KUWG Diary from Wed 29 July 2015

Compiled by Ivy

Wed 29^th July, 2:30pm-4:30pm, @ Kilburn Salvation Army Hall, 55 Chichester Road, NW6 5QW: Rights training sessions organised by Lift: http://www.liftpeople.org.uk/
ESA (Employment & Support Allowance) and PIP (Personal Independence Payments) training by KUWG

 

Thurs 30th July, 3pm for 3:30pm-5:30pm @ Kingsgate Community Centre, 107 Kingsgate Road, NW6 2JH: KUWG regular Thursday meeting

Wed 5^th Aug, 2:30pm-3:30pm, @ Kilburn Salvation Army Hall, 55 Chichester Road, NW6 5QW: Rights training session organised by Lift: http://www.liftpeople.org.uk/Community Resources in South Kilburn training by South Kilburn Trust and South Kilburn Voices

Thu 6^th Aug 4.15 - 4.45pm Keep Volunteering Voluntary at KUWG meeting, Penny from Waterhouse NCIA will attend in regards on how to tackle workfare. (Weekly KUWG meeting meeting assembles from 3pm; exits 5:30pm sharp.)

Wed 12^th Aug, 2:30pm-4pm, @ Kilburn Salvation Army Hall, 55 Chichester Road, NW6 5QW: Rights training session organised by Lift: http://www.liftpeople.org.uk/
Cooking on a budget training by Granville Community Kitchen and Fuel Poverty Action

 

Thurs 13th Aug, 3pm for 3:30pm-5:30pm @ Kingsgate Community Centre, 107 Kingsgate Road, NW6 2JH: KUWG regular Thursday meeting
 

Wed 19^th Aug, 2:30pm-4pm, @ Kilburn Salvation Army Hall, 55 Chichester Road, NW6 5QW: Rights training session organised by Lift: http://www.liftpeople.org.uk/
Money Management training session by Hillingdon Credit Union and Kilburn Fair Credit Campaign

Thurs 20th Aug, 3pm for 3:30pm-5:30pm @ Kingsgate Community Centre, 107 Kingsgate Road, NW6 2JH: KUWG regular Thursday meeting 

 

Wed 26^th Aug, 2:30pm-4pm, @ Kilburn Salvation Army Hall, 55 Chichester Road, NW6 5QW: Rights training session organised by Lift: http://www.liftpeople.org.uk/

(This will focus on changes to EU migrants' benefits and other entitlements following changes to legislation.)

Thurs 27th Aug, 3pm for 3:30pm-5:30pm @ Kingsgate Community Centre, 107 Kingsgate Road, NW6 2JH: KUWG regular Thursday meeting 

 

(KUWG Thursday meetings as usual ongoing as long as Kingsgate Community Centre is open)

Sun 4^th - Wed 7^th Oct Festival of Resistance - a counter protest against Tory Party Conference in Manchester. By People’s Assembly.

Sun 4^th Oct National Demonstration by the TUC. Pesky Tories are itching to criminalise trade unions’ right to strike. Let’s show them what they’re missing.

Thu 5^th Nov 6pm The Million Mask March by Anonymous at Trafalgar Square. Work your finest Guy Fawkes attire & roar: Fuck Austerity! Anonymously.

Advice4Renters Renters' Rights Project

Loose transcript of PowerPoint presentation given by Advice4Renters at Training Session Hosted by Lifting Lives, Lifting People at Kilburn Salvation Army Hall on Wednesday 22 July 2015

Advice4Renters Tenancy Rights Project

Tenancy Rights: Improving the Private Rented Sector

Private Tenants' Rights

• Most people who rent their home from a private landlord have an Assured Shorthold Tenancy
• You have the right to:
  • Tenancy Deposit protection
  • Reasonable market rent
  • Repairs as and when needed
  • Quiet enjoyment
  • Stay put in your home for at least 6 months

Other Rights

• Yearly Gas Safety Record
• Energy Performance Certificate
• Terms of Tenancy Agreement in Writing
• Name & Address in England & Wales where you can write to your Landlord

BUT ....

