Yesterday was the deadline for local councils to publish details of cuts to Council Tax Benefit. Millions of people could soon be dragged into the courts for being unable or refusing to pay the tax.
The Government has slashed funding for Council Tax Benefit by 10% but has left local authorities the power to decide how that cut is implemented. Whilst some more affluent Councils have made the decision to absorb this cut, around three quarters will be passing on the cut to their poorest residents.
As has become typical of this toff Government, it will be low paid workers, single parents, unemployed or sick and disabled people who will suffer.
A recent report from the Resolution Foundation has found that a single parent working part time will face increases of anywhere between £3 and £12 a week depending on where they live. Single unemployed people, or those on sickness or disability benefits in the Work Related Activity Group, could face payments of between £2 to £5 a week.
Just like the Poll Tax, this will leave local authorities pursuing people with nothing for debts that are probably more expensive to enforce than to ignore.
Iain Duncan Smith has long promised that his benefit reforms would ‘make work pay’. This has been based on a lie that people on benefits are better off than they would be in work. The changes to Council Tax Benefit, which the DWP has now relinquished control of, mean that any fiddling around with in-work benefits will be undermined by Council Tax bills landing on the doorstep. All the complicated talk of Marginal Deduction Rates – which means the amount people are worse or better off by being work – was a complete waste of time when local authorities can change the goal posts anytime they choose.
The impact of this bungled and poorly thought through shambles will be devastating for those with least and could bankrupt some local councils. With ever more draconian conditions for claiming benefits, increasing numbers of people are finding themselves locked out of social security completely. Around half a million benefit claims were sanctioned last year. Sanctions can now last up to three years. Anyone leaving a job, or being sacked for misconduct, could find themselves disallowed benefits completely.
Under the new legislation they will still be liable for Council Tax however. As has been previously pointed out, this will lead to feudal scenario under which people with no income at all could be forced to borrow money just to pay a tax for being alive.
Due to the recent housing benefit cuts most claimants are already paying out a substantial part of meagre benefits towards their rent. When the Bedroom Tax is introduced in April almost three quarters of a million social housing tenants will have to find on average £14 a week out of benefits towards the rent. Claimants could see over a third of their income (just £71 a week for unemployed people) going towards paying rent and Council Tax.
It is no secret that some claimants have debts they have to meet. Food, fuel, transport and other costs are all soaring. Under the upcoming welfare reforms, claimants will be expected to have broadband at home or to be able to afford expensive and insecure internet access in cyber-cafes and libraries.
David Cameron’s aides said yesterday that no-one should have to use food banks, with the genuinely nasty snipe that they are used by people who only ‘feel they need’ extra food. The millionaires in Government are telling people living on a few pounds a day that they have no right to claim they are hungry. Like a modern day Marie Antoinette, the effete toff in Number 10 dismisses the hunger of the poorest with the glibbest of remarks. May he one day meet the same fate.
The ugly truth is that soon, when claimants have paid their rent, their bedroom tax, their Council Tax, their debts, their VAT (the tax even children pay), their ‘jobseeking’ costs, and the soaring payments for heat, light and water, then for many there simply won’t be any money left at all for food.
Faced with this non payment campaigns are inevitable, whether aimed at Council Tax, the bedroom tax, or both. The choice between heating and eating is a difficult one. The choice between eating or paying some council jobsworth a fiver a week out of paltry benefits is not so tough. The slogan often used by anti-poll tax campaigners was Can’t Pay Won’t Pay. Never has that been truer than today and history may yet repeat itself.
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the void 
about june july the streets should be very bizzy but then they geared up for it by buying water wagons and such jeff3
Just say Poll Tax, and Thatcher to anyone in Scotland and then you’ll understand wht we only have one Tory. And that’s one too many.
Pat x
The only good Tory is a dead one.
of entirely natural causes, of course….and then not withstanding that old proverb about rich men and camels.
Oddly enough, this time it’s the English who are getting the full force of it and the Scots and Welsh who are isolated by virtue of devolution.
I’d hope that England’s response would be similar in character to Scotland’s, but as I say below, I really don’t think we’re going to get the chance to find out.
(Insulated, not isolated. Damned fuzzy brain…)
How do you mean we are Insulated? The bedroom tax is from what I’ve heard in my local village very much alive and on the roll here in Wales, and so is the ever increasing number of food banks and people who are forced to rely on them.
There is apparantly a team of representatives in the area I live visiting the people who will have to pay the ‘bedroom tax’ to tell them about their ‘options’.
I would gladly cut Camerons head off with IDS being the guillotine operator
he would see what a mess Cams head made before being subject to the same fate as his boss and Marie antionette!
Cameron is not fit for purpose this cunt is a dead man walking.
You can give the whole Conservative Party to Madam Guillotine – with pleasure!
why mess up her blades it’s too quick for em
With pleasure PAL
Totally agree, taking everything off poor people and the rich get richer. It’s like the days of Robyn hood. All I can say no wonder people play the system
Let them eat cake 🙂
Let them eat HORSE BURGERS!
Does anyone know when IDS is gonna be on Question Time again?
Quite possibly the sneakiest little cut with the most dangerous effect on those who can’t afford to pay.
Becoming a bailiff will be a lucrative profession.
I doubt that, Quinonostante, bailiffs want cash and these people don’t have any to give them.
They have stuff, and what little they have Bailiffs will take…
We remember the disaster that was indeed the poll tax and we know what came to pass in that case, this time round is different but this is not a time to look at councillors and blame them as some might, this is firmly at the coalitions door, it will be one of the final nails in this coalitions coffin, it may not seem like it but we are in many ways witnessing the endgame of this coalitions and the tory fascist insanity… this coalition is not fit to govern, they have offended too many people, many of his own party would be prepared to serve his head up on a silver platter, only goes to show how fickle many members of this coalition can be.
