Tory B******s

I must take issue with much of what anonymous (5.45) had to say.

I agree that at the moment there are no definitive details about which benefits are to be effected by the £12 million savings but it is highly likely that disability benefits will be in the front line. It was disingenuous, to say the least, that these details were not outlined before the election. It is only natural that people on working age benefits are worried because as sure as eggs are eggs the axe is going to fall somewhere. I don’t consider it scaremongering because the cuts ARE going to happen, stand by for the second budget in July and then discuss “could” versus “intend”

Means testing and taxation are two different things. If they decide to make DLA/PIP taxable they will simply reduce your tax free allowance by the amount of the benefit. People who pay tax on occupational pensions (or earned income for those in work) will therefore pay more. This already happens with ESA so it will be a simple matter to extend the system. If you do not already pay tax then of course you will not be effected but many PIP claimants are in the tax paying bracket

Unfortunately that is completely wrong. If contribution based ESA is scrapped there is no requirement to replace it with anything. People will simply be subjected to means testing. If you have a pension, a working partner or savings you will be expected to live on your own resources.
Thus married people who may have worked for 30 years before becoming ill will get exactly nothing if their partner has a job.

With the greatest respect, you are retired and will be effected much less by any changes. I won’t get my pension for another 5 years but it won’t come a moment too soon so that I no longer need to worry about ESA. Many people are very worried, and with good reason. I spent this weekend looking at my budget, planning exactly where I could trim hundreds of £ a month. I was a professional person with a good job - I didn’t expect to spend these years in poverty. Someone else wrote in another thread that you are just one illness away from being broke - how true!

Jane

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I am in no doubt that with the £12 billion they are looking to shave off Welfare expenditure one, some or all of DLA/PIP, Contributory ESA & Carer’s Allowance are at risk.

Similar to Jane I have completely re-jigged our finances with the expectation of being down by between £300-£500 per month. We too will come to rely more on my wife’s small pension and savings. The savings should pad things out for a few years before we end up going back to having to re-claim benefits. Not a great saving for the state in the long run.

We both had decent jobs and were stupid enough to save and not spend. Not much reward or support for our efforts. As I’ve said before too much public perception of “Benefit Street” and not enough decent working folk realising our today could be your tomorrow.

I have written to my MP asking him to represent our views as best he can (SNP). For what it’s worth but at least I felt I’d try to do something.

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I wrote to both my local MP and Nicola Sturgeon. I got back a pretty comprehensive answer from both. They both said that DLA/PIP is being devolved and that the Scottish Government had specifically asked Westminster to stop re-assessing Scottish DLA recipients so that different decisions could be made once the powers came to the S/G. They were refused . As I said before anyone who voted for even the CHANCE of this happening needs their bumps felt.

Gary.

The bottom line is, we are too easy a target. God, how I wish I had the energy to fight these arseholes!!!

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