• Tenancies are often in a disgusting condition
• Rents are sky high (70% of average earnings in London)
• There's no security so if you complain you risk being thrown out. (Retaliatory eviction)

Advice4Renters, operates in conjunction with Brent Advice Matters

Advice4Renters Housing Advice Help Line: 020 7624 4327

• For LB Brent residents in Kilburn, Willesden Green and Wembley Central wards

(Tenants') Duties

• Keep to the terms of your tenancy
• Pay the rent on time
• Take reasonable care of your home
• Do not obstruct shared parts of the house
• (Uphold behaviour of your friends who visit the property)
• Allow the landlord or agent reasonable access
• Keep your home clean and tidy

Support from Other Renters

• More than 32,000 private renters in LB Brent. (This is approaching 38,000 private renters.)
• Most renters are unhappy about renting.
• We want more private tenants to join our campaign for:
  • Homes to be in better condition
  • Lower rents
  • Longer tenancies

WILL YOU JOIN US?

• We will be meeting weekly at Willesden Green Library, 95 High Road, NW10 2PU after 27 July 2015. Postcode map
• Next Renters Rights' Meeting: Wednesday 29 July 2015, 6pm to 7pm @ Advice4Renters Offices at 36-38 Willesden Lane, NW6 7ST (98 bus route). Postcode map
• To plan our campaign — Please come if you can!

Universal Credit — coming to jobcentres near NW6, soon

Blog post by Joan Grant of KUWG

Universal Credit – coming to a job centre near us, soon.

Universal Credit is coming to Brent, Westminster, Camden and Kensington and Chelsea for new claims pretty much now.

Comrade Abby did a course on Universal Credit the other week. I had a glance through the notes as I thought it is high time that I found out what Universal Credit is all about.

The two things that really stand out are:

1. It is highly likely that there will be even more people sanctioned than there are now – 686,000 in 2014. People currently receiving tax credits are not under the sanctions regime. They will be once Universal Credit comes in. You can be sanctioned for not working enough hours. You can be sanctioned for refusing to take a zero hours contract, if it is non exclusive.
2. Universal Credit introduces a “civil penalty.” In summary, if you are over-paid benefit of more than £65, they can say that you have negligently failed to notify them and impose a civil penalty of £50.

It is all going to feel so arbitrary and unfair. We all know how difficult it is to get through to a human being in the Job Centre or DWP.

It will feel like the government controls your whole life under Universal Credit

The DWP staff working in Universal Credit contact centres in Glasgow and Bolton, were on strike over bad working conditions on Monday 20th and Tuesday 21st.(1) Who knew!!?? Universal Credit is proving to be bad for claimants and bad for DWP workers. 

A sample Claimant Commitment that was in the course notes appears below. 

Sample Universal Credit 'Claimant Commitment', p1 of 4

 

 Transcript of sample Universal Credit 'Claimant Commitment' p1:

Universal Credit

Claimant Commitment (form heading)

Joanne Brown

(further transcription to follow)

Sample Universal Credit 'Claimant Commitment', p2 of 4

 

 (further transcription to follow)

Sample Universal Credit 'Claimant Commitment', p3 of 4

 (further transcription to follow)

Sample Universal Credit 'Claimant Commitment', p4 of 4

 (further transcription to follow)

Note

http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/news_and_events/news_centre/archived_news.cfm/universal-credit-staff-to-strike-for-two-days-over-oppressive-working-conditions

KUWG ESA casework workshop, Tues 21 July, 11am to 1pm, Cara's Cosmic Café, 237 Kilburn High Road, NW6

Workshop flyer for Tuesday 21 July, 11am-to-1pm @ Cara's Cosmic Cafe, 237 Kilburn High Rd,. NW6-
Get to Grips with ESA

Get to Grips with Employment & Support Allowance (ESA)!

A workshop for people new to casework or peer support

Hear how to make the strongest claim to get what you are fully entitled to, including the Support Group.

Speakers from WinVisible (women with visible and invisible disabilities) followed by discussion.