I suspect there will be levels of protest regarding the CTB cuts that will reverberate across Whitehall long after the situation passes. They have cut too fast, too deep, borrowing is up, we have a triple-dip recession on the way and we are close to losing our Triple-A credit rating, The coalition is trying to divert attention from these and many other serious matters any government of integrity would be focused upon, instead we have gone on a tangent with Europe and Same Sex Weddings, these are important matters but hardly burning one’s at this moment as we are about to head over the edge of a economic cliff and it’s crumbling.
On the subject of bailiffs.. they are the scum of the earth, it takes a certain kind of person to do a job like that and it tends to be one who isn’t really all that popular socially, probably a bully or they tend to be conceited pumped up bodybuilders who probably moonlight as bouncers at nightclubs. Or they can be just plain oafs who hold onto tinpot authority as such jobs like this and traffic wardens and bus inspectors and so forth, in many cases non-entities who have no scruples or any integrity towards decency. They tend to be arrogant and very self important individuals who use intimidation tactics against the weak and in debt individuals feeding potentially off their ignorance regarding their legal rights in relation to one situation or another.
I can’t afford the heating on now the bills are water,gas,electric internet/phone for job seaching, keeping in touch etc. I don’t drink/smoke/sky/have holidays/days away/car/new clothes etc.
My partner has coelic diease,can’t eat wheat,breaded things he gets 18 items on prescrition per month ,bread, pasta. All other food we have to buy out of job seekers allowance which costs more money.
How the hell are we expected to pay for the bedroom tax and the extra poll tax(because that’s what it is) on top of all the other bills. I am not going to take this lying down i will fight, i no longer will have nothing to lose but the prison time will be well spent i will do what i have to do to take my fight to this government (MP’s) who voted for this .We need to make it personal let’s give it to them after all we will be in debt and possibly homeless lets also give it to the Baliffs. Keep it to the people who we need to fight no wanton violence on people not responsible, if things get out of hand.
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I bet most council absorbing this cut are controlled by the ruling party, Conservative or LD I know my Labour parasites are not.
As far as I can see, you’re pretty much right. Labour councils seem to be hoping to pass on the pain and blame the government. But then, Labour/Green/etc councils are also having their funding from Whitehall cut much more deeply than Tory/LD councils. Both sides are playing politics with people’s lives; neither side is fit to be left in charge of a sixth form classroom.
Any source for this claim. Not doubting; just want to know more.
OFF WITH THEIR FUCKING HEADS !!!!!
Massive powder keg…….all we need is a match.
Yes, of course they want a riot. They want as much civil disorder as possible. Civil disorder makes it much easier to dispense with human rights. Also, declaring martial law as part of a “state of emergency” will obviate the need for further elections.
You didn’t think we were actually going to be allowed to get rid of these people in 2015, did you?
There’s more chance of me pulling Beyonce or Nicloe Sherzinger than the Conservative Party winning the next general election!
0.0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000%
Ok, that’s a bit harsh, maybe 0.00000000000000000000001%
Martial Law? when half the armed forces will soon be on the dole, and the few remaining bogged-down in North Africa and Afghanistan? The Police too are becoming over-stretched due to cutbacks. I think the Powers That Be are safely ensconced in their Ivory Towers and are pulling up the drawbridge and leaving the rest of us to fight it out amongst ourselves. Their days are numbered, and they all know it, the cracks are showing, the old power structures are starting to crumble, people are waking up and seeing through the lies, Capitalism is unsustainable in its present form. A minority elite are creaming-off the majority of wealth, and blaming it on the poor. All worn-out systems and outmoded establishments based upon greed, fear and control – all that is unjust – must crumble. The ‘house of cards’ must fall!
If I recall the JSA letter from the DWP refers to ‘the minimum amount the law deems that you require to live on’ (or words to that effect). I think these extra charges may be open to judicial review on that basis. It is in effect a cut to less than the minimum needed to live.
The Government states that you need £71 a week to live on. Any additional charges is less than the minimum needed to live. Also, when the JSP sanction someone this is also true?
I was sanctioned back in August, a reversal of decision reduced it to 3 weeks and I then sent an appeal. Last week I received a letter and money for the 3 weeks that they had sanctioned me. It caused me severe hardship at the time and it has taken until now to be resolved. I am thinking about requesting a compensation payment for the stress and hardship their decision maker caused me.
I am in the fortunate position that I do not sign on as I work one day a week and I decided to forgo my NI contributions than go through the weekly sign on.
Those words: “the minimum the Law says you need to live on” were embodied in the Legalisation for good reason – as a protection against the abuse which is currently being (illegally) carried out.
In fact, “bedroom taxes”, “sanctions”… are actually ILLEGAL. Someone really need to challenge this nonsense!
Well said Anton – Yes,I agree. Councils who ask the unemployed to pay Council Tax from JSA are breaking the LAW when JSA is considered in LAW to be the minimum required to live!!! on. European Court of Human Rights may be worth a visit.
The hidden agenda started under Maggie and after being Blair’s first guest at number 10 he continued it ,now we have Cameron and cohorts going in for the kill .It was obvious that Welfare Reform would be contentious but provision has been made (terrorism act ) hence the smug faces on Cameron and Osborne .I sincerely hope that the Police ballot to have the right to strike has an overall majority and we wipe the smiles from both the smug parasites faces .
