General Chat

My sister has worked as a carer for over 40 years in a nursing home which more recently became a hospice. She has devoted her life to caring for the disabled and dying. Washing them, dressing them, feeding them and cleaning their bottom. This is not a well paid career, especially not here in Devon where the minimum wage is seen as a good wage.
Two years ago she was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis. She is on strong medication without which the illness would be out of control and her pain levels unbearable. No longer able to cycle the 2 miles to her work the CAB and her doctor helped her fill out the mobility allowance forms. She was awarded an amount of money that has meant she has been able to learn to drive and I have given her money to buy a little second hand car. Although she cannot do her carer's work full time her employer has kept her on part time on "light duties", a little cleaning, leading a sing-song for the residents etc, and it's been good for her morale.
Now, in David Camerons brave new world, she is seen by the DWP as a scrounger. Because she can walk, with her crutches or sticks, about 100 yards. That is 50 yards out and 50 yards back. The fact that she can barely take her weight on either because her wrists and hands are becoming so mis-shapen and she cannot take more than 5 or 6 steps without sticks or crutches is irrelevant. So her mobility allowance has been stopped. Her pay, per month, is now £15 pounds more than her rent.
Except she won't be workng any more because at the end of this month there is a car to tax at £120 and insurance at over £400. So the car has to go.
No car - no work - no rent - no home.
So who cares for the carer?
I'm disabled and already have a sickly, ageing Mother living with me. Any suggestions, Mr Cameron?

tell your poor daughter i sympathise with her,ive just read that DC is to cut the winter fuel payment to £8.50 and that is not definate.it could be scrapped altogether.
I am a carer also and am saving the government millions of pounds like many other underpaid carers,but do we get compensation NO.

when my late M-IN LAW fled Russia ( she was born of white english parents,)they told her you are fleeing one revolution to go to another.
well it looks like they were right ,im sure there will be an uprising of some kind soon.
they dont care two figs for the sick and elderly,one day they will be old.roll on 2014 when we can get them out,i didntvote for them have been a stuanch Labour voter since i was first given the chance to vote.
best wishes to you and your daughter,
wendy

Hello Eddieisagrandad.........l am so sorry, and l do hope you have sent this to Mr Cameron....he certainly was'nt the person l chose to be PM. Although l do agree cuts need to be made, but the politicians really have no idea do they?? They need to live in the real world for a few months or more. They have their private hospitals and doctors etc so no need to even consider what your poor sister is going through and all the others.

l do hope you can get some help for her!!

jude x

There was something on TV the other day about the way government personel buy office equipment, l think l have this right........they use different methods/shops etc...if they were to use one standard shop/supplier they would save millions. Someone from the government was talking about this, can't remember who or which party!!

jude

Eddie

This is what your MP is for,send your comments to him,they need to know what it can be like for some people

It's appalling. I get too angry about this to actually say anything without ranting I'm afraid.

Eddie, I hope your sister can try and get the deccision reviewed at least.

My respects to all carers who work for very little ( and those who care at home, just for love ).

Sad as your sister's story may be, that is what happens after years of Blair / Brown miss management of the countries finances - the money has finally run out and you are left to fend on your own.

I was made redundant at 56 after 37 years of service with a major high street name. I get not one penny from the government and have to tap into my meagre savings month my month just to pay the bills. I won't get my winter fuel allowance of bus pass until I am 61 either.

Incidentally it is Cold Weather Payments that may cut to £8.50, not the Winter Fuel Allowance. This is the extra bit paid when the temp drops below zero for a certain period.

This is what happens when the conservatives get in cuts & more cuts! I notice they dont cut their drinks bill at their parties or their other little perks!
They promised they wouldnt touch the winter fuel money for the elderly and other things and it was all lies. It will be interesting to see how they cope with the backlash. Cant wait for the next general election they will hopefully be out that fast their feet wont touch the floor.

Chances are the they will be in for the next 30 years. After all it was the last shower that virtually bankrupted the country.

Hopefully not! conservatives only look after their own kind.
Churn out comments such as "Why should a Duke pay more tax than a dustman"
Labour look after the working class.

IGP you evidently don't remember the 18 years of Thatcherism the same way I do. THEY left us with the 'Fat cat's Greed is good ' legacy which led to the banking fiasco amongst other things!

