Thousands hit by below-inflation benefits rise (From Daily Echo)
When news happens, text SDE and your photos or videos to 80360. Or contact us by email and phone.
Thousands hit by below-inflation benefits rise
10:50am Wednesday 9th January 2013 in News
Thousands hit by below-inflation benefits rise
THOUSANDS of people across Hampshire are facing a squeeze on their living costs after a belowinflation benefits rise was agreed by MPs last night.
More than 68,000 working households across the south will get a real-term cut in their tax credits.
This includes almost 15,000 people in the Southampton Itchen and Test constituencies.
Ministers insisted that the one per cent cap on benefits rises was needed, because it is unfair that state handouts have been rising twice as fast as wages.
But with inflation at 2.7 per cent, it will mean less money in Hampshire’s poorest households.
Alan Whitehead, Labour MP for Southampton Test, said: “This is just not the way to deal with the whole issue of benefits.
“People will be losing significant amounts, and these are the people least able to bear that sort of burden.
“It is simply not true that all people on benefits are shirkers.”
But speaking during last night’s debate, Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith said Labour “spent taxpayers’ money like drunks on a Friday night, no care or concern for how effective it was”.
Comments(7)
Yorkyboy22
says...
11:53am Wed 9 Jan 13
sotonboy84 wrote:Read the article again sotonboy84. It says "68000 working households". Perhaps if the profit driven companies payed a living wage rather than the pitiful minimum wage then there would be no need for tax credits!!
Good! It's about time. Why the hell should benefits rise above the rate of inflation and more than the working person's salery!
Forest Resident
says...
11:57am Wed 9 Jan 13
Lone Ranger.
says...
12:32pm Wed 9 Jan 13
.
Despite the denial of the Tories, it was proven yesterday that the poorest and disabled will be much worse off with this cut.
.
It will also we proven to be another fag packet policy dreamt up by the two from Brokeback Mountain
sotonboy84
says...
1:14pm Wed 9 Jan 13
Yorkyboy22 wrote:I should have made myself clearer.
sotonboy84 wrote: Good! It's about time. Why the hell should benefits rise above the rate of inflation and more than the working person's salery!Read the article again sotonboy84. It says "68000 working households". Perhaps if the profit driven companies payed a living wage rather than the pitiful minimum wage then there would be no need for tax credits!!
Benefits have, under Labour, risen higher than the rate of inflation which is not fair for working people who are NOT entitled to any form of benefit and who's wages do not rise higher than inflation.
Yorkyboy22
says...
1:56pm Wed 9 Jan 13
sotonboy84 wrote:And perhaps I should have been clearer.
Yorkyboy22 wrote:I should have made myself clearer. Benefits have, under Labour, risen higher than the rate of inflation which is not fair for working people who are NOT entitled to any form of benefit and who's wages do not rise higher than inflation.sotonboy84 wrote: Good! It's about time. Why the hell should benefits rise above the rate of inflation and more than the working person's salery!Read the article again sotonboy84. It says "68000 working households". Perhaps if the profit driven companies payed a living wage rather than the pitiful minimum wage then there would be no need for tax credits!!
I'm a working person who's wages have not risen more than inflation but that does not mean that I think the unemployed (or underpayed) should have even less. How about getting some of the multi-national tax avoiding companies/multi millionaires to pay their dues before we start on those in society with the least!
solomum
says...
7:52pm Wed 9 Jan 13
Yorkyboy22 wrote:Tax credits are a fairly new concept.(Within the last decade or so). Before these were introduced families had to manage without them. As someone who started a family prior to tax credits being introduced and managed on just my husbands wages and the basic child benefit as that is what we had coming in, I feel that as a society we are becoming far too reliant on government handouts. We are becoming a nation of people who feel it is our right to have these handouts and do not feel that we have to find a way to provide adequately for our families. I will hold my hands up and say that my finances would be extremely tight if I did not receive tax credits, so I am extremely grateful that I do. I am also very aware though that these are a payment given by the government to reduce poverty which I also full agree with. I just feel that as a nation we need to realise how priviliged we are compared to how our parents and grandparents managed. We are also a lot richer than our fellow humans in third world countries who have no benefit system and often very little food, water or sanitation.
sotonboy84 wrote:And perhaps I should have been clearer.
Yorkyboy22 wrote:I should have made myself clearer. Benefits have, under Labour, risen higher than the rate of inflation which is not fair for working people who are NOT entitled to any form of benefit and who's wages do not rise higher than inflation.sotonboy84 wrote: Good! It's about time. Why the hell should benefits rise above the rate of inflation and more than the working person's salery!Read the article again sotonboy84. It says "68000 working households". Perhaps if the profit driven companies payed a living wage rather than the pitiful minimum wage then there would be no need for tax credits!!
I'm a working person who's wages have not risen more than inflation but that does not mean that I think the unemployed (or underpayed) should have even less. How about getting some of the multi-national tax avoiding companies/multi millionaires to pay their dues before we start on those in society with the least!
sotonboy84 says...
11:30am Wed 9 Jan 13
It's about time. Why the hell should benefits rise above the rate of inflation and more than the working person's salery!