As Anton says Jobseeker’s Allowance is not supposed to be taxable; it is the absolute minimum amount of money that the law say you need in order to stay alive and buy food, drink, clothe yourself and so on and so forth. If you are under 25 and have to pay £5.00 a week council tax you instantly lose about 9% of your income; additionally, if the monstrous George Osborne has his way, over the next three years benefit claimant will lose a minimum of about another 5% (could be very much more if inflation pick up) because benefits will updated by only 1% instead of the current rate of inflation according to the CPI. So with prices going up with benefit claimants set to be robbed of 14% of their income over the next three years how will they be able to maintain their health? Before these real terms cuts benefit levels were inadequate to allow claimants to nourish themselves adequately and keep themselves warm. People will suffer from malnutrition in 21st century England. People will freeze and be unable to eat hot food. Utilities essential for hygiene and health like water and electricity will be disconnected. Homelessness will soar. I can hardly bear to think about the spectacular wickedness perpetrated by this pernicious cancerous coalition.
You don’t really think that these bastards care? Do they hell. They don’t give a damn about the physical or mental health of claimants, they want us all dead or kept out of sight. Poor, sick, disabled & the unemployed have no place in their vision of a country turned into a playground for the filthy rich.
Dickless libertarian 20-something chav thug/inbred posts vile garbage shocker:
https://twitter.com/Will_Hoe/status/297403924120485888
http://support.twitter.com/groups/33-report-abuse-or-policy-violations
Should mention the ugly torybertarian cunt probably fucked his sister before posting
lolbertarianmoron :
It’s you I’m referring to you dimwitted self abuser.
You sound like the ghost of Savile, you vile troll.
chav? we can do without that kind of talk round here.
Pig ignorant cunt.
“The choice between eating or paying some council jobsworth a fiver a week out of paltry benefits is not so tough”
What choice? My understanding is that if you do not pay your council tax, the council gets the jobcentre to deduct it in instalments from your JSA.
Yeah, the jobcentre do deduct your council tax debt from your benefits; no way anyone is going to escape paying this.
It’s to have da money deducted straight… saves you da bother of standing in a queue to withdraw the money… then standing in another queue to pay the council tax… by deducting it at source and sending da money off da jobcentre are doing all da work… 🙂
It’s (betta) to have da money deducted straight
It is ileagal for the Jobcentre to deduct any money from your JSA payments because if you read what your yearly benefits increase letter say’s – it states ” This is the amount of money THE LAW say’s you need to live on”
So i would say you could legally challange this with a ‘no win no fee’ solicitor.
“The payment of Jobseeker’s Allowance is based on the amount the law says you need to live on. We call this Income-based Jobseekers’ Allowance.
How much the law says you need to live on each week £71.70”
[and then]
Money that is taken off your benefit each week
“This includes:
For
Council Tax Arrears”
—-
So if the law says you need £x to live on each week, how the fuck can the jobcentre deduct money form what the law says you need to live on,
This must apply to “sanctions”, “bedroom taxes” and all the other ILLEGAL shit that the DWP get up to!
I’m not 100% but am pretty sure they have to go to court before they can do this (unless they have your consent)
will look into it
Its the bailiffs that go court to obtain an arrestment order. Then they pass it to the JCP.
Please – remember private renters have been paying a % of HB for nearly a year now. Not all JSA etc can get social housing.
I’m (fingers crossed) lucky that my rent hasn’t increased in a while. But – the only source of heating is a back boiler on an open fuel fire. Not of great use if you have to be out all day.
So curtains closed – single glazed sash windows – huge difference when the curtains are closed.
Block of 8 cottages – nearly all keep the curtains closed and 7 have work.
Once you are in debt with social housing I was told they are no longer obliged to re-house you, therefore being paid uc a month in arrears will put you in debt straight away and you will not be eligible to be rehoused, just left to accrue more and more debt if you cannot afford to pay extra bedroom tax also.
Will the baliffs be sent in to rob you of any possessions you may have before they evict you onto the streets with nothing?
The council add £60 to your bill every time a debtor has to be taken to court, they can then use baliffs to rob you of possessions, evict you or jail you.
How come you can have debts deferred for tuition fees until you find a suitable job but not housing/council tax costs.
Personally I would like to see our council go bankrupt they are a pack of stuck up, piss taking, tin pot hitlers, and they’re labour controlled.
Under the poll tax, all around the country there were organised local groups of the Anti Poll Tax Federation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Britain_Anti-Poll_Tax_Federation
There was picketting of local magistrates courts when refuseniks were on trial. When bailiffs attacked a home, local groups would pull together a team within minutes to stand together and defend the property.
Back in 1990, everything was achieved through people phoning each other on their landlines (few owned mobiles at the time). Just think what we could do now with social networking and smartphones.
Perhaps now is the time for our anti-cuts/workfare and disability rights groups to unite in a similar federation.
I sometimes wonder if the availability of social medica, comment in newspapers, twitter etc has actually taken the steam out of people. Reading articles, watching the news, Questiontime, whatever there is always an instant source to vent any anger, have a good old rant and then go to bed.
Before that, people would meet in the pub, hold political meetings, hand out flyers of when to meet and so get a more immediate build up and connection between actual real people where presumably some action or other was more likely to be planned or to kick off.
Just a thought ,but I cannot understand why so far there has been no real reaction to this total nightmare being inflicted on the weakest, sickest and poorest in society. A lot of social media seems to have acted to ramp up the hatred of the spongers rhetoric read in the papers rather than refute it. The concerted propaganda attack on the disabled as fit for work has largely been swallowed whole and regurgitated by social media. The few who are able to fight back are drowned out by the ignorance and bile.
This may well change when the council tax and bedroom tax kicks in but the gov and police are more savvy now to arrangements being made that way. We need to get local people involved in local and national politics together again,with proper meeting and discussion, not just on our own on the internet. How many of us are living right next door to someone who has no idea what benefit cuts have hit the disabled or the sanctions on the unemployed or even now believes they are fakes and cheats, simply because they haven’t actually spoken to them?
