Quote: muskamber wrote in post #34

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Our welfare state is being transformed under false pretences | UK news | guardian.co.uk - http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/the-norther...22/nhs-benefits

Good read!

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During the interview, Mr Duncan Smith, whose ministerial salary is equivalent to around £1,600 a week after tax, stressed he did not know Mr Bennett's individual circumstances.
But asked whether he could live on £53 a week, the former army officer, who married into a wealthy family, replied: "If I had to I would."
This sparked an online petition calling on the Cabinet minister to prove he really could live off what amounts to just £7.57 a day.
The petition urging Mr Duncan Smith to live off £53 a week for a year has so far attracted signatures from over 375,000 people, the most that a petition on the Government's e-petition website has ever received.

Quote: Vasque wrote in post #27

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Quote: nothavinit wrote in post #22

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The people taking the piss are the bankers and capitalists. We are paying for their crisis with savage cuts on our living standards while they continue to make even more profit.

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I agree but this isn't about taking sides. Just because the rich elite are milking us dry doesn't mean that the benefit cheats and scroungers should be left to continue getting away with it.

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Let's put him to the test, over 250,000 signitures already!!
Petition | Iain Duncan Smith: Iain Duncan Smith to live on £53 a week. | Change.org - http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/ia...ve-on-53-a-week

Iain Duncan Smith petition breaks recordsMSN News blog - MSN News - https://login.live.com/login.srf?wa=wsig...lc=2057&id=1184

Quote: Liam wrote in post #50

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If they stopped JSA it would make these lazy cunts we speak of actually get off of their arse and look for a job, these are the people who are happy enough to sit and watch Jezza Kyle all day while silly bollocks here pays for them to do say, brilliant.

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If he was 12 he wouldn't have a job would he,

Quote: Dempsey wrote in post #45

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One thing I do know Sauzee is that it cost over £300 for the trip to Portugal and they don't work and your defending it,and no I don't read the Mail

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Quote: Hugo A-Go-Go wrote in post #57

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Quote: Dempsey wrote in post #45

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One thing I do know Sauzee is that it cost over £300 for the trip to Portugal and they don't work and your defending it,and no I don't read the Mail

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How do you they've not just stuck it on a credit card or something?

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While the working class fight each other over issues such as welfare the rich elite in society laugh their way to the bank. Benefit fraud is a problem in this country but nothing compared to the white collar crime.

Very interesting debate from some MP's on Austerity Measures.
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa...003.htm_spnew71

Stupid is driving past someone in a pub, thinking you know everything about their life and blaming all the ills of society on them.

Quote: Spence wrote in post #59

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While the working class fight each other over issues such as welfare the rich elite in society laugh their way to the bank. Benefit fraud is a problem in this country but nothing compared to the white collar crime.

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Quote: nothavinit wrote in post #61

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Stupid is driving past someone in a pub, thinking you know everything about their life and blaming all the ills of society on them.

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Hansard: Debate on the Bedroom Tax 27.2.2013
5.36 pm
Helen Goodman (Bishop Auckland) (Lab): I was so shocked when I read what my constituents wrote to me about the implications for them of the bedroom tax, and about how little they would have left to live on, that I decided during the week of the recent recess to see if I could survive on £18 a week, which is what they will be left with to buy their food after 1 April. That figure of £18 is entirely based on the experiences of my constituents, in particular women on employment and support allowance who are about the same age as me, but who had to stop working owing to chronic health conditions, perhaps after 20 years of working life. Out of their £71.70, they have to find £10 for electricity, £20 for heating—gas or coal—£6 for water rates, £4 for bus fares in the case of those who live in villages and have to get to the main town, and £10 for the bedroom tax, which left them with £23 for weekly living expenses.

