▼ Found 69 entries
14 Jun 2023
Diary

Pippa G

Food, the same old usually but worse.

The price increases in order for the company's bounuses are effecting even family's that should be secure financially.

It seems that a business isn't going well unless there's a record high increase in profit and bonus structure.

Are business owners in the corporate level any different from the politicians that take from the poor and into the private sector and pockets of the secure narcissistic privilege and politicians?

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11 May 2023
Q&A

Victoria S

What changes are needed to support more people who want to get into and progress in work?

Universal Basic Income: sounds like lazy thinking but really, you want people to work and be productive and get shit done, give them enough money that they can go "hmm, nice and relaxed, took time to care for my needs. Now I'm kinda bored, I know I'll go see what jobs are available, I get get myself treats with the extra cash and help the economy and help my community".

Real access to support - more funding to mental health services and social care services and charities that support families. Free breakfast clubs and after school clubs. Childcare support and/or legal protections in work for parents who need to be more flexible around school holidays. And free education for life, that means primary through to university through to additional learning or career changing in adulthood. The workplace would be far more productive this way and fewer barriers to entry.

Oh and seriously, ban 0-hour contracts, if you can't afford to properly employ workers with the proper legal protections and duties then don't have workers, it's not that hard. End exploitation.

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5 May 2023
Q&A

Lili K

What changes are needed to support more people who want to get into and progress in work?

Universal Basic Income.

A higher personal allowance before needing to pay tax, so that lower paid jobs and part time employment are still financially beneficial to be in.

Quality childcare provision attached to more workplaces matching employees working hours.

A shift in focus from businesses being solely profit driven to being quality and service lead.

Creating the opportunities for new, properly funded jobs in the environmental sector.

Life long learning opportunities for all, in work or not.

Employers (and customers) who are more understanding and accepting of working alongside people with serious mental illness.

A 4 day working week.

End the hostile environment at job centres.

Trial periods of work so that employer and employee can leave without financial penalty.

A minimum wage of £15 per hour.

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27 Apr 2023
Diary

Beverly W

On the topic of valid voting ID, my Mum tells me the taxi driver told her she couldn't use her bus pass when voting at next week's local elections.

I checked online and this is of course wrong, she can use it. Also her driving licence is listed there as valid even if it has expired.

It strikes me the governments main agenda is to divide communities by creating discontent. From where I sit all I see is the country is in crisis mode, people are attacking each other rather than pulling together, you cannot get a face to face GP appointment, ambulance waiting times are astronomical, poverty is hitting it's all time highest in decades whilst the people tasked with running the show behave like mafia gangsters robbing the country blind whilst gagging the media etc.

I'm sorry to say I'll only be watching the forthcoming coronation to see what exactly the rich are spending tax payers money on and who only knows why on earth we truly need a multi million pound alert system.... or to that matter, half the covid nonsense that good money was wasted on. As per usual we're being fed a bunch of government lies and spin, to convince the vast majority of the British public they need to do what they are told.

I seriously dread to think that the figures are right when I hear 96% of the people, who do actually need ID to vote , haven't bothered to get it. I've completely had it with this mess we're all in. Beam me up Scotty!!!

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29 Mar 2023
Q&A

Aurora T

What do the planned changes in the budget mean to you and your family?

We are unaffected by the Work Capability Assessment. However I do worry about those in receipt of ESA and what that entails for them when the government removes it altogether.

I've have lots of questions about the budget. Again it does seem they have not taken a few things into consideration. The lives of those on benefits will become more difficult. For instance, I live in perpetual fear of sanctioning and my work place have given me fewer hours next month. I work in care, and have a zero hours contract. As I am subject to conditionality, fewer hours will mean I will be visiting the job centre and searching for more work. The government have finally promised to pay for childcare upfront. Apparently this will effect only 700,000 families. Who this actually applies to is unclear. It would have been of great help when I started working.

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29 Mar 2023
Q&A

Erik W

What do the planned changes in the budget mean to you and your family?

For me the Budget means more hardship and stress for myself and my daughter. Currently receiving legacy benefits I will not receive any increase in April to my benefits meaning more cutbacks and a loss of living standards. Then there is the worry of being changed over to universal credit and what any changes the whole assessment changes will bring, though to tell the truth I just don't understand what this will mean.

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26 Mar 2023
Q&A

Ana Q

What do the planned changes in the budget mean to you and your family?

It is good to scrap the WCA (Work Capability Assessment). There will be only one assessment which is PIP (Personal Independent Payment). People can have less hassle for this scheme scrapped and smoothly can reply on PIP assessment. To see impact of What other changes Chancellor proposed in the last spring budget, we need to wait sometimes to see their effects.