Tuesday 21 July, 11am to 1pm

Cara's Cosmic Café, 237 Kilburn High Road, London NW6

The venue is accessible for wheelchair users

Lunch will be provided, donations are welcome

KUWG Diary from 16 July 2015

Bood in advance for: Equality & Human Rights Framework for organisations. Training by Equality & Diversity Forum. Select which of the days you can attend & book your place with Agnes Fletcher or Christine Phillips tel: 01494 890313, 07852 105467, 020 3033 1454

• Wednesday 22nd July, 2pm-5pm

Taking place at: ​Age UK, Tavis House, 1-6 Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9NA.

Sun 19^th July TUC Tolpuddle get-together. Penny from Waterhouse NCIA has confirmed that she will be attending our meeting on 6 August 2015 from 4.15 till 4.45 regarding how to tackle workfare.

Tues 21st July KUWG ESA Casework Training Workshop with WinVisible, 11am to 1pm at Cara's Cosmic Café, 237 Kilburn High Road, NW6

Wed 22nd July, 2pm-5pm, Equality & Human Rights Framework for organisations. Training by Equality & Diversity Forum. Select which of the days you can attend & book your place with Agnes Fletcher or Christine Phillips tel: 01494 890313, 07852 105467, 020 3033 1454

Taking place at: ​Age UK, Tavis House, 1-6 Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9NA.

Wed 22nd July, 2:30pm-4:30pm, @ Kilburn Salvation Army Hall, 55 Chichester Road, NW6 5QW: Rights training sessions organised by Lift:

• Illegal Evictions [your rights against] session led by Tenancy Rights
• Tenants rights session led by Advice4Renters

Wed 29th July, 2:30pm-4:30pm, @ Kilburn Salvation Army Hall, 55 Chichester Road, NW6 5QW: Rights training sessions organised by Lift:
ESA (Employment & Support Allowance) and PIP (Personal Independence Payments) training by KUWG

Wed 5th Aug, 2:30pm-3:30pm, @ Kilburn Salvation Army Hall, 55 Chichester Road, NW6 5QW: Rights training session organised by Lift:
Community Resources in South Kilburn training by South Kilburn Trust and South Kilburn Voices

Thu 6^th Aug 4.15 - 4.45pm at KUWG meeting, Penny from Waterhouse NCIA will attend in regards on how to tackle workfare.

Wed 12th Aug, 2:30pm-4pm, @ Kilburn Salvation Army Hall, 55 Chichester Road, NW6 5QW: Rights training session organised by Lift:
Cooking on a budget training by Granville Community Kitchen and Fuel Poverty Action

Wed 19th Aug, 2:30pm-4pm, @ Kilburn Salvation Army Hall, 55 Chichester Road, NW6 5QW: Rights training session organised by Lift:
Money Management training session by Hillingdon Credit Union and Kilburn Fair Credit Campaign

Wed 26th Aug, 2:30pm-4pm, @ Kilburn Salvation Army Hall, 55 Chichester Road, NW6 5QW: Rights training session organised by Lift:

Thank you party

Sun 4^th - Wed 7^th Oct Festival of Resistance - a counter protest against Tory Party Conference in Manchester. By People’s Assembly.

Sun 4^th Oct National Demonstration by the TUC. Pesky Tories are itching to criminalise trade unions’ right to strike. Let’s show them what they’re missing.

Budget 2015 – what have the Tories got against young people?

Analysis of George Osborne's July 2015 Budget by Joan Grant of KUWG

It is with some relief that I can report that the Government decided not to make all Housing Benefit claimants pay 10% of our rent.

However, the budget took away the right of young people (18-21) on JSA to claim Housing Benefit. There will be an exemption for those young people who are parents. There are less than 20,000 young people on JSA claiming Housing Benefit. Many have troubled backgrounds and are not able to live with their families. Their situation will be made more vulnerable. Saving: £40M

They abolished maintenance grants for students from low income and replaced them with loans. Saving: £2.5B. This change just means that young people will be saddled with more debt. A measure like this makes it harder for people from low income backgrounds to get access to higher education and therefore better paid jobs.