Having said that the gov are certainly preparing. Remember the MP who said they were EXPECTING people on the streets over the NHS? Didn’t really happen, except when the small protest that did take place, ARMED police were deployed openly on the streets near Parliament.
Under cover of “security” for the Olympics remember we now also have LRAD in this country. Who really believed that was for then? It’s prep for what they think is to come. Only thing is, they are so focussed on ideology they are incompetent. Unlike Maggie who prepared for trouble by boosting the police and paying them more, much more, this lot have sacked loads of them want to bring in outsiders like business managers as operational decision makers and outsource them to G4S. And they’ve pissed off the Army too. Interesting times.
& Jan may have hit the nail on the head in a post above.
Consumers never screamed for social media, tv programmes that interact with social media, smart phones etc. It just popped up out of the blue. But we’re being conditioned (over 35’s, under 35’s are born into it sadly) and told that social media is the way forward.
I vent my anger here. But really I should type my thoughts on paper and hand them out (preparation of tear-or-wrist material); or sing them (the sheep prefer gangnam style); or create a tv programme (soaps rule tele); maybe even start a weekly/monthly magazine (have you seen the crap that’s being printed lately?)
what I am trying to say is,
is there a super intelligent entity running the show? All avenues are being covered. Physical, material and emotional tranquilizers.
Before birth and after death too. ‘Be good in this life and you are rewarded in the your next life’ – Multiple lives? Just like on the old arcade games! (intelligent conditioning alert) – Erm be good..
But the ‘State’ created the dictionary, so the ‘State’ created the word good and it’s definition. True?
So there is BEING good, ie, co-operating. Following order. Taking one for the team. Be harmed but cause no harm. Suffer loss but cause no loss. Follow and obey. etc. This is what the ‘State’ promotes. To do the opposite is bad. True?
Then there’s another good. But I can’t call it good because good is the ‘States’ creation.
I interact with other people, and we do a good job for a positive end. We all gain something. I then provide food, warmth and shelter to my closest. I am self-sufficient. My only worry is health. I feel at peace with myself and have survived my 3rd benefit sanction without any theft or feeding drug addicts. No sexual crap either. No threats violence or intimidation. I protect myself to avoid being a victim, as any living being is entitled to.
I. Am. Alright. For now.
If I did what the ‘State’ states is the path to a decent standard of living, I’d be at A4e again, or working temp £6.23 per hour (night or day) slowly getting deeper and deeper into debt. Or ‘training’ to gain skills that were drummed into our heads at school from 5-16.
Why did I go school and follow the ‘State’ curriculum, to be told in my 30’s that I need training in the basic skills that was taught by an authority. The ‘State’. School is a legal requirement. Parents go to prison for breaking that law.
What a waste of my one life..
Experiment over, the result isn’t good for me. It is good for the entity. One less..
The Entity is living in 2013 with all the hi tech expensive stuff that can be afforded. A electric hungry world with beautiful LED lighting.. Commoners will experience that as a standard around 2063 or so, the entity will be living 3013 lifestyle by then. 50 years (10 steps) ahead of the self-titled World Leaders and the self-titled Global Elite. Or maybe they were named by the entity?
Chicken or the egg? I think the layer of the egg that hatched the first chicken did not expect a chicken to be in their egg. Fundamental.
So, I can speculate that what we are living now is what an entity had planned for ‘Commoners’ for long time. It’s been improved on of course.
We dumb.
Or, is it all simply a case of the yin & the yan-pro’s & cons-negative to positive. Does everything in existence have a opposing effect by default?
That’s my rant over. Thanks for reading.
U.S.T.U. Us too, we also want a piece of the pie!
I Predict A Riot.
April: punishment fro the poor, disabled and vulnerable.
April: £107,000 tax break for millionaires. £40,000 tax break for slightly lesser rich greedy bastards. Politicians gorging on the gravy train.
Fuck all this.
“You didn’t think we were actually going to be allowed to get rid of these people in 2015, did you?”
>>>>>
There’s not much they can do if their heads are removed.
The Politician
The Political Class
These unspeakable cretins
Of the political class
Worse than the detritus
From my arse
Who pillage our wealth?
In gigantic sums
They spend “our” money
On “personal” greed
These stinking rotten
Diabolical thieves
They lie and cheat
All dirty deeds
And these cretins
Pass laws for you and me
Up to their necks
In sleaze and muck
Who once in power
Don’t give a “rubber duck”
They have no respect
For any class
They live a life
Of pomp and wealth
Making their “pot”
By greed and stealth
They are the dross
Of human kind
Not even fit
To kiss our behinds
Peter Wicks….1999
Two news items today
1 drug addict mother let tv set fall on babys head
2 tv star saves jessops camera shop chain.
So there you have it .
Entrepreneurs are heroes to save the world and benefit scroungers are baby murderers.
Atos the new Spanish inquisition
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=Lz15INZ01XI&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DLz15INZ01XI
“Cunts are still running the world”
So Cameron says food banks not needed as benefits too generous? Oh dear won’t this upset his mates at the trussel trust who have been profiting from their foodbank scams .
Reblogged this on HUMAN RIGHTS & POLITICAL JOURNAL.
Apologies that this is from the faily mail last year.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2222000/Architect-Thatchers-poll-tax-warns-Cameron-risks-similar-chaos-council-tax-shake-up.html
Worst effects of austerity on disabled are yet to be felt says disability law firm
http://m.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/jan/09/worst-effects-austerity-disability-charity
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some quotes from Nepoleon Bonaparte that made me laugh …. http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/n/napoleon_bonaparte.html
I’ve found in the past that concerted resistance, coupled with pans of boiling chip fat will deter most bailiffs; that, and extreme violence are tactics they understand. It’s sad that, at times, it has to come to that.