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26 Mar 2023
Q&A

Joe

What do the planned changes in the budget mean to you and your family?

The plans to remove the work capability assessment has left me with more questions, as I completed my assessment and was awarded the limited capability for work related benefits payment, this does not make any sense also has the Chancellor explained what will happen to people already on the benefits awarded from the assessment? Because If I loose that money it could make it very difficult for us as a family to make ends meet.

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24 Mar 2023
Q&A

Faith N

What do the planned changes in the budget mean to you and your family?

The budget cuts in (NI) will have a detrimental affect to my children. The education authorities budget was cut recently which meant they had to remove the funding for after schools, home work clubs and summer schemes this year. It’s coming into immediate effect next week. This leaves my son with no access to other children or events he wouldn’t normally avail off coming from a low income household. This will have a massive impact on his mental health and well being. Summer schemes were put in place in youth clubs to assist low income families. Children could get day trips which they normally wouldn’t get. It’s just so devastating. Instead the British government gave 3 million pounds to paramilitary support. The budget hasn’t been done appropriately and the children get again have been forgotten about as a result.

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24 Mar 2023
Q&A

Beverly W

What do the planned changes in the budget mean to you and your family?

The proposed changes in the budget will be devastating to me and my family.

Realistically and seriously, what job can I possibly do that will provide enough income to fund the lifestyle we currently have now, if not better?

Not too many years ago, both the job centre and the citizens advice bureau would offer "better off calculations" to claimants in order to establish whether a job offer was worth while taking up. If 'in work' costs such as the commute to work or loss of certain elements outweighed the amount in benefits received then the calculation would show a 'difference' amount and the claimant was under no obligation to take up the post if it would leave them financially worse off.

I think it's utter nonsensical for the government to make these changes without acknowledging the nature and complexities of peoples health conditions. Not to mention exacerbating symptoms. I would love to work however it's an unrealistic view that an employer would recruit someone with such profound difficulties to begin with, let alone that person being able to commit to performing sustainably in any workplace. As I've said previously what type of work does Hunt think an epileptic can do who has so many attacks a day, or a paraplegic or someone with a low functioning immune system that uses up an entire year's sick pay entitlement in the space of 3 months that they cannot afford to take any more time off?

Reliability criteria states the need to be able to perform a task regularly safely timely etc over 50% of the time. Will that be over looked by the government? How can they cast disabled and those with poor health conditions aside like this? How is that beneficial to anyone or how are outcomes better? Yes, when I'm in my grave due to the strain on my physical and mental health, then I can see it will of course be of benefit to them but not to me or my family. There's nothing like a bit of work life balance and this government wants nothing like it. Next it'll be children up chimneys again. They're already introducing children's bank accounts and litter picking schemes which children are getting involved with. What next? A social credit scheme like China?

Might as well get myself a tent to live in now, before I cant afford one at all.

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24 Mar 2023
Q&A

Annie W

What do the planned changes in the budget mean to you and your family?

Overall I have mixed feelings.

In some ways the extra rise within benefits for me will be helpful.

Then in some ways it’s still not enough. As everything is still rising so really there isn’t actually a difference.

I have already reduced things as much as I can by changing who I shop with, not using electrical items when not needed and not buying any what you would count as luxury items.

I really liked the childcare being reviewed until I saw how long it will take to be implemented. In which at that point will be of no use to me.

It’s the main reason I haven’t gone back into work as I would be owing more than working with having twins especially.

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24 Mar 2023
Q&A

Charles K

What do the planned changes in the budget mean to you and your family?

It's. I've not really heard much about the budget, I must admit. I must be living under a rock. But I think, yeah, there's a lot more. I'm registered disabled and I could be signed off a long term sick. I've got severe mobility issues, so I could be on the long term sick. At the moment, I'm a registered carer of my youngest, who's also registered disabled, but I think every person can, to a degree, do some do some form of work. I've got bilateral arthritis in my knees, but, yeah, I'm able to, with reasonable adjustments, sit down and work at a local supermarket and be working on a checkout. There's no reason why I can't go back to doing retail work with some reasonable adjustments. If I was able just every half an hour or so, just to be able to get up and stretch so my knees don't lock up. I think we're all capable of doing some degree of work. It's just finding the right situation and the right and right job suitable for everyone. Yeah, it should be interesting, I think, to see how many more of us disabled people are able to actually get a job or get offered a job. It's not always us not wanting a job, it's also the employers not wanting to make adaptations for us at a workplace.

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