To David Cameron,
When you came into power I was disappointed. A few years on I’m downright pissed off. You live there in your nice house, with your posh education and no idea of the real world and you continue to make decisions which are affecting the lives of young families around the UK.
Firstly theres your universal “I’m going to screw young parents over” credit which is being implemented. On the most part it doesn’t affect many. However if your under 25 and have children you are going to be discriminated against. Because clearly when your a young parent you don’t need as much money as someone who is 26. Of course not. The energy suppliers give you money off for being young, don’t they? Oh and the food bill is cheaper because your young. And the clothes to put on your children’s backs are cheaper.
Of course they bloody well aren’t! So why the hell do you think it’s ok to take £15 a week off those young parents. £780 a year.
This isn’t including of course your new outgoing your adding for those who are unfortunate enough to have moved out of their parents. Removing council tax benefit for single people. Yep so not only are you taking £15 your also adding another expense. Thanks.
Oh yeah and then there is the changes made to housing benefit. So now people have to use the benefits they are given to live on, to put food on the table. They have to out that money towards their rent. So they have less to live on.
Oh and your ideas to get everyone back to work? Well taking away incentives like the back to work grant and in work credit? I’m sure that’s going to have a real impact other than just increasing the debts and difficulties people face in the first months of going from weekly to monthly income. Bravo.
4 years ago the benefits system was nowhere near making people wealthy but it was enough to survive on. Now it’s not helping anyone in the slightest. And yes I know you want people to work but provide the jobs then. I know graduates who finished university months ago and still don’t have a full time job despite looking on a daily basis.
Something’s got to change. And personally I think it’s you. I’d love you to come and try and live a month in my shoes. To balance the money to go out at the right time and hope that the small bits that come in will arrive before it goes out. To watch that money that is supposed to provide for your family go straight to your rent. To be left with a 1/4 of what you should have a month to live on. I invite you to try that. Then maybe you might rethink some of your ideas.
Oh and bravo for tackling child poverty so well that your placing another 10,000 families into it as a result of universal credit. Well done. I’m sure that will look admirable on your CV!
Yours,
A massively pissed off, sick of living on the edge, in debt, 23 year old single mother.
Well said Hayley!
I can’t say I understand all of your post because I am a hermit who doesn’t watch or read the news, but it sounds like I’d probably agree with most of it. I do however agree with the government on the whole – paying for excess bedrooms thing as I don’t think people should get benefit for bedrooms they don’t need – but it’s been that way for the last 8 years where I live and I thought it was everywhere. There are people with larger families stuck in temporary housing, because there are so many people living in houses much bigger than they need. Saying that – I have a spare room in my house – but that’s because two of my children share, we are in private rented and pay through the nose for it.
Well done on standing up for what you beleive. I would class us as living in poverty at the moment as the rent is literally ALL we can afford! The benefits system seems to appeal mostly to those who haven’t worked a day in their lives. If you qualify for that magic little “income support” you qualify for every benefit in the book. If you work for a living (on a shite wage), have a family of 5, snowballing debts and Cancer… you get fuck all!
A great, well written post- I think it’s great that blogs can be used to publicise real examples of the way decisions made by government translate in real life.
Fully support the idea of MPs attempting to manage the same budget for a month. Understanding the impact of the decisions made would be a great start, but it just seems with this government they trying to please other people than the constituencies they represent.
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Have shared this on twitter, facebook and G+ – I am in this boat and dreading it. I don’t fully understand the changes or the consequences but I know it is going to be hard and I thought things were hard enough already! Thinking about it too much makes me panic so I try not to but I know it’s a reality I need to face ASAP. I’m not in poverty now but who knows how I will handle my money once this change comes about
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