This is one of those times.
The psychopaths in power scoff at peaceful resistance. We have seen the evidence. No other option is left. We have been abandoned.
“The people, united, will never be defeated.”
Remember that.
Organise, resist , fight.
I’m disgusted with my council; they’ve announced that benefit claimants will have to pay 30% of the council tax, which is around £30 per month. Someone also affected with the bedroom tax and claiming JSA will have just £40 a week left to pay for everything else.
After April, someone being assessed or reassessed for ESA could spend 13 weeks without any income at all, but they’ll still be liable for the bedroom tax and council tax because it is no longer based on income.
And if you don’t pay council tax the courts could jail you. So for the first time in a very long time, a poor person can be jailed not because they refuse to pay council tax, but for the very fact that they are poor and actually have no income to live off.
Welcome back Dickensian times, and pauper’s prisons.
sassonx
Below is a link describing the steps taken to recover council tax arrears. Note in the “Deducting money from your benefits” section:
“We don’t need to contact you to start the deductions.”
http://www.kirklees.gov.uk/you-kmc/payments/counciltax/councilTaxProblems.aspx
An interesting pdf on the 1990 poll tax rebellion:
Click to access Poll%20Tax%20Haringey.pdf
I just want to go of topic a minute my question is regarding Universal Jobmatch has anybody actualy ever seen it working at the jobcentre?, has anybody ever seen a jobcentre advisor access there account?, does the monitor aspect even exsist(lets hope its not like the detector vans lol).
I only ask because i have been to the jobcentre 5 times now and they always make an excuse when the time comes to access it i back up all my job search to a job diary and they would rather just read that then go on UJ.
Just a thought.
From what I heard lewisham a and e will be saved but many services scaled back.
However now we hear that atos will be carrying out assessments in hospitals I wonder if the two are related in some way I can imagine at some point atos assessing every patient in hospitals and having many kicked out to save money ..
I won’t be coming out for a riot this year. The ‘State’ has better arms.
What are we going to do too? Smash up our own areas? Yay. Revolution.
If millions want to march down to parliment one day and have an intense silent stand off, say when.
For a whole weekend, with people from the North, far North included. East. South. West. I can vision the flock of peaceful and silent protesters. & with a little self-enforcement, the criminal crap (which the media use to weaken the protested arguements) will be kept to a minimum.
We are our own army. We are Earth born for f***sake. This is our world too!
Grab your tents, chairs and a flask. Wilkinsons do a 3m x 3m decorating dust sheet for £1. I can use my jobseeker imagination.. I’m on my 2nd 4 week sanction (3rd sanction in total. & counting.)
I can’t afford a tent either.
We know where the toilet is. If you were seriously considering a silent peaceful protest, the big flaw in a Fri-Sun stand off is having to go to the loo. “There’s a big old building where the elite take the p***. It smells like a toilet and it’s full of s***. It must be the toilet..”
Taxpayers are forking out more than £60,000 a WEEK so wealthy peers in the House of Lords can feast on lavish three-course meals
The shock figures means each of the House of Lords’ 760 peers benefits from an £84 discount on their food every week.
The lavish cut is more than the weekly Jobseeker’s Allowance for the unemployed of just £71.
And it comes on top of the £300-a-day “subsistence” given to peers for each day they attend the Lords to cover food and accommodation.
Many peers are multi-millionaires. Conservative former leader of the Lords, Lord Strathclyde, is worth around £10million and ex Deputy PM Lord Heseltine is said to be worth £200million.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/house-of-lords-food-and-drink-bill-1570201
Fucking great there,s me having to buy several cheapest own brand pot noodles a week to fucking eat and those greedy rich bastards get all that
Bailiffs employed to collect council tax arrears are notoriously heavy-handed and thuggish. They think nothing of bending the rules and will pursue you relentlessly. Let’s not forget there are custodial sentences imposed for defaulting on council tax. The country is reaching boiling point.
How the government are conducting themselves and arrogantly refusing to listen to anyone, one must draw the conclusion that they are spoiling for a fight. They are forgetting they are supposed to serve the electorate not the other way round. The should heed how many people in this country have been pushed to the limit and may snap after all when you have had everything taken away from you then you got nothing left to lose. This government have a lot to answer for and I hope one day they are brought to book for their inhumane treatment of the poor, sick and vulnerable the very people Cameron said had nothing to fear how many lies can one man tell. His whole manifesto was a lie the only promise he as kept as been to cut welfare which he as done at lightening speed. Trouble is the reason was he said to cut the deficit so how come the debt is a lot higher now than when this government took over? and where as the money gone through making all these drastic cuts?
has anyone noticed you never see a poor tory, what this country needs is for us all to stop paying council tax road tax and any other tax that this bunch of idiots think they can impose on us, if we all did this they`d have a hard job sending us all to prison when there closing prisons down i have been on ib for 12 yrs my income support was suspended, the wife won here appeal but you only get 365 days on esa, so on the 16th feb all we will have is my ib, i have not been able to pay my mortgage so we will be losing our home, and then people complain we get too much on benefits and we dont want to work what a bloody joke, it seems to me this government is bothered about people from other countries rather than their own, and in 2014 the freedom to travel comes into force then we will be swamped with bulgarians and romainians all looking for social housing and benefits and they`ll get it knowing this government this whole country is now one big joke
There was some talk of them wanting to build a ‘super-prison’ to house several thousand prisoners.
