Council tax madness
Yet more attacks on housing for the poor are filling the headlines – this time it’s cuts to council tax benefit. The government is imposing a 10% cut – which is an average of £100 a year per household.
And it gets worse. They are giving each council the amount they used to get minus 10% and then leaving it up to them to distribute the rest. Benefit for pensioners is protected so the amount that non pensioners get will be dependent on how many pensioners happen to live in their local authority! For those who live near a lot of pensioners, the cut could be as much as 30% – a devastating amount to lose.
But any attempt to divert the fight against cuts into divisions between young and old must be resisted. Only a mass united movement can stop austerity.
‘Red’ Ed?
It’s been well documented that many of us feel politicians don’t represent us. They went to Eton and Oxbridge, their parents bought them houses in Chelsea and gave them start-up money for successful businesses.
But ‘red’ Ed Miliband doesn’t seem to get the message. He’s so terrified of being seen as too close to the trade unions that he’s having a drive for more Labour MPs who have worked for FTSE 100 companies or run their own small firms. Just what Labour needs!
Sainsbury’s: ‘live for less’
Unite the Union, as part of its campaign for a substantial pay increase at Sainsbury’s has carried out a survey of workers at the company. Many report struggling with debt, relying on payday loans and being unable to take holidays or pay for basic necessities like their children’s school uniforms.
Like many other retail workers, these are the working poor – working for minimum wage and relying on welfare benefits like tax credits to survive. Meanwhile the Sainsbury’s chief executive ‘earned’ more than £3 million last year.