The Apprenticeships that the Tories harp on about are just 6 months of providing cheap labour. They are nothing like the 3 or 5year apprenticeships that young people used to get in the 1970s when they learnt a trade properly.

We really must highlight the unfairness of the treatment of young people. The Tories are blighting the futures of a whole generation of young people: they are saddled with debt, paid low wages and have no security. It is interesting to note that pensioners have not had a penny of cuts. Is that because they tend to vote Tory? Pensions go up by at least the rate of inflation. There are of course some pensioners on low incomes. But overall pensioners are more likely to be home owners than young people. This will be the subject of a detailed post at a later date.

The rumours about tax credits were right. These have been cut back quite a lot. People already claiming tax credits will be affected from April 2016 and they will be £1000 a year worse off on average. April 2017 is when the major changes, such as only paying Child Tax Credit for 2 children, take effect.

The really unexpected measure was the new National Minimum Wage for people over 25. However, experts have now calculated that people who get tax credits will still be worse off, despite higher wages. That to me, takes some doing. Humans can put satellites in space and send astronauts to repair them quite easily. But we cannot figure out how to spend literally billions of pounds in a way that ensures low earners have enough money to live on and do not have to use food banks. Obviously, the Tory Government has no interest in solving the problem of low pay.

At this point, I have to declare an interest. I am someone who argued that tax credits need to be cut back. To me, it made no sense that people in work cost the nation 6 times as much as people who are out of work. We needed wages to rise which has now happened. However this new National Minimum wage is less than the Living Wage of £7.85 outside London and £9.15 an hour that low paid workers need right now in order to make ends meet.

Some of the other rumours proved fairly accurate.

Working age benefits were frozen for four years – we had been told that they would be frozen for two years. That freeze now goes on for a further two years. This freeze does not apply to most disability benefits including ESA Support Group. Saving: £4bn

Changing the amount of ESA-WRAG to the same as JSA happens in April 2017. It will not affect anyone currently getting ESA WRAG. Saving: ££640m. I think the Tories will have a go at making this reduction apply to people already in the WRAG at a later date.

The Benefit Cap was reduced from £26,000 to £23,000 in London and £20,000 everywhere else. As this includes rent, it will lead to more people not being able to afford their rent, especially in London. Saving: £200m. They also reduced the LHA’s (Local Housing Allowances). They reduced the grants to Housing Associations, and plan to make them cut rents by 1%. There were no measures to cut private sector rents. Private rents are extortionately high and cutting them would actually reduce the housing benefit bill.

In stark contrast, they raised income tax thresholds and raised the Inheritance Tax thresholds.

 

Cutting back tax credits saves a significant amount of money, but most of the other cuts save very small amounts. They raised more in taxes than they gave away. So it proved to be a fairly typical Tory budget – they took from the least well off and gave more to the better off. All the signs are that Labour will support the reduction in the Benefit Cap.

LaLuta Continua

For further info see a report by the IFS: Andrew Hood - Benefit Changesand Distributional Analysis.

100 Avenue Road proposed 24-storey skyscraper: Planning application and appeal

100 Avenue Road: Planning application and appeal

 

A message from the Belsize Residents' Association.

 

24 Storeys starve others of sunlight!

We are writing to you to let you know what we are doing about BRA’s continued objection to the proposed development at 100 Avenue Road. We are asking for your support and for a financial contribution.

Last year, Camden rejected Essential Living’s planning application to build a 24-storey tower alongside Swiss Cottage open space. Many BRA members supported the local campaign, since the damage to the open space and to our conservation areas would be unacceptable. Essential Living appealed against Camden’s decision. The case will be heard at a planning inquiry before an independent inspector in July. Essential Living has hired an expensive and strong legal team and Camden will defend their decision as the main party.

But the inspector has granted the Belsize Residents’ Association rule 6 status, which means we too are a party to the Inquiry. The Inspector would like to hear evidence about the impacts of the proposal on local residents. BRA has taken advice from a specialist barrister who has told us that a strong, expert-led case can be made. Until now, we have paid for advice using our reserve funds and done a really good job using volunteers: you’ve written objections, gone to meetings, lobbied the Council. Our Committee members drafted a persuasive Statement of Case which the barrister we consulted saw and liked. The Inquiry offers an important chance to make the case but puts a high premium on independent, expert evidence.

