General Chat

Well if I take the figure of £71 that is swallowed up by Council Tax and utilities.

£53 will pay Council Tax and Water Bill with about £5 to be stretched over utilities, food, clothes and incidentals.

Bet he does not take up the challenge.

T***** Said it in a nutshell RamblingRose :-D

I might have used a less polite noun prefixed by a good anglo saxon expletive myself. :-P

Mayfield ;-)

I don't actually know how that figure of £53 is arrived at?

edit ahh " the same amount as one benefit claimant said he survives on after rent and bills."

So not a true figure in any case,

JSA single

under 25 £56.25

aged 25 or over £71.00

assuming housing benefit pays 'most' of the rent on a room in a shared house ( and it soon won't for the under 25s ???) then it certainly does not leave £53 after utilities?

signed,,,,,the mans an out of touch prat whos never known the real lives of the man in the street,,,,

The £53 quoted was what was left after housing and bills, still a very meagre amount, but would assume it would not have to be used to pay council tax or any utilities?

Yes indeed PP I was just going on the figure locally assuming one person allowance and that the person would previously have been exempt from paying council tax due to unemployment/low income and who is now having to pay a proportion of that.

£4.00 per week council tax

I pay £115 x 1 & 114 x 9 per month

Right I do not get single person allowances, but I would assume that in London even then it would be far more than the £4.00 quoted.

My last Gas & Electricity bills (about 2 weeks ago) combined came to just over £800.00 for the quarter.

My water rates are about 8.00 pw (off the top of my head).

RamblingRose what you said is so true, it does take a greater mind and a greater heart and a more observant and empathetic nature than I believe IDS is, or ever will be, capable of.

It also takes compassion with a touch of humility to understand the lives of ordinary working people, instead of the arrogance and hypocrisy, being voiced daily by politicians who belong to an elite group in government that have no idea whatsoever how ordinary working people work hard and strive daily to provide for their family.

btw nearly 38, 000 people signed that petition within the last 12 hours lol.

Quick comment re the "politics of envy"....

I do not envy anyone their wealth. I do not begrudge IDS a nice house or his money, and I wouldn't swap places with Mrs IDS for every gold coin there is in the world!

I would never say it is impossible for men of wealth to understand the circumstances and situations of the poor, BUT it takes a greater mind and a greater heart and a more observant and empathetic nature than I believe IDS is, or ever will be, capable of.

It's always been my belief that if you work, you shouldn't be poor.
Certainly not on food vouchers.
There is, of course a difference between working a full week and part-time work, but as there is so much unemployment and thanks to various governments, the employees have the upper hand, and it's cheaper for them to employ 2 part time people rather than one full time.
The Governent also likes this as it massages the unemployment figures down. However, it does mean we are funding employers.
I still can't understand the logic of a person on low wages paying tax and then receiving tax credits. Why not cut out the middle man and give everyone a decent personal allowance before tax is taken off.

This government has (apparently) raised the tax threshold, but it has also raised National Insurance (a 'different' form of tax - but a tax)

12% on your weekly earnings between £146 and £817
2% on any weekly earnings over £817

Why is the amount less the more you earn?
12% of £146 is qhite an amount!

Have to go out. But just looked at your £2m mansion vs tied cottage. I think a lot of wealthy people live in cottages, houses, mansions whatever on country estates.

I remember Lord Hesketh's mother living in a cottage on the Easton Neston estate when we lived in that area of Northants. It was a magnificent house in the grounds of EN Hall (not far from Racecourse) and she had everything she could possibly want. Not sure if Betsy Duncan Smith is the sole heir to Lord Cotesloe, but presumably she may one day take over the responsibility for running the estate. No different to my dad giving me a rent free bedroom above our paper shop then handing over shop to me when he died.

It happens in many ordinary families - just not at the £2m level :-D ;-)

I think my so-called "envy" is on a different scale. If I know somebody is not working, has never worked, is playing the system and has things I cannot afford, I get rather annoyed about it. Seems wrong that the working poor should be worse off than the unworking poor living in same community. It doesn't consume my working day - but that has happened as a result of a uncontrolled welfare policy for several years.

I am not the only one who is upset incidentally. There are many posts on here directed at people able to take quite a bit out of the welfare pot without actually pouring any water into it first. I have never mentioned that particular problem before, except to once have been vilified because I pointed out the pot was pretty finite and needed to be reduced in line with other comparable countries that we compete with.

JohnLovesCocoa, firstly I never mentioned envy, unlike your "he's got an ice cream so I want one" moans we have seen in some of your posts ;-)

I do not gripe at what others have that I do not have, I have had a good life and as I approach the sunset of my life I can honestly say I am content with my lot :-)

Secondly since when was a £2million country house a "tied cottage" :-S

OFG. I usually agree with you, but have never liked the politics of envy.

My grandma gave me one piece of advice - never love for money. But always love where money is.

So this son of a middle class ballerina and RAF Officer married Betsy Fremantle, daughter of Lord Cotesloe 31 years ago. And he lives in a tied cottage on Cotesloe estate in Swanbourne.

So almost all his money belongs to his wife. Hardly Betsy's fault she was born into money and estates. The alternative is to be like Russia where we all have the same fair share - well I want same as Abromovic please :-) :-)

I found an 11 year old payslip yesterday, from when I first started working for Hampshire County Council. I was earning £2k less and taking home more!!
Doesn't help that we (the 'real' workers) had a £1k cut in pay 4 years ago and have been on a pay freeze ever since :-|

Meanwhile, of course, rent alone has risen by over 100%.

I wonder how many MP's are in the same situation?

How DARE they imply it's the workers fault they can't afford to live and should work more :-P

We live in a pension of less than 200gdp per week, out of which we pay 100 in rent & around 50 in bills. The remainder has to feed & clothe 2 of us.
Clothes......thats a joke ;-) ;-) ;-)

This is the man Iain Duncan Smith who says he could live on £53 a week :-D :-D :-D

Iain Duncan Smith the man behind the controversial bedroom tax lives rent-free in a £2million aristocratic country house with at least FOUR spare bedrooms.

Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, is a tenant of the landed gentry Fremantle family.

But unlike the 660,000 families in social housing who are being forced to pay an average of £14 a week extra for a spare bedroom, Mr Duncan Smith can live happily knowing he has to pay no rent or mortgage.

The 16th-century Tudor house on a sprawling estate in Buckinghamshire originally had five bedrooms but has had wings added down the centuries.

With a swimming pool, tennis courts and set in acres of countryside, it’s a far-cry from the social housing his bedroom tax victims live in.

It’s also a world away from the MP for Chingford and Woodford Green’s London constituency – and is sure to further enrage the thousands of protesters who marched around Britain against his hated tax yesterday.

But Old Etonian IDS lives free on the estate like a Lord - no doubt he will become a Lord one day :-|

It really disgusts me that I am living in a country that treats its people so badly. I couldn't live on that amount of money for one week and I am used to not having a lot to live on (well I thought I didn't).

My sister only yesterday reflected on how over 60 years ago my mother would put cardboard in her shoes to keep out the wet and I recall my father queing for work at the shipyards. Nothing changes for some people.

I agree with everything you say Rose, expletives included. Dreadful excuse for a human being he is.

Vera

Thanks Lolly, if you can pass it around that would be great :-D