What it will do I think is polarise the support again, if the Conservatives go down in ignominy in 5/10 years time the Lib Dems will be finished for good I think.

However, I don't want to enter political debate on a thread which is about the unfairness of a decision on a specific case. So I'd better exit stage left .

My parents always voted labour, i voted labour.
In the last general election i voted Lib Dem what a mistake.
Nick Clegg seems to have turned out to be a bit of a wimp!
(putting it politely) Never again will i vote Lib Dem!

If we don't have these cuts, who is going to pay the bill? There is no money.....the last government made sure of that....!

My youngest daughter came home a while ago, its her early finishing day at college. My Sis was still here, on the 'phone to the CAB. I told daughter what had happened.
"Can't Auntie come and live with us?" she says to me.
"No room here pet" says I.
" What if I get some of the boys from (army) cadets round and we cleaned out the cellar. I could sleep down there and Auntie can have my room".
Altogether more helpful than having a rant on here or crying down the 'phone at a stranger at the CAB.
I have to admit you're correct IGP. But also years of throwing money into the bottomless pit of the EEC and at pointless American wars and nuclear weapons probably has n't helped either.

Well one thing for sure Eddie, you have a very thoughtful daughter :)

Shazzlou - I can never in my living memory recall the Labour Party looking after the working man/woman. In early seventies I was a working single mum and not one penny piece did I receive from a Labour Government.

My husband has been an ardent (not militant) trade unionist all his life and has been active within the trade union. He has wept for over 30 years because he no longer has a labour movement he can believe in. They leave such a mess someone has got to pick up the pieces. If you live beyond your means you have to pull your belt in. I can recall the 3day weeks early seventies and in the winter of 78/79, litter bags were everywhere, bins unemptied and the grieving relations could not bury their dead for weeks.

Eddie, tell you sister to appeal and advise her to get CAB to fill in forms. Socal workers have even advised this to people who are perfectly capable of filling in forms.
One classic error is that if we fill in a form we will say what we can do whereas the CAB fill in what you cannot do.

I was half listening to something on t v the other day and it said that in areas where there had been a lot of reviews of allowances, a high percentage were stopped, but on appeal a high percentage of those were reinstated.
It will be worthwhile appealing this decision.

I,ve just read all of this,and some things I agree with others I do not.For a Start what you have to remember is this is the result of Blair and Browns mis-use of the economy ( Taxpayers Money) we owe Trillions of pounds which we are paying Millions a day in interest.( Perhaps if we stopped borrowing money to give in aid to other countries that would help ) but things have to be tightend up,and asap or this country will be unable to pay its way in the wourld.Some of you say that Mrs Thatcher ruined the country, ( Sold the family silver ) was a popular theme. Weell the last lot as well as feathering their own nests, Sold the Family. however,one thing remains the same, whatever party gets in power and whoever gets to be Top Dog in the Unions.they all sing the same song,to the tuine of the Red Flag. That is, The Working Man can Kiss my A--e I,ve got the Bosses Job at Last.Take care,Havew a nice day,**M**

Of course there should be cuts, no one disputes that whatever side of the political line they stand ( or those tight rope walking in the middle ;), the question is do we hit the weak the hardest because they won't/can't fight back?

I would have had a lot more respect for DC if he had answered a straight question 'straight'. Even if I hadn't liked the answer!

"Is it fair that a single parent earning over 43k has their child benefit stopped, when a couple both working but earning under 43k INDIVIDUALLY keep their CB"?

Simple 'yes' or 'no' would have sufficed, why could he not give it? ( I can answer that if anyone does not know the answer!).


( add, I am NOT against cutting CB per se, I've been saying that it should be means tested since I was 18 lol)

Well all I can say is.....
1) don't blame me... I did not vote for them.
2) appeal because if you need it, you need it.
3) I cannot wait for a backlash, and it has to come.

We are OAP's, I am disabled, so we are just waiting to see what is going to happen to us.
AND.... We live very simply.

You cannot possibly agree with the idea of a two parent family both earning just under the limit KEEPING their family allowance, and a two parent family with ONE parent working and earning just over... losing theirs.

Did any of you see DC arguing with DM in house? DC was like a child. No real argument.
Please don't shout at me all at once, I'm a sick woman. ;-0)
Deanna X