Can this be true, is there really hope for us? There has been so much bad news I can't really believe anything good could happen. This just seems too good to be true and whats to stop the millionaires club just ignoring it?

I'm sorry, but anyone of workjing age will be expected to pay at least 20% of their council tax, people in higher CT bands will be expected to apy even more. It has nothing to do with income, it is just another policy from the evil gang of millionaires to cut benefits even more.

I have been racking my brains, and there are 2 options I can find, both seem a bit extreme and may not even be allowed. Option 1 is for me to not claim any benefits and my wife claim as a single pensioner (she would get more as a single pensioner that we would as a working age couple). Just remain living with my wife, I've more than enough stamps to get my SP. The other option which I think may be better if we are allowed to do it is for me to stay on ESA support group, my wife to say on pension credits and just not to claim UC for the rent (which is the only benefit we claim that is going to be replaced by UC), and pay the whole rent out of our ESA, and pensions. That way we wouldn't be affected by the tax and UC sanctions. As I say i just don't know who to speak to. I don't trust my MP, he is a new Tory and wasn't any good when I wrote to him about losing my IB. All he has done is stop anybody in our town getting Disabled Parking places out side their home.

Well I am very angry (and worried sick) about the introduction of UC and the bedroom tax. My wife is a few years older than me. I have had a heart condition for many years. Before that i worked hard and paid tax. We owned our home. My wife has always worked didn't retire until she was 64 because of ill health. For medical reasons we now have separate rooms. We struggled for years to pay the interest on our home, because i was unable to work. The council decided to pull our house down and only gave us enough to pay off the mortgage. At least we got a HA home which we where told by the HA was a home for life. We had our Motability car and our new home, plus pension credits, and despite my heart condition I am my wifes carer. We looked forward to not a luxurious retirement but we can afford to eat well and keep warm even if not go on holidays, and the car gave us a certain amount of freedom. Since the ConDems have been in I have had the not inconsiderable worry of migration from IB. I got thought that, but then learned i was going to lose my car, now i find that we are going to lose our pension credits and have to go on UC which means a lose of £100s a month (UC for a couple os less than half that of PC). the final kick in the teeth is this bedroom tax, we can't afford to move, and need to stay hear for family. I am so worried. I don't think we'll be able to afford food and even though there are food banks we can't get there without the car. As i say i am worried sick, I used to be worried about debts but when i couldn't afford to pay them i stopped and nothing happened, but food (and warmth) is different, if you don't pay you don't get them. I just don't know where to turn.

Thats what happened to me, almost exactly the same, but 1 year ago I was on IB before though. I was quite shocked. My wife was the one who answered the phone call and she said "you're not going to bother him are you, he's just coma out of hospital after a heart op", the women said not and she told me I was in the support group for 3 years. I then had a worrying wait for the letter convinced they had made a mistake. I did get it though. I don't think it will happen again, but one thing I am sure of is I'm not going for a WCA (as I can move and breath). So if I get called for one after my next ESA50 I'll just come off ESA and go onto carers allowance. I suppose they have to put some people in the SG so they can deny it's all rigged. BTW it took me a hour or so to fill out the ESA50 and I sent it off within a couple of days of getting it (about 6 weeks early I think), I just wanted to get it all over as quick as poss.

We had an investigator watching one of our neighbours last year. They just sat in a car opposite for a week or two. Another neighbour who was living with her partner but claiming as single was very worried and asked us about it. To be honest we did not notice until it was brought to our attention. As it happened they where not after the one who's partner lived their but another neighbour who's father was living in her spare room and it was about HB & CTB.

Broadband is an essential outgoing, I mean without it you won't even be able to get benefits in the near future let alone use your bank account and do the shopping when the DWP make you housebound by taking away your DLA. Even the government consider it an essential for modern living, hence their desire for everyone to have it.

Don't worry they'll soon put a stop to that. Under UC people who have worked all their life and paid taxes and NI will now find they lose everything because they have a younger partner.

Perhaps we should get the Insurance Ombudsman onto this. Many of us paid into an insurance scheme for years expecting to be covered if we became sick (this was not just for a pension as that class of stamp is a lower rate). Now we are being refused payment or having our payments stopped. Perhaps like PPI we should be getting our payments refunded where they have refused to honour the agreement.

So UC will be an online benefit. The government is going to fail to reach its target of all areas getting broadband by 2015 (just heard it on BBC news)? So how's this gonna work; even if they were on target for 2015 how exactly did they think people would apply from 2013 to 2015.

You will be migrated from Income Support to ESA, not sure how it works if you haven't enough contributions, you may be entitled to Income based ESA, or you may be put in the support group. DLA has nothing to do with work (despite the government claiming it is a disinsentive to said), but it is going to be replaced by PIP which will no doubt be at a lower rate and a lot harder to get. The reason behind this is to remove 20% from the benefit so we are told.

You can get DLA whether you are in work or not. DLA is being replaced by PIP for people of working age from Oct next year. ESA is the benefit for people to ill/disabled/sick too work. It is the governments plan to make as many of the sick as possible get into work, even though there are not enough jobs for the able bodied.

