Universal Credits- a new nightmare

Oh James, if only!

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/10/18/tory-mp-miss-important-commons-vote-champions-league-refereeing/

Well here’s one way of avoiding voting either way. As for the other Tory dissenters, I’ll be amazed if they vote against the Government - an abstention ( or a refereeing commitment) will be the best we can hope for.

" My terminally ill brother has never smoked but was born with heart and lung problems. He had his DLA stopped because he told he was fit to work.

He went to sign on and asked the woman interviewer at the job centre to plug in his breathing equipment as the battery pack that keeps him alive was going flat. The DWP worker laughed and asked where are the cameras – my brother asked what she was on about. She seriously thought it was some sort of joke that my brother was sent to sign on.

When she realised it wasn’t a joke, she set about doing an appeal. She said because he hasn’t got the breath to talk to her, in her opinion he wasn’t fit to work.

But his money was stopped for 3 months.

My sister-in-law who suffers from Asbestosis from sitting on her fathers lap after he finished work, has been forced back to work full time. She can also hardly breath and works 60 hours a week for next to nothing. They were three months with out a penny. If it wasn’t for their daughter buying food and paying bills for them, they would have starved or been evicted.

It’s a disgusting way to treat people who are dying. Both of them don’t have long left. Surely if a Christian, realised this they would help. No most Tories claim to be Christians but they make life as miserable and difficult for those less fortunate and in need."

Something I've just read about PIP.

Absolutely appalling that the tories did not vote again, after all that debate.
Nobody from the front bench there.
They only had a vote because some on the tory benches shouted "No!".

I hope there is an election very soon, and all those on benefits in tory areas say what they think of their MPs.

Well done Sarah Wollaston, the only Tory MP with any guts to go against the whip.
How embarrassing to ask your whips to whip against voting at all.

skwawkbox.org/2017/10/18/tories-impose-3-line-uc-whip-on-mps-to-hide-only-wollaston-has-spine/

Bercow was very angry this time.
Is this what Tories think of democracy?

Not just Tory economic failure, but failure to show respect for their constituents.

Did anybody else watch it?

Good to see Sarah Wollaston voting against her party. UC is a disgrace and good for the Labour Party .

Do you think the whip will be taken away from her? I think she's on the select health committee, but I bet she hates working with Hunt. She'll probably not be chair any more, although I don't think it is the choice of the PM. However, if she has the whip removed, she can no longer call herself Tory.

She chairs the health select committee - what on earth is she doing associating with that bunch of spineless, immoral Tories who could not give a flying fig for the poor.

The chairs are elected I believe

Why is this vote allowed to be non-binding when Brexit isn't?

You may well ask - democracy and the will of the people is a wonderful thing

What about the will of the people when dealing with universal credit? Obviously doesn't matter.

Every Tory MP except SW has no view at all on the need to pause UC. What an utter utter farce = abstaining is a cowardly spineless act and undermines the concept of representative democracy. Are they all saying that their constituents whose views they are supposed to represent have no views on UC? Just when you think the Tories can’t sink any lower...

I don't think Theresa May would take the whip away from any Tory MP at present as her majority is wafer thin.
Even from one who occasionally votes against the government.

She’ll be punished in other ways - it’s quite disgraceful isn’t it having an MP who actually cares? TM won’t wantvto encourage that will she?

www.24housing.co.uk/news/government-under-fire-after-abstaining-on-universal-credit-vote/

I haven’t been able to post on this thread since the vote, as I simply can’t describe how I feel about the utter contempt the so called Christian Tories hold the poor in.

I expect the Tory suppprters in GN are also abstaining from having any view on this also.

Better than trying to justify it.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2017/oct/19/universal-credit-is-designed-to-blame-the-poor-for-their-poverty

This is powerful stuff, by Giles Fraser.

"The family of a boy whose rare heart condition means he can’t control his own body temperature are struggling to get by – because they can’t afford to heat their home.

Jack Woods, seven, had his first heart operation at just six-days-old and was later diagnosed with the heart condition Tricuspid atresia which meaning only half of his heart is capable of working.

The illness means that he can’t control his own body temperature and is always cold – so mum Ashleigh, 31, has to keep the family’s heating on all year round.

The family have been spending up to £200 a month on heating bills over the summer.

But Jack’s disability benefits and child tax credit has now been cut – as well as his carer’s allowance – thanks to government cutbacks.

After an appeal was made, the claim was denied for the second time and Ashleigh is currently waiting for a tribunal date to be set.

Ashleigh, from Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, said: “They stopped the benefits without any warning or assessment… We have lost around £1,700 a month in benefits and we are struggling to keep the heating on, especially now it’s colder.” "

Universal credit again.
How can anybody be expected to get by when losing £1700 a month?

The plan is for large areas of the county to go UC next spring. Everyone on housing benefit, or any of the other benefits, all moved at once. Nightmare.

In my county, they do it now, before Christmas.
They were asked if they would change the timetable and wait until after Christmas but Gauke refused.

I don't know if anyone is aware and I hope I'm not repeating this but the government are also changing the payment they make for mortgage interest. This, like housing benefit payments for rent, were in place to allow people to stay in their homes. They are abolishing the mortgage interest payment and people will have to take out a loan from the government which will have to be repaid when the house is sold.

Two things occur to me. Firstly some people will be having to cope with this as there benefits change to Universal Credit and decrease and secondly the government seems to want two bites at the cherry - or house - taking this money from the house and later taking any care charges - which, of course, may not be there. So Thatcher encouraged us all to buy and May will end up with people wondering why they bother - they would be better renting (and making Tories rich in the process I expect).

I think I put that on the housing thread, GracesGran, but it deserves to be on here as well.
Everything this Tory government does is another example of the Tory economic failure.
If the economy was as successful as they pretend, there would be no need to penalise the poor.

www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/hollie-needs-chemotherapy-treat-severe-13784454

No disability allowance for this little girl. More Tory cruelty.