another tale.....

I was working in an Unemployment Benefit Office, taking claims. This rather annoying man came in with his pal, and said "Hurry up, I'm paying your wages!".
"No, Sir" says I...."You're here because you're not."
His pal exploded into laughter, and told him "Hey, he's got you there!"

Public sector workers - totally useless until you need them.


Snorri

PS - note the polite (civil?) use of the word "Sir".....

H, ther were 17 people made redundant from the Leisure and communities department, I can only speak for that department but I know others lost their jobs throughout Scotland when working for local authorities when they had a big drive to break up regions - it was done under the guidse of local government reorganisation.

Yes it was local government and yes it was reorganisation so I guess they named it well. And now....the talk in my work is that they will go back to the old way of a regional organisation not a local so instead of say Dundee it will be Tayside when Tayside doesn't even exist as an actual boundary anymore!

I know what you are saying avout it being "our" money that goes to paying wages etc so it is more emotive but I don't understand why it doesn't worry you or maybe worry is the wrong word, why you think it affects you less if its the private sector. they have to cover costs too, so for example Tesco, or Marks and Spencer , charge a price for their goods, the price they charge is factored on a lot of things but a main factor is the cost, so if they did not have to pay sick pay to those memebers of staff who are not really sick , as well as overtime to staff who have to cover shifts then your shopping would be cheaper, therefore everyone who is a consumer subsidises the sick and the surplus staff in even the private sector. Yes I admit their will be less surplus staff but I can bet my last dollar, or pound, that there are many instances still surplus staff, they just still make a profit by charging higher prices for services and goods than would be necessary if the kiddy on sick and the surplus staff were weeded out