A reduction of families’ benefits worth around £3bn will lead to child poverty rates increasing to an all-time high, a report has found.

Such “benefit cuts” will push child poverty rates from a projected 31% at the start of parliament (2024-2025) to 33% by the end (2029-2030).

It will mean a record 4.6 million children living below the poverty line in the UK in five years’ time.

https://www.bigissue.com/news/social-justice/two-child-benefit-cap-cuts-poverty-labour/

Back in January I was forced to leave home due to emergency repair work and while they council promised to cover the costs for food while not at home, they took nearly two weeks to actually pay this, meaning I had to use bill money to cover food and transport costs while in temp accommodation that had no oven or freezer, just microwave, kettle and mini fridge, meaning food costs were higher than when at home (especially with my meds I cant safely live on pot noodles anymore). But that's had a knock on financial affect all of Feb, due to the missed bills and late fees for them. Luckily was only two bills (phone/data and gas/electric), but I've been without data most of Feb and have to use free WiFi in town when I can, which hasn't been often as I can get out often due to my disabilities. I'm lucky that my neighbours are happy to let me use their WiFi for essential zoom meetings but they have a data limit so I can't use it often and id feel bad if I did.

And I'm lucky. Because for me, it'll take about 3 months to add these additional charges into my budget before I can get back to my regular budget. But for many it could take 6-12 months to bounce back from relatively small financial setbacks like this, but when you're trapped on benefits you don't have wiggle room for emergency situations. It's so frustrating. But I'm supposed to just be grateful cos the council eventually paid me some money towards those emergency food costs, doesn't matter to them that I was left in debt due to how long they took to do so, and they don't cover those additional costs due to their delays.

Keir Starmer promised that we would save hundreds of pounds on our energy bills. Energy prices are set to rise yet again in April... Instead of giving finance support to same of the most vulnerable in our society, Keir Starmer’s Labour Party has taken money away from 82% of pensioners living in poverty and is now planning to cut a further £3billion in support for disabled people! 😤

#LabourAusterity🇬🇧✂️🔥

#Inflation #Greedflation #Growth 🤔 #LabourCostOfLivingCrisis 📈💰😢

#EnoughIsEnough ⛔️

#EndAusterity ✅️

#SaveOurNHS 💙

#EndFuelPoverty ✅️

#EndChildPoverty ✅️

#RealLivingWage 😀 #RenationaliseWater ✅️

#RenationaliseEnergy ✅️

#TaxTheRich ✅️

#wealthtaxnow ⬅️

Now I am certain that spring is on it's way, when company's send out notice of price increases for services. My first to arrive is from Thames Water, stating the average bill for my area will increase by £17 a month from March. How can people like myself, claiming legacy benefits that have not been increased for several years, be expected to face even further hardship? There is simply no more cutbacks I can make to my budget unless I live without internet or drastically reduce the amount I spend on food - which is not a great amount as I am already forced to use a local community fridge in order to feed myself and my daughter. The current government is no better than the last when it comes to helping and supporting families struggling to survive on budgets that are simply not suitable for modern life.

Struggling with black mould in a council flat. I have tried everything to clean it, but it keeps growing. The estate manager just comes to coat it with paint - which doesn't help that much as it reoccurs after few weeks. Really sad as it makes my kids sick. In fact, they cannot sleep in their room as it is so cold and no heating seems to work.

Luck or insight ? As Changing Realities moves forward, they are going to have some focus on mental health. This has come at an opportune moment as a story run by the Telegraph States: “Long-term sick could face cuts of £5K a year in benefits crackdown".

Labour Ministers are planning to overhaul the benefits system, sickness benefit claimants could be forced to work, have benefits including PIP cut.

An analysis last year claimed that some sickness benefits are worth more than the minimum wage. This is certainly not the case in my opinion as a single parent, father to a daughter. For a number of years I was living on sickness benefits alone as a single person plus child benefit, with no other help or support of any form.

It is possible for the DWP to take overpayments straight from claimants' benefits, but there is no way for people like myself to recover possibly thousands of pounds in benefits that I should have been entitled to over the years, but was not informed or aware that I could be claiming.



Any further cuts to disability / sickness benefits will have a disastrous effect on millions of people who are already struggling to live a healthy lifestyle, ultimately leading to further physical and mental health problems. Genuine claimants need to be treated with dignity and respect, with all the help needed to ensure a reasonable life.

I've seen on Facebook, in regards to Universal Credit, budgeting for emergencies - but it doesn't include working parents in the article. The government doesn't do nowhere near enough for the working population.

I spent all week trying to find an education solicitor on legal aid with capacity. There are none. Not a single one in the country it seems. I started to cry on the phone with one firm because it took it out of me the sheer number of hours I've spent calling and being told no. Dealing with professionals that don't accept that my child's needs are extremely high and she's being totally failed. The representative from that firm tutted and then hung up on me. We literally need to find £5000 or so before April to make sure she has been given the best chance of getting an EHCP and the only way of us doing that is through getting into debt. But when we should be able to have free access to these things makes me angry beyond fury. We are already in debt because of my disability, and most charities won't help us because "we're entitled to legal aid", regardless of the fact it might as well not exist or no one has the capacity to offer it anymore.