We know, not least from members at the AGM, the importance you attach to this and will be using as much of our contingency reserve as we prudently can to pay the costs. But that will not be enough. We would make our case using whatever funds members can generously give, but we think that the costs would be in the region of £15,000.  Given the nature and complexity of the case, we cannot guarantee that we will win.  But we wish to do our very best for our members and for the local community as a whole.

Our Statement of Case focuses on the impact of the tower on our conservation area and on Swiss Cottage Open Space.  We are liaising with other groups who intend to focus on other issues and may seek funding for that purpose.  We will, however, use your contributions to fund the BRA case.   

Please act now. Please give generously.

Please make cheques payable to the Belsize Residents’ Association and send them to BRA c/o Anne Stevens Flat 1, 20 Netherhall Gardens,

NW3 5TH. Online payments can be made to Belsize Residents’ Association, Santander Bank, Account number: 19524004 Sort Code: 09-01-55. Please ensure you include the reference “Donation”.

To find out more please contact info@belsize.org.uk or telephone 0207 794 0874.

Best wishes

Prabhat Vaze, Chair, Belsize Residents' Association

Further notes

 
The details of the venues and times for the
inquiry are as follows:
Week 1Tuesday 14th July.
 10 am.  BMA House, Tavistock Square, London, WC1H
9JP (tube- Euston, Euston Square, or Russell Square.  168
bus from Belsize Park)Wednesday 15th July.
10am. BMA House, Tavistock Square, London, WC1H
9JP.Thursday 16th and Friday 17th July. 10
am.  The Council Chamber, Camden Town Hall, Judd
Street, London, WC1H 9JE (tube- King's Cross.  46 bus
from Swiss Cottage)

Week 2Monday 20th July.
10am.  To be confirmed.  Should the Inquiry run on
this day, it will take place at The Council Chamber, Camden
Town Hall, Judd Street, London, WC1H 9JE (tube- King's
Cross.  46 bus from Swiss Cottage)Tuesday
21st July. 10am.  The Council Chamber, Camden Town
Hall, Judd Street, London, WC1H 9JE (tube- King's Cross.
 46 bus from Swiss Cottage)Wednesday 22nd
July.  Inspector's site visit to Swiss
Cottage Open Space.  Time to be confirmed.  Venue: Swiss
Cottage Community Centre.Thursday and Friday
23rd and 24th July. 10 am. The Council Chamber, Camden
Town Hall, Judd Street, London, WC1H 9JE (tube- King's
Cross.  46 bus from Swiss Cottage)

Please do make every effort to attend
particularly on the first day of the Inquiry and for the
Inspector's site visit.  Please do spread the word.
Many of our usual supporters will be working or on holiday
so we really do need local people to turn out.

Thank you again for your support.

Impact of Osborne's 'market rents for social housing tenants on salaries over £40K'

By Dude Swheatie of Kwug

Beware of Osborne's 'end game'

This is the lead story in this week's Camden New Journal

http://www.camdennewjournal.com/marketrents

More than 2,000 council tenants in Camden face market rents as government classes them 'high earners'

A leading paragraph transferable to other boroughs is this one:

"In his budget announcements yesterday (Wednesday), Chancellor George Osborne said local authorities would be told to demand the extra rent from tenants earning more than £40,000 a year. Officials at the Town Hall were last night working out how they would set about investigating their tenants’ finances and the cost of such a task."

And a complementary online interactive source regarding what a person's income needs to be in order to be able to afford to pay commercial rents in London can be found at

http://www.londonrents.org.uk/

A publication by Darren Johnson, Green Party Member of the London Assembly.

Can your job pay the rent?

According to the Mayor's standard definition, your rent is affordable if it doesn't take up more than 35% of your take-home pay. For example, the average household in London earns an estimated £2,608 per month after tax, so an affordable rent for them would be anything up to £913pcm.