That £23 has to cover more than food, of course. We did a calculation, and set aside £5 for all the non-food things everyone has to buy—soap, washing powder, washing-up liquid, toothpaste, loo paper—plus

27 Feb 2013 : Column 403
a small amount in order to save £50 a year for clothes or a pair of trainers, or in case the iron breaks. That leaves £18.
I therefore took up the challenge of trying to live on £18, and I want to tell Members what it is like. It is extremely unpleasant. I had porridge for breakfast every morning, as I usually do, but I make my porridge with milk; now I was making it with water. I had to eat the same food over and over and over again. Single people are hit particularly hard, because cheap food comes in big packs. I made a stew at the beginning of the week, and I ate the same food four nights a week. I had pasta twice a week. I had baked potatoes. I had eggs on six occasions. It was completely impossible to have meat or fish; that was out of the question. It was also impossible to have five portions of fruit and vegetables a week.

I therefore also have a message for the Under-Secretary of State for Health, the hon. Member for Broxtowe (Anna Soubry), who is responsible for public health. She was criticising people on low incomes for obesity. Of course people on low incomes are more likely to have that problem; they have to fill up on toast and biscuits.

I found myself waking up in the middle of the night absolutely ravenous, having to make cups of tea and eat biscuits. I had a headache for five days in that week, and I was completely lethargic and exhausted by 4 pm. Some people are on jobseeker’s allowance and are looking for a job. Looking for a job is a job in itself; it takes time and energy. The people whom DWP Ministers want to do workfare are being expected to work 30 hours a week, yet they are not going to have enough to eat properly.

Most shocking of all was the fact that come Sunday I ran out of food—there was literally nothing left to eat that night. If Ministers are happy with the notion that 660,000 of our fellow citizens are literally not going to have enough to eat by the end of the week, all I can say is that I pity them because they have no pity and no conception of what they are going to do to the people in our constituencies who will be faced with this bedroom tax.

The Minister has been very free and easy in talking about all these wonderful alternatives, such as the fact that people can move. In my constituency more than 1,000 people will be affected by the bedroom tax, but there are fewer than 100 smaller properties to which they could move. In my constituency, it is not possible for all these people to increase the number of hours they work, as seven people are chasing every job; people are in part-time work because they cannot get full-time work. Government Members have shown their complete ignorance of the benefits system by saying, “You just have to work a couple of hours a week on the minimum wage.” Of course that is not true, because these people would get then into the tapers and the disregards, and their benefits would be cut or they might find themselves paying tax. The numbers simply do not add up.

Of course some individuals or couples have properties that are larger than they need, but the so-called under-occupancy is in one part of the country and the overcrowding is in another. It simply is not credible to suggest that all the large, over-occupying families in London will move up to Durham, particularly given

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa...003.htm_spnew71

Quote: Dempsey wrote in post #63

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Quote: nothavinit wrote in post #61

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Stupid is driving past someone in a pub, thinking you know everything about their life and blaming all the ills of society on them.

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Blaming all the ills of society on them ? If you read the earlier posts you would have read that I know these lads,so yes I do know that they don't work and haven't worked in years and couple of them have stated that they've no intension of ever working,so unless you know anything different shut up STUPID

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http://www.ibtimes.com/international-con...global-offshore

“The current banking crisis in Cyprus is one example of how the offshore system can impact an entire country’s financial stability.”

Well lets blame the poorest.

Quote: Dempsey wrote in post #58

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Quote: Hugo A-Go-Go wrote in post #57

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Quote: Dempsey wrote in post #45

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One thing I do know Sauzee is that it cost over £300 for the trip to Portugal and they don't work and your defending it,and no I don't read the Mail

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How do you they've not just stuck it on a credit card or something?

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Aye there pissed everyday,smoke dope,go to football matches including benfica and guess what they pay there credit card bill on there £53 a week,you really are stupid

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Quote: muskamber wrote in post #64

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Hansard: Debate on the Bedroom Tax 27.2.2013
5.36 pm
Helen Goodman (Bishop Auckland) (Lab): I was so shocked when I read what my constituents wrote to me about the implications for them of the bedroom tax, and about how little they would have left to live on, that I decided during the week of the recent recess to see if I could survive on £18 a week, which is what they will be left with to buy their food after 1 April. That figure of £18 is entirely based on the experiences of my constituents, in particular women on employment and support allowance who are about the same age as me, but who had to stop working owing to chronic health conditions, perhaps after 20 years of working life. Out of their £71.70, they have to find £10 for electricity, £20 for heating—gas or coal—£6 for water rates, £4 for bus fares in the case of those who live in villages and have to get to the main town, and £10 for the bedroom tax, which left them with £23 for weekly living expenses.