I've been given the section 21.

We have to leave our home.

2 months notice, just me and my 5-year old.

2 months is not enough time. With the collapse of the rental market and non-existent savings due to low income, what am supposed to do?

Where does everyone go when they are facing the same situation?

Council housing have no properties.

Housing associations have no properties.

Private renting is asking for £200 more than what I am paying, and they're in areas I cannot consider because they're either dangerous or somewhere where I will have no support.

I need help and I have nowhere to turn to.

The collapse of the rental market needs addressing. What are we going to do.... I'm in a living nightmare.

All the stuff in the news about bank checks and fraud crackdowns and such - it makes me anxious. I know it's largely due to how they're rewritten, they're intended to be fear-provoking, to make the news folk money. Clickbait. Rage bait. Lies and confusion and control. But it's something else too, something I can't quite formulate into words. I can try, but no matter how many times, I write it down it doesn't full convey the anxiety policies, and especially practices, like this invoke.

I keep reassuring myself that I've nothing to be anxious about, as I know I'm not fraudulent or committing any crimes of any kind. Yet, knowing this doesn't help the anxiety, doesn't reassure, doesn't give comfort. It's another slap in the face, another reminder of how unvalued we are, how hated we are. Another small attack on our rights and supposed legal protections. An assumption of criminality without just cause, or rather, the "just cause" is a mindset of "poverty is a crime".

And it makes me fearful cos I've learnt over the years that when you're on benefits you have very few legal protections. Technically everyone has rights, it's written in law. But realistically, day to day, the less money, the less connections, the less value you have the less likely you are for those rights to be respected, let alone enforced. From council homes being technically unsafe to live in but not fixed or made liveable. Of police refusing to follow through on crimes cos the perpetrator has funds and we don't, so justice isn't available as readily to us, yet we're disproportionately punished when someone at the bottom of the social totem pole does commit a crime, and that's used to further justify eroding our rights even more. Government agencies and/or public figures (from social workers, to doctors, to work coaches, police, family courts, criminal courts, landlords, etc.) frequently lie or make life harder, either cos they're too overwhelmed and undertrained to provide the service required, or (in the case of a supposed minority but yet I've never met someone on benefits who hasn't had this experience atleast once, often multiple tims, in each field of "support" or "aid" they're supposed to be legally entitled too as a Brit) they actively enjoy playing with peoples lives. We're easy targets for folk like that, because we've no legal recourse to defend ourselves, as we've no money for lawyers or courts, etc. If we do complain, it's often our words against there's, regardless of what evidence we have, and our word isn't valued as equally as their, so nothing happens and they get away with abusing our rights time n again. I found out years later, after I complained about a doctor, that he put in my medical records suspected Munchausen, that I'm challenging and possibly hypochondriac - which added years to getting diagnosis for my disabilities - and no justice. Doctors since then have written notes that I'm not what was claimed by the other doctor, but it's still on my medical records and still there for drs to use as an excuse to deny due diligence and fair care.

So for your own government to say "sure we'll stop you from starving, just about, but well treat you like potential criminal the whole time and shame you for the life of relatively poverty you've have little control over, largely due to decades of government policies and cuts" is like kicking a dog when its already down, beaten, broken, and tired. Heck, I'm starting to wonder if dogs have more rights than we do these days. If someone abused a dog there are charities in place that will fight for that dog's rights in court. No one is fighting for our rights, rights to basic dignity and fair treatment. Even with courts saying the govs planned cuts to disability benefits is unlawful the gov still plans to go ahead with them. If that isn't proof of how vulnerable we are, that government can ignore their own laws when it suits them, I don't know what is.

Can people truly not see what a dangerous trajectory were all on, the slippery slope ahead? Instead we're just get told "beggars can't be choosers" and "you've nothing to fear if you're not doing anything wrong" which completely misses the point. First, they go for the vulnerable, then the working poor, then the middle classes, etc. that's when the general public will start caring and by then it'll be too late.

How can we have a cess to so much information, so much knowledge, and still being so gullible and ignorant to the harm being done to the most vulnerable in society. It's more than just scary. And even with all I've just said I don't feel I'm fully conveying the problem at hand, not enough that I'd expect anyone to read this and go "yeah that's fucked up, let's do something about this" cos we're all kept too busy by work or bills or pressures or responsibilities or stress to have time to fix problems that aren't impacting the "valued" within society yet. And like I said, by the time this impacts them it'll be too late. I hope for positive change, but things seem bleaker than ever.

So the local housing allowance is now frozen again! Why, why, why? A two-bedroom house is now £700 in my area, and the government think it's £495!! Where are these houses at £495? Why is the Labour Government doing this? Fuming!

Hey,

Cold day, and I'm not okay. Having a light headache.