I think it’s time the bickering and bitching has to stop. Its time that we, the “working class” revolted against this Government, but we need a “leader”. This march and demonstration must be well organised covering people from all corners of England…2-3000 is no good, we need a 100.000 people. With the internet and mobiles I can see this happening in around June/July, but first we need someone to co-ordinate this. I couldn’t as I have terminal cancer, but I would certainly help in some way…..Is there anybody out there prepared to set up a cross-county committee and put a strategy together??
Be very interested who replies to your call to arms. Marches and rallies are well supported but the Tories just carry on ploughing us into oblivion no matter what we do. But we fight on.
Pat x
yep, we need to move beyond marching and start fucking things up. direct action, wildcats strikes, occupations and open confrontation are the only way now or we will lose everything generations of working class people fought hard for.
And what about those disabled people or those to ill or sick who can’t march? How are you proposing to help them>
Pat x
well DPAC have done some great stuff which is exactly the direction things need to move. lots can – and has, as you know 😉 be done online as well
Whatever you do it has to be in unity. Getting Unions, grassroots group, everyone together. Don’t let the Tories divide and ruke. At the end of the day we do all want the same objectives.
Pat x
agree, unity is important – but unions unlikely to take part in direct action/illegal activity at present – so it means a diversity of tactics, supporting each other where we can, and crucially not slagging off the way different groups choose to resist
The problem with little Englanders today is the I’m alright jack attitude, their is no solidarity. I am 50 and was there when we handed the imported police from Yorkshire their own arses for waving their pay packets at us.
im in, time to rock the boat guys, lets give them what they got coming and stand up against this dictatorship. ill be marching with you just name the time and place. im already my job centers worst nightmare through handing out pcs union notes outside for the ujm….
We need organised physical action against the government.
In order to get support for this I suggest you do what I am trying to do and that is match the government/media propaganda, wherever you can on the internet.
Mentioning things like expenses and the cut in the top rate of tax is a way to turn the anger upwards rather than downwards.
The cuts on affected people will be far more than 10% since pensioners are excempt. I agree political games will be affecting who is lucky to be in the right area, labour councils I expect to be brutal to make people angry at government and because the government is likely to give deepr cuts to labour councils. My labour council is actually pretending the cuts are 20%, when I complained I just had some hypocrite trying to advise me on budgeting, when I asked her how she would live on my income she hung up. Councils dont have complete freedom they have been told to except pensioners and to not increase council tax rates, basically this is a cut (tax rise) shoehorned onto benefit claimants. I dont think there will be any riots, this has been done much more cleverly than the poll tax, most people who dont claim council tax either are completely unaware its even happening or dont care. My council are also protecting anyone who has child benefit and high rate DLA. So the ones left are expecting a 40% increase. eg. I currently pay already 12% of my tax and it will go up to 52%. I will go from approx £16 a month to approx £35 a month, this at the same time my housing benefit has dropped by over £100 a month. I live on my own, have no other adults paying bills etc. currently living on jacket potatoes and pot noodles, but even before I only had at the most one cooked meal a day. My last cooked meal was when I was round my sister’s for christmas. These cuts have been deliberatly targeted a at a small set of vulnerable people, the poll tax affected many many more. Also whats been missed is there is further cuts in 2014 as well, 10% is just the start.
A fiver here, a tenner there, and a another twenty here. It is only a matter of time before the targeted individuals and households are going to be pushed under. What evil minds come up with this shit?
gwenhwyfaer | February 1, 2013 at 5:06 pm | Reply
Yes, of course they want a riot. They want as much civil disorder as possible. Civil disorder makes it much easier to dispense with human rights. Also, declaring martial law as part of a “state of emergency” will obviate the need for further elections.
You didn’t think we were actually going to be allowed to get rid of these people in 2015, did you?
————————————————————
Yes, its the only logical explanation.
Paying off the national debt is only an excuse so they can implement all the cuts.
Pushing people over the edge will ultimately lead to riots, just what they need ti bring in marshal law and guns on the streets.
They know there will never be a recovery of the economy, and they are just creating a scapegoat to blame.
Most of the time they really don’t want a riot. They know that if civil unrest breaks out on a scale where plastic bullets, tear gas etc are deemed necessary then it begins an escalating cycle – the reason the Met don’t come under massive attack from petrol bombs etc like European coppers do is because it hasn’t escalated that far yet in the UK.
If troops end up being brought in then there’s a very real risk of civil war/revolution – and there’s never any sure guarantee which way the guns will end up pointing.. Once the government loses the monopoly on violence then they aren’t really a government anymore. A few thousand teenagers ran rings round the full force of the domestic state a couple of years ago, there are lots more of us than them. They are well aware of this and terrified of the mob, as every state and rich man always has been.
So who are they going to blame when the economy is still in the shit?
Which it will be.
They can’t just come out with “we need even bigger cuts to get the deficit down” It just won’t wash.
If the population can’t see any light at the end of the tunnel after all the suffering they’ve had, they will have no alternative but to take the law into their own hands.
The government are terrified of the people finding out that they haven’t got a fucking clue how to get the economy back on track.
The genie will be out of the bottle and the people will act, eventually.
If they were so terrified of the mob they wouldn’t be pushing the boundaries of people’s civil and human rights, I think these hooray Henry’s are spoiling for a fight.
http://www.facebook.com/events/101219716723308/
that is an organised group making a stand in May this year…the 99% against austerity. Get looking, they seem to have their shit together
Jeez, you have to log-in to Fakebook to even view this page ffs!
theresa
are they the pcs union objectors?
Have the councils raised the amounts due from the higher bands of council tax?
Silly question, i know!
Guy, they are and ever growing group of people who are just hacked off like everyone else. They have about 1 and a half thousand attending in may so far..still time to get them numbers up. This is from their about me section 🙂
[Description]
Fighting for Prosperity not Austerity
I am not a liberator.They do not exist. The People liberate themselves.