Most people, of course, just stretch to pay London's high rents. This means we can't save up for a deposit, spend money with local businesses, or even afford a basic quality of life. Amazingly, a young person working full time on the minimum wage doesn't earn enough for an affordable room in the average shared flat in any borough of London.

What can you afford?

You can use this map to pick the type of home you want and your income, and then find boroughs in London where average rents are affordable (less than 35% of take-home pay), slightly unaffordable (35-50% of take-home pay), extremely unaffordable (more than 50% of take-home pay) or completely impossible (rents cost more than you earn).

Maybe Osborne's directive regarding social housing tenants on salaries greater than £40K will act as an incentive for social housing tenants on over £40K salaries to collude with 'right-to-buy' that is heavily tax-payer-subsidised? As I said in one of my placard-based statements, BEWARE OF OSBORNE'S 'END GAME'.

July 2015 'budget day' statements in placards

By Dude Swheatie of Kwug

Beware of Osborne's 'end game'

First they slag us off, then they kill us off

It actually works more in this sequence, I believe:

1. They know that  things are not working out properly, and so they seek out and identify scapegoats. These scapegoats are generally people they know too littlle about and who have received too little support and have thus 'under-achieved
2. They begin to believe their own propaganda, and progressively punish the scapegoats by taking away from them even what little the scapgoats had, while the scapegoaters are addicted to their privileged positions and increased share of the world's common wealth
3. Then the scapegoats, increasingly denied enough to live on, experience starvation of food and opportunity, fall into rent arrears, get evicted, and die off internally and externally.

Mass execution is not a 'Budget'

'Slower cuts' still kill us

Evictions drain public purse

Pauper funerals are not savings

Wed 8 July – join anti-austerity Budget Day protests

Guest blog post from WinVisible

Dear friends,

Tomorrow Wed 8 July -- oppose £12 billion more cuts while Osborne benefits the rich.
We’ll be at these important Budget Day protests.  Please spread the word and bring your friends.

We say the same as people in Greece: No to greedy banks and brutal austerity!

 

·         “Balls to the Budget!” 10.30am Downing St, 11.30 Houses of Parliament
Disabled People Against Cuts, Class War, Streets Kitchen, Black Dissidents, London Latinxs, Columbian Women in Action, Occupy, Brick Lane Debates & others
Meet 10.30 in Whitehall opposite Downing St, look out for our banners: Global Women’s Strike, Women of Colour GWS, WinVisible.

 

·         People’s Assembly. Protest Osborne's Emergency Budget – click on link to see local actions for National Day of Action
LONDON ACTION: Assemble at Parliament from 5:30pm. Mass "die-in," where
everyone will lie on the ground as if dead in front of Parliament to highlight the deaths caused by cuts to welfare services and benefits. Look out for our banners.

Greece: "You cannot impose economics on such a politicised people."

Below is a video blog by Paul Masson. Martin Francis the Wembley Matters blogger says that Masson can be followed on Twitter @paulmasonnews

It strikes me that in what has happened to Greece under the impact of the global financial institutions, the emphasis given to the 'sovereignty' of a currency has been designed to undermine the sovereignty of the human rights of the Greek people.

I am reminded of what Green Party MEP for London Jean Lambert has said of proposed 'harmonization of standards' under Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership. She has cited the example of chickens bread under such unhygienic conditions in the USA that their caracasses are bleached before processing for human consumption. Perhaps that is a good metaphor for what the predatory drivers of the Troica's 'bailout package' think is suitable treatment for the Greek people?

Good on the Greek people for becoming so much more politicised than chickens raised under American food standards as to say, "No!"

Dude Swheatie of Kwug

A Budget to eliminate the safety net?

Things cannot get any worse

 By Joan Grant of the KUWG

The Tories said that they would make £12bn of cuts to social security, but would not tell us how. The one measure that we were told about was freezing benefits for 2 years. That saves £1bn. Reducing the benefit cap from £26,000 to £23,000 will save £100m a year. So that left £10.5bn of savings still to be found.

The Budget is just days away now. We still have not been told what is planned but the press are starting to discuss different rumours.

