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@John maybe because a healthy serving of the parishioners have woken up to snake oil salesmen like him,the old bible bashers have flushed him out.

@John

@MellieB If you think he and reform will make our lives anything other than unliveable then sadly you are mistaken 

@MellieB Nigel Farage stated in March 2024 that he no longer attends church because of it's woke agenda. 

@Sara Whether he actually said it or not, it's not hard to imagine what Farage and the right wing media would say about Christ if he were around today: "Lefty "saviour" encourages welfare dependency among feckless poor" perhaps. Or "Woke "messiah" attacks hardworking millionaires". And you'd hear that from people who claim to be Christians. 

@Dawn Yes I am 69 and have Bannon an ongoing award for a long time . If already on pip when reaching pension age you stay in it 

@Dawn Yes you get to keep pip when pension age

@Dawn

@MellieB MellieB this is by no means a left wing socialist government more like a neo liberal government

@MellieB Which one would that be because it’s definitely not Labour.

@Mick Wow! Thanks for posting this Mick, what grifters.

@Mick agreed, it's not the 'right wing media, as Benefits and Work have stated, it's the left wing socialist government with year 6 mentality policies that are the problem.

@Matt

@Angie Nice idea, but emigration has risen sharply since Labour came to power, and this will only continue. Britain is NOT, and has not been, a rich country since the 1970's.

@Bruton Street Tailor No those who fall severely disabled after April next year will get the high rate, the severe conditions criteria group. The government is redefining who is severely disabled so fewer people are defined as severely disabled.

Those the government is not defining as severely disabled get instead redefining as choosing to be incapable of work due to disability. And these now less deserving people will be given less incentive to make that choice. And be less of a burden on hard working taxpayers.

While for current and new claimants in the near future 2028/29 many will be redefined as fit for work and may loss their LCWRA entirely when the WCA is abolished. Some will be refined as unemployed disabled (PIP daily living) facing barriers towards employment but offered help to move into or towards work. And a small minority will be severe conditions criteria.

If they will retain the two tier system remains to be seen.
As if they do then people on PIP daily living but not in the severe conditions criteria group will get different amounts of UC health element depending on when their UC claim started. 

@Bruton Street Tailor Seems very unfair doesn’t it

@John Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. 

@godgivemestrength The left wing vote will be split between the Green Party, Your Party, LibDems (rebranding themselves the party that cares) and in Wales Plaid Cymru and in Scotland the SNP. Either due to the politics of the left being fractured by nature or due to that being desired by the powers that be to negate the risk of a left win in our first past the post system. They will also lack media coverage, and what media coverage they get will treat them as a joke or a threat to society, and smear them.

The right wing vote will be less split as Reform soar over the Conservatives in the polls. And come election time there will probably be mass desertions to Reform or a merging of the parties. Unless Bandenock or her successor somehow manages to revive the Conservatives fortunes both in the polls and with donors. They will get never ending wall to wall media coverage, and be portrayed as reflecting public opinion, speaking the truth, holding the government to account.

Labour will hope to get in by pretending to be the centre party. While seeking to pander to corporations and wealthy donors. And to the media and pubic with anti immigrant and anti welfare rhetoric and policies and come election time offering tax cuts and freebies paid for by cutting welfare. And probably by then a new leader, a fresh face to the right wing of the Labour party, same backers, same policies, new smile. They will also rely on playing on fears about the right and fears about the left, to get voters to vote Labour to stop Reform or stop the Greens/Your party if they are doing well in the polls.

Despite Reform doing incredibly well in the polls at the moment. I suspect we will end up getting a Labour minority government or a Labour LibDem coalition or even a Labour Conservative coalition. At least if the economy starts to do better. Which seems to be reliant on global events bringing down energy and food prices, and increasing global trade. 

@godgivemestrength Exactly. So confusing

@Depressing When they’ve stopped fighting amongst themselves, and instead started to explain and detail what they are all about, we might start seeing if they have any credibility to carry on our fight for fairness and justice.

@Depressing Precisely and mine too

@Sarah Peeble Thanks for the info, I didn't know that.  I just feel trapped with no prospects and no chance of getting better.  Every time there's some news it seems to be bad news, like they're finding another way to squeeze us.  So sick of it. 

@Alex I believe you can go into full time education if you are claiming PIP and LCWRA on Universal Credit. If you don't already have a LCWRA award then you won't be able to claim UC and any student loan available (whether claimed or not) will affect how much UC you get. There is no restriction on PIP while in full time education.

@Alikris Yes, they really screwed us over by forcing us onto UC.  The claim was that none of us would be worse off, which was a complete lie!  We are all considerably poorer already, and it's getting worse.  I now have to pay council tax, whereas I didn't when on UC.  It's disgusting. 

@pollenpath If you get housing costs and your rent goes up, the increase will be taken from your TP so you'll be worse off cash in pocket as it were.

@pollenpath UC will go up, transitional protection will go down by the same amount. So we wont see an overall rise until all the transitional protection is eroded. Similarly, if the rent goes up, so will the housing element, and the transitional protection will reduce correspondingly. It's because UC has no disability premiums and those with esa disability premiums were given transitional protection to compensate temporarily.

@Alikris When you say ours will be reduced, do you mean it just won't go up, or do they literally take that amount off what we get at the moment?! 

@GLB  The change next year according to the Universal Credit Act 2025.

Claims that predate 6th April 2026
Support Group/LCWRA premium remains at its current level £432.27 a month and the total amount of UC including personal allowance is uprated each year by inflation. This might mean the UC personal allowance is uprated by more than inflation and the Support Group/LCWRA premium is uprated by less than inflation but the combined total has been uprated by inflation. So they are no worse off in cash or in real inflation adjusted terms.

New claims that commence their assessment phase on or after 6th April 2026
Support Group/LCWRA Severe Disability Criteria get the same as legacy Support Group/LCWRA awards above.
Support Group/LCWRA not in the Severe Disability Criteria get reduced premium of £217.26 a month and this premium is frozen, not uprated by inflation.   

@GLB  standard  UC  allowance   is  increasing   the  Limited Capability for Work and Work-Related Activity amount (Pre-2026 claimant, severe conditions criteria claimant or claimant who is terminally ill)  Is  not clear, it  reads as it may  increase  for those  who  are  pre 2026 claimants,  as  well as  those with severe  conditions  to  me