Revolution is here revolution is now, Revolutionary civil disobedience is all we have left.
A peaceful family friendly demonstration throughout the UK highlighting that we the people will not stand by and let this government ruin our country and our dignity by enforcing austerity on us whilst they get tax breaks, for the cuts to our national services, the lack of jobs, creating the new bedroom tax where our children are forced to share rooms smaller than the politicians closets, the constant lies by the government, the high prices of living and just the way we are treated and to prove that we are not the shirkers and scroungers that they make this nation out to be.
WE SAY NO TO AUSTERITY
WE SAY NO TO THE BEDROOM TAX
WE SAY NO TO THE CUTS
WE SAY NO TO WORKFARE
WE SAY NO TO ATOS HEALTHCARE
WE WANT A LIVING WAGE
WE WANT A GOVERNMENT THAT WORKS FOR ALL THE PEOPLE NOT JUST THE 1%
AND LEAVE THE NHS ALONE
We demand the end of this corrupt government who’s only interest is profit for the few and misery for the many.
The removal of this government with an interim government with a guaranteed election at a date chosen by the people.
A new political party to be established with the interest of the people.
With mass national protests and strike action we can achieve this.
Coaches are planned covering the country at a subsidized rate.Please PM Kaz Allen.
Also check out the posts as events are also in Edinburgh and Cardiff. Protests in your home towns are also encouraged on this day.
This is a nonviolent event If a little guy from India could do it so can we!
Violence will not be tolerated. This is a peaceful protest there already is enough violence around.
email: occupytheuk@gmail.com
twitter: @liberatinguk
how will violence not be tolerated? it’s often the police that start being violent.
That, i presume would be a different matter. Im sure the powers that be would welcome unrest as it would show us how they have painted us.
scary times we be living in.
Personally i can so merits in both peaceful protests and non peaceful. But we would need such bigger numbers for the latter, but i do think that maybe thats what we need…to take our government by force.
More than 30 tenant, trade union and campaign groups are linking up to build a national umbrella campaign to fight cuts to housing benefit.
Initial plans from The Campaign for Benefit Justice, which will also oppose ‘attacks’ on other benefits, include protests later this month aimed at Lord Freud, the welfare minister, and Iain Duncan Smith, secretary of state for work and pensions. Next month, the campaign will stage a protest on Budget day and a summit in London.
The action comes ahead of the introduction of the ‘bedroom tax’ in April. This will cut housing benefit payments for working age social tenants who are deemed to be under-occupying their home.
The 31 groups backing the campaign include Defend Council Housing and Disabled People Against Cuts campaigns and the trade unions Unite and the Public and Commercial Services Union.
Representatives from the groups, including a 7,500-strong Facebook group dedicated to fighting the bedroom tax, met for a launch meeting in London last month
A statement from the campaign said: ‘Cuts in benefits are an unjust attack on the poor. Cuts concentrated on housing benefit are already breaking up families, communities and support networks. They will mean poverty, debt and evictions.
‘We oppose all cuts in benefits and tax credits. We did not cause the banking and economic crisis and will not be scapegoated to pay for it.
http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/tenancies…6525584.article
Todays news reports how police stole the i.d’s of dead children in order to infiltrate demonstration groups. Some of the posts I read on this blog seem to go beyond the very human reaction to being abused by DWP/ATOS/Work Program agents.
I remember what went on during the miners strikes. Only a fool would believe that authority figures have no interest in blogs such as this, indeed they would even start one in order to locate angry voices who might bother them in future.
Posts that appear to promote violence help nobody and it detracts from the moral argument about forced labour/benefit cuts and the treament of disabled/sick people. It makes it easier for the media to write off legitimate complaints as being the work of extremists.
It’s not my blog but I would zap any post that advocates violence. It could be the work of people with bad intent who actually support what Westminster is doing and not those motivated by social justice issues.
People shouldn’t post what they wouldn’t say directly to the person they are attacking. Well thats my thought for the day.
United StereoTypes of Unemployment (U.S.T.U.)
John
I read your message, but are this government not acting violently by causing others to commit suicide or forcing the sick to work or making those who cannot meet housing/council taxes homeless? they are all acts of aggression towards the poorest, while they take from the public purse to pay for mortgages for homeowners, give tax cuts to millionaires etc.
I’m not advocating violence because two wrongs never made a right,except for those on the right. I can understand how angry people must feel though.
The Government aren’t using violence.
They ‘say’, the servents ‘do’. Usually for pay. Those that follow the order are the hands with blood on them.
Because they choose to listen. They to have bills to pay.
Unite.
It’s like winding the clock back to the days of King John and the Sheriff of Nottingham with no Robin Hood to fight against their injustice. I’ve just heard that water is going to cost 3.5% more in the near future. How can an under 25 year old living of £56.25 a week Jobseeker’s Allowance pay for their food, utilities and essentials AND pay £5.00 a week Council Tax to their local authority? That amounts to an immediate 9% cut in money granted to them by the state to “live on”. This will mean 9% less food, drink, and warmth in cold weather to the poorest of the por while millionaires revel in a 5% cut in income tax. True, terrible, unadulterated wickedness.
The joke is, they’re only millionaires because they don’t spend any of their own money.
The cost is always passed on to the end-users, consumers and tax-payers.
Water, gas, electric, food, rent, council tax, clothes, home furnishings & appliances, train, bus, car – repair, insurance, tax, fuel, & parking;
The only things that are getting cheaper are alcohol and travel abroad.
What else can be added to each category? Help me add to the list. Then mark off what mp’s get a discount or subsidized on.
