BBC reported today that it was a memo led by Simon Hughes - a "warning shot across the bows" that their support could not be taken for granted.
Hughes issued a blunt warning to the Tories that the government would break up if key pensioner benefits in the coalition agreement were cut. He launched the most significant intervention since the formation of the coalition in the debate that followed George Osborne's emergency budget on Tuesday when the chancellor of the exchequer said that welfare would bear the brunt of cuts.
Although Hughes, the veteran Lib Dem MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark, said he supported harsh budget measures to help deal with Britain's weak public finances, he indicated that he was prepared to table rebel amendments to promote fairness. "If there are measures in the finance bill where we can improve fairness, and make for a fairer Britain, then we will come forward with amendments to do that because that is where we make the difference," he said.
The dole is well over £100 a week.
Effective from April 2009
Contribution based
Personal Allowance
£50.95 16 - 24
£64.30 25 or over
The conditions for contribution-based Jobseeker's Allowance are based on National Insurance Contributions you have paid from previous tax years.
A personal allowance of contribution-based Jobseeker's Allowance will be payable for 182 days irrespective of capital or your partner's income.
The personal allowance will be the same rate as that for Income Support.
There will be no Adult Dependency Increases.
Rates of Jobseeker's Allowance
Income based
Personal Allowance
£50.95 16 - 24
£64.30 25 or over
That's what the government says. I can go one better by publishing what I say... or at least 'Exhibit A' from Canturbury's very own layabout incubation unit:
View attachment 67111964
I honestly can't explain the difference in the figures but I know what I'm given, so scissors cut paper I'm afraid. Maybe they were just impressed with the old swagger at the dole interview and gave me more out of sheer respect!
At the end of the day I still maintain that with the benefits you're given when unemployed (including housing benefit when eligible), even with the dole at the levels you quote you can still live quite well. Just do what unemployed people always did and eat all your leftovers, use your utilities responsibly and don't go on shopping crawls.
I'm not on incapacity. And if I was I'd definitely be one of the 9/10: Nine out of ten on incapacity benefits 'are fit to return to work' | Mail Online
Anyway, I have asked on a few occasions if the money I was getting was right. In the beginning I expected to live just above hand-to-mouth so I was more than pleasantly surprised. I was always assured that everything was bona, but I still always prepared myself for a cut at some point. Indeed, all good things really do come to an end and I always thought the government were going out on a limb being too flash with the nation's readies (and not just with some benefits - everything.). It all has to be paid for, the worse the longer you leave it.
All in all though, yes, I do want to get back to work and get some money honestly. Kicking about having fun is all well and good if I'm paid to do it for a while, but watching that old Pilger documentary on the unemployed in Liverpool makes me think that things have gone a bit far. You're not gonig to take it as seriously if you now find yourself being penalised for saving your money rather than spending it if they give you a surplus!
Job creation is another issue entirely.
I always thought Labour should have done what they always screamed at Margaret Thatcher for not doing, and that's properly investing in a new British industrial base. Even a little one would do, with a few US and Canadian-style import taxes to stop too many being squeezed out by overly plentiful cheap foreign imports. (The old industrial base was just a rotten shell piling debt, so she got rid of it. But her assumption that market forces would create a new one didn't materialise. We got a 'service-based' economy and foreign ownership of British factories, which is no good when the Far East now provides the most lucrative sweat shops in the land.)
It's not just me either. The Jobcentre say such an amount is normal. Plus when I've had letters over the past four years saying they've re-evaluated my circumstances and money, they keep saying I deserve more. Alright Canterbury, you're the boss!
As I say, once once more, people on the dole wouldn't be hungry if people who needed it more got more at the expense of those with enough to splash out regularly. The shopkeeper of my favourite place keeps asking me where all the lolly cmes from. I tell him I'm getting what I can reasonably afford now because there's bound to be a long cold winter coming up!
From a personal standpoint I think it's great. Far better to have no problems than some, especially when there's usually money left after bills to go shopping for a pile of trousers, save for a rainy day or a shiny new gadget. But the public spirited bit in me does sympathise with Mr. Osbourne, though I do think that if MPs can guzzle taxpayers' money like it's going out of fashion then I shoul;d have a bit as well.
On my way to work, during rush hour, I often see a blind woman commuting into the City with her guide dog. The effort she makes to hold down a 9-to-5 job in London's hurly burly is little short of heroic. No reasonable person could blame her for staying at home on benefits. Instead, she battles on.
It is a sick society in which a woman such as this works and pays taxes so that Karen Matthews and her ilk can draw £300-£400 a week, producing children only for the purpose of guaranteeing yet more freebies.
Jobseeker's Allowance Income-Based - Premiums
Premiums 2009/2010 2010/2011
Family Premium 17.30 17.40
Family Premium (Lone Parent rate) protected for certain claimants 17.30 17.40
Pensioner Premium - couple 97.50 99.65
Enhanced Pensioner Premium - couple 97.50 99.65
Higher Pensioner Premium - couple 97.50 99.65
Disability Premium - single 27.50 28.00
Disbility Premium - couple 39.15 39.85
Enhanced Disability Premium - couple 19.30 19.65
Enhanced Disability Premium - Single people/Lone Parent 13.40 13.65
Enhanced Disability Premium - Child 20.65 21.00
Severe Disability Premium - single 52.85 53.65
Severe Disability Premium - couple - one qualifies 52.85 53.65
Severe Disabiltiy Premium - couple - both qualify 105.70 107.30
Disabled Child Premium 51.24 52.08
Carer Premium 29.50 30.05
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Hariot Harman has given an excellent reply, saying that what the Chancellor has said is rewriting history, that there is no need for these massive cuts, that what Labour was doing was working and would have reduced the deficit earlier and that this likely will stop our recovery.
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