One of the rumoured cuts is to make everyone claiming Housing Benefit pay 10% of their rent. They well know but probably do not care that there are thousands of people who get £73 in JSA but whose rent is £250 a week. No one can afford to pay a third of such a low income towards the rent on a long term basis. People will get into arrears very quickly and then be evicted. The lives of people in the private rented sector are insecure enough as it is, without this as well. In a borough like Brent 100 people a week apply as homeless to the Council. A plan like this will just make things much worse.

The way to reduce the housing benefit bill is to have more social housing so that people are paying lower rents. However, one of the first things the Coalition did back in 2010 was to reduce the amount of money allocated to building social housing. Another short sighted move. Selling off housing association flats (which will ultimately end up in the hands of buy to let landlords) is another very bad policy.

The other possible cut that I have seen mentioned is to reduce the amount that people in the ESA-WRAG get from £102 to the same as JSA, i.e. £73. People currently in the ESA-WRAG face seeing their benefit reduced by £30 a week. In addition they may have to pay 10 % of their rent which could be £25 or more each week. So they face a dramatic reduction in their incomes

The Tories also plan to take away Housing Benefit from young people aged 18-to-25 who are receiving JSA. This is another pointless, petty and vindictive policy. 

 

I have no wish to scare anyone as these proposals are just rumours at this stage. But there will be more cuts after the budget on Thursday, so we may as well be prepared.

I personally do not expect any meaningful opposition from Labour. They may even support these measures to show that they can take “tough decisions”. But I’d love to be proved wrong. Only Jeremy Corbyn was on the anti austerity march two weeks ago.

These cuts will affect millions of people. The only thing that we down at the bottom have is numbers. We have to find a way to make our voices heard.

And all of this is in stark contrast to the inheritance tax cuts for homeowners which will “cost” a £1bn.

I will do another blog next week after the budget, when we will know exactly what we are dealing with. 

Related post

Benefits for people in work cost 6x as much as for people out of work

 

Unfair distribution of austerity

THE UNFAIR DISTRIBUTION OF AUSTERITY

an anti-austerity marcher attacks a free market fanatic

Guest blog post by Revd Paul Nicolson of Taxpayers Against Austerity

Republished from http://www.taxpayersagainstpoverty.org.uk/the-unfair-distribution-of-austerity-an-anti-austerity-marcher-attacks-a-free-market-fanatic/

Professor Philp Booth is the Director of the Institute of Economic Affairs. He is a free market fanatic who opposes regulation. He promoted the deregulation of lending, rents and the flow of cash in and out of the UK in the 1980s that led to the collapse of the banks in 2008 and a chaotic UK housing market. (1) The banks could not and cannot handle a free market fairly; greed takes over.

He now opposes the regulation needed to ensure that climate change does not hurt the poorest of the world even more than they are hurt now.

In an article about climate change in the The Tablet, the international catholic weekly, He wrote. “The marchers at the anti-austerity rally would only get half a cheer from the Pope. He might applaud their apparent concern for the poor, but the message from the encyclical was really one of austerity for ever, especially for the developed world.”

I was one of the marchers.

The Tablet published my reply on the 3rd July 2015;

“If the message of Pope Francis is “austerity for ever” as suggested by Philip Booth then the question becomes who for? The change in climate will, if left to the vagaries of the free market, make the poorest people ever poorer unless governments intervene to regulate fairly the current unfair distribution of austerity”
Rev Paul Nicolson

May I add now that the last five years has seen the tenants who claim housing benefit carry the burdens of austerity while the vast majority of home owners have not felt the slightest touch of it.

from the Rev Paul Nicolson

Taxpayers Against Poverty

No British citizen without an affordable home and an adequate income in work or unemployment. 

93 Campbell Road, Tottenham, London N17 0BF, 0208 3765455, 07961 177889, 

www.taxpayersagainstpoverty.org.uk, www.facebook.com/pages/Taxpayers-Against-Poverty/299911526728884, https://twitter.com/taxpayers_a_p

www.z2k.org, www.prohousingalliance.com

 

Notes 

(1) http://z2k.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Memorandum-to-the-Prime-Minister-on-Unaffordable-Housing.pdf