Household income is taking a battering. It’s like the motto is ‘work, pay the essentials and save for a holiday once a year. Visit less fortunate (organised) countries and feel the relief when you get back home.
Refreshed for another year of servitude.
U.S.T.U.
The people that don’t follow or would never follow fascist orders still have their bills to pay also. The first signs of resolution for the pcs union memebers and they will desert the unemployed in droves, just like the middle class does.
Jo, a presenter on the Daily politics BBC, emphasized the point that councils are compelled to throw people out of their homes and put them into more expensive temporary accommodation, despite the protestations of Polly Toynbee who said there are no smaller homes for them to go to and keeping them in bed & breakfast etc will cost more in housing benefit.
These council workers and housing associations will still follow their orders even though the policy is madness.
If those with homes have to move into bed and breakfast where will they store their furniture and at what cost? This is deliberate targeting of a certain social group who are dependent on housing benefit that is being withdrawn.
I think Osborne was thinking ahead about the benfit caps. The savings he will make will become huge if and when interest rates head north when the rigging of the bond/gilts market finally breaks. Inflation will rise significantly as the u.k bond ratings head south and the government has to pay more to service the debt. The so called “Q.E” has a sting in its tail when the point of reversal comes and makes matters worse.
Osborne knew he was skating on very thin ice with Q.E so the benefit cap was not imo principly directed towards current welfare spending but the future. It will have a devastating impact on poverty in this country if interest rates go up and/or the pound depreciates. He thinks they will at some point and therefore its’s better to have the caps in place now when rather than in the near future when the opposition would be much greater.
Interest rates are rising because of quantative easing, and how can the pound not depreciate when they are printing money to keep the bond market bouyant. So we are to be the sacrificial lambs for the benefit of gilt and bond holders, until it all goes pear shaped.
Fundraising: Conservative style.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/tories-no-longer-party-of-privilege-1590605?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed
with regards to my last post it should read inflation is rising, not interest rates are rising.
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The Dell
Don’t forget before the last labour government, the tories had been in power 18 years. They were still doing there cuts when they left. They don’t know when too stop. After the benmefit cuts what will be next. My friend says he will commit suicide if he has to leave his home he has lived in for 25 years.
He’ asked me to acctater his ashes at the gates at Downing street infront of the press. I will be happt to do it for him. What is the best news paper to tell about it if I do it.
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Previous summer riots will look like a picnic , don’t pay wont pay no blood no stone , jokers the lot of them , tax the rich and the corrupt banking selfish idiots!!!
We had a showing of http://riotfromwrong.com/ on Saturday at http://autonomous.org.uk/ and people from the Broadwater Farm Estate were there – They said that nothing has happened to change things, that feelings were high on the streets and when pressed said that the certainly saw further riots this year if major changes are not made.
four and half million people effected on benefits with these cuts about to come in in april, we only have around two hundred thousand police and army combined, so i see a civil war coming where the people on benefits can join a civil army take over the country and all have jobs then as they would be the new gov and army and police, and im think that’s legal as well, that’s 4.500.000 vs 200.000 i think its time for change quick.
I have just had my bill arrive today. I lost my Job in November 2012. I apply for 10-20 jobs per week. I have a car loan, a mortgage, electric, gas, water, insurance for the house and car(Yes I do insure mine!) RFL for the car, and phone bill, as JSA insist you have internet access to apply for jobs. Work it out for yourselves £71 per week doesn’t pay all these bills and let you eat and pay to get to interviews. It is a vicious circle. Now this roody goverment wants me to pay £17 more out per month to the council. I started work at 15, and have been paying in for over 30 years. I have for all my sins voted blue, but Cameron has screwed that, never ever again will my X go in a Tory box on any ballot paper!! Although I don’t think Labour is any better at present, I do think that UKIP will get my vote as a protest!!!! I think more people will do the same.
I say, we should refuse to pay this extra tax being levied on us. If you are not desperately trying to get a job, so you can have a decent living and standard of life, i can not understand you. £71 per week just doesn’t do it for me. Am I missing something? There seems to be too many people having everything paid for for them by DWP and JSA etc. I am even struggling to get mortgage interest paid! So I need a decent Job again. Just to keep the roof over my head.
God knows were this country is going, but the sooner Cameron and his Eaton cronies are out the better!!!
One very annoyed South Staffordshire resident.
you might want to read UKIPs benefits policy first: https://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/2013/03/05/ukips-disappearing-welfare-policy-claimants-are-a-parasitic-underclass-of-scroungers-says-party/
I for one hope this does turn out like the poll tax.
Singularly your notching but United we can make changes, let’s stand up be counted and show this government we had enough.
Also LoLz and other hacking groups this is your time to shine. Help the poorest use your skills for the poorest
how come you have to have internet access to get in touch job center when benefits are £71 a week ? Is this another blow for ppl that cant get jobs ?
Money for nothing and chicks for free huh?
Any one complaining about benefits forgets 1 thing:
Less than have of the UK population is active, this takes into account unemployed, not in working age and retired.
Who the hell do you expect will pay for all the rest?
Is it a right to have beer money or dog money? or a house? No, that is a privilege.
Rights do not exist. I am all for people not starving and having a roof over their heads, but not parasites breeding more parasites and complaining that they don’t leech enough
I say enough is enough. I’m sick of these rules.
Since money is backed up by nothing but belief, we should be printing our own promissory notes and stop playing their games. The entire enforcement procedure of CT is fraudulent and highly profitable. The Council print their own court summons, and it costs only 3 pound, so why are they charging people over 100? It’s sick. I’m happy for them to bankrupt me. Even be sent to jail. I don’t give a shit anymore. Needing money to just exist is just stupid.