That £23 has to cover more than food, of course. We did a calculation, and set aside £5 for all the non-food things everyone has to buy—soap, washing powder, washing-up liquid, toothpaste, loo paper—plus

27 Feb 2013 : Column 403
a small amount in order to save £50 a year for clothes or a pair of trainers, or in case the iron breaks. That leaves £18.
I therefore took up the challenge of trying to live on £18, and I want to tell Members what it is like. It is extremely unpleasant. I had porridge for breakfast every morning, as I usually do, but I make my porridge with milk; now I was making it with water. I had to eat the same food over and over and over again. Single people are hit particularly hard, because cheap food comes in big packs. I made a stew at the beginning of the week, and I ate the same food four nights a week. I had pasta twice a week. I had baked potatoes. I had eggs on six occasions. It was completely impossible to have meat or fish; that was out of the question. It was also impossible to have five portions of fruit and vegetables a week.

I therefore also have a message for the Under-Secretary of State for Health, the hon. Member for Broxtowe (Anna Soubry), who is responsible for public health. She was criticising people on low incomes for obesity. Of course people on low incomes are more likely to have that problem; they have to fill up on toast and biscuits.

I found myself waking up in the middle of the night absolutely ravenous, having to make cups of tea and eat biscuits. I had a headache for five days in that week, and I was completely lethargic and exhausted by 4 pm. Some people are on jobseeker’s allowance and are looking for a job. Looking for a job is a job in itself; it takes time and energy. The people whom DWP Ministers want to do workfare are being expected to work 30 hours a week, yet they are not going to have enough to eat properly.

Most shocking of all was the fact that come Sunday I ran out of food—there was literally nothing left to eat that night. If Ministers are happy with the notion that 660,000 of our fellow citizens are literally not going to have enough to eat by the end of the week, all I can say is that I pity them because they have no pity and no conception of what they are going to do to the people in our constituencies who will be faced with this bedroom tax.

The Minister has been very free and easy in talking about all these wonderful alternatives, such as the fact that people can move. In my constituency more than 1,000 people will be affected by the bedroom tax, but there are fewer than 100 smaller properties to which they could move. In my constituency, it is not possible for all these people to increase the number of hours they work, as seven people are chasing every job; people are in part-time work because they cannot get full-time work. Government Members have shown their complete ignorance of the benefits system by saying, “You just have to work a couple of hours a week on the minimum wage.” Of course that is not true, because these people would get then into the tapers and the disregards, and their benefits would be cut or they might find themselves paying tax. The numbers simply do not add up.

Of course some individuals or couples have properties that are larger than they need, but the so-called under-occupancy is in one part of the country and the overcrowding is in another. It simply is not credible to suggest that all the large, over-occupying families in London will move up to Durham, particularly given

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa...003.htm_spnew71

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Quote: Hugo A-Go-Go wrote in post #68

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Quote: Dempsey wrote in post #58

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Quote: Hugo A-Go-Go wrote in post #57

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Quote: Dempsey wrote in post #45

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One thing I do know Sauzee is that it cost over £300 for the trip to Portugal and they don't work and your defending it,and no I don't read the Mail

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How do you they've not just stuck it on a credit card or something?

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Aye there pissed everyday,smoke dope,go to football matches including benfica and guess what they pay there credit card bill on there £53 a week,you really are stupid

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Who said anything about paying bills? People can default can't they?

A person can have a very most income and poor credit rating and still borrow money through high interest credit cards and cash loans from the likes of Wonga.

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http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/why...ld-look-1400558

IDS is a typical example of a Tory politician not living in the real world like the rest of us.He & George Osbourne,David Cameron say we are all in it together.Bollocks.They have nothing in common with the working class whatsoever.The really disturbing thing for me there is no alternative because Labour are just as bad & i say that with a heavy heart because i have voted Labour my entire life.

Quote: Liam wrote in post #50

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If they stopped JSA it would make these lazy cunts we speak of actually get off of their arse and look for a job.

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http://www.dorseteye.com/north/articles/...r-govt-psy-war1
Interesting read.