I concur, I filled mine out, putting information in every box, making sure I got my condition over. I also put in a copy of my script and gave them the address of my doctor and hospital dept I was under. I got put straight into the support group. Not sure if it is relevant, but when Labour first rolled out ESA I remember then said that people over 50 should be treated with more understanding as they were more likely to have been on IB for many years, and less ready for work. Although I think the Tories dropped that bit. I know i wasn't to worried when it was started by Labour but was worried sick (and still am about PIP), when the Tories and their tame media added their own special venom to the process.

It must be a full or part time adult course. When i went to Uni the Lectures, seminars, tutorials, etc. added up to less than 15 hours, but it was classed as a full time course. Students are expected to read and study as well, making the hours up to 30+ or full time. Almost all students work 10 or more hours a week as well. Generally I think you'll find full time courses are run during the day, and part time courses are run in the evening so as to fit them around work.

Yes, and OP was already way under it before any money was deducted. Benefit rates are on average about 2/3 of what is considered the poverty line. The government state that a benefit is the minimum a person needs to live on. Thing is it does not seem to be based on any formula. For example I beleive the amount a couple needs to live on is about £111, a couple under 25 need even less, yet a single person over the state retirement age for women needs more! Makes no sense at all. I mean how can a couple, age 59 & 60, need less to live on than a single person of 64?

Oh yea, just forgot to add that if your dad got PIP when he was 64 it would stop when he was 65 and he would have to apply for AA which does not have a mobility component.

"It would be wrong to even consider that PIP will not come in next year - the government have to carry it through after what they have said about DLA that it is outdated, there are no real checks and it is open to fraud, abuse & the inevitable DWP 'errors'" If that is what you believe, you have been duped like the majority of the population, and there is little point in carrying on trying to give you advice. As my last contribution to this thread I will try once more to explain what I mean. To say there are no real checks for DLA and it is open to fraud could not be further from the truth. It is one of the hardest benefits to get because of all the checks that are made with REAL medical professionals. It also has one of the lowest fraud rates of any benefit. The reason for PIP is to save 20%, as stated by the government. I understand what you are saying about not wanting to apply for DLA and them having to be Assessed for PIP. What I was saying you might as well apply for DLA because PIP would be subject to regular reassessments anyway, and no matter how small if there was a chance of getting DLA and missing out on all the reassessments for PIP it must be worth going for. I won't bother you anymore. I'll most probably lose my DLA, but at least we persevered and my wife got hers. When she was 64 she applied and got turned down. She appealed and that took over year but she got HRM for 2 years. When she was 67 she got sent the forms for a reassessment filled them out, and got an indefinite award of HRM with MRC. If she had not been prepared to go through all this she would have only got Low rate AA. Oh, and good luck with whatever you decide.

Provided they have the time to complete the testing. I still think the best idea is for your dad to go for DLA, because under PIP he would be required to do regular reassessments anyway. What with the continuing migration of IB to ESA, and the rollout of UC, they might find they haven't got the resources to stop DLA. We can all live in hope that the wheels will fall off the whole farse, unless it is just an excuse to scrap the welfare state, saying it is just becoming too complected and expensive to sustain. They'll then be able to use the old army bases (from when they sack the army) to house the new labour camps for W2W (but just work without the welfare bit).

I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens. That said I am 99% sure I will lose my car and 100% sure i will lose my care (because it is low rate which is going). My only compensation is as my wife is over 65 she will keep her DLA (at least until they go back on another promise), so she can still afford taxis (uses her HRM to pay for fuel, and taxis when car is inappropriate), and when she goes out I can go with her.

If a claimant was 64 when PIP was introduced and their "turn" to have their DLA stopped cam after they were 65 they wouldn't be able to apply for PIP because they where to old. Obviously the DWP will try and test all those near 65 first (although this is hardly the random selection they said they would use), but if they can't test them all it can't right to stop their DLA if they can't get PIP. That's what i am saying. This is just my take on the situation. So far the Government has done all it can to appease OAPs and keep them on side. I can't see that they would now take something away from all those who had been promised it for life without even giving them the chance to get its replacement. people say that they could live another 30 years and it would cost, but we are talking about people not in the best of health, I can't honestly see them all living to 95 plus.

"This process will take place for all working age claimants between April 2013 and 31 March 2016." Over 65 is not working age. At the moment thare are no plans to extend PIP to those over 65.

Lets face it, stories of kicking disabled 64 year olds of benefits would be as bad as doing it to soldiers, hence the laws to protect them.

But if they don't get around to assessing one before they're 65, then under their own rules, they won't assess them when over 65? I mean the date you give cannot be fixed otherwise the adverse would apply and anyone who was under 16 before 8 April 2013 would also not have to apply for PIP and keep DLA so long as their condition stayed the same. What it means is people who reach their 65th birthday after 8 April 2013 could randomly be assessed before their birthday, after their birthday they are over 65 and it's DLA. PIP will be like ESA and subject to being reassessed. If you check the criteria for PIP one on them is there will be no life or indefinite awards.

I would advise going for the DLA, he may not be made to go for PIP, but if he goes for and gets PIP (with its much higher rules) he would still have to be asses every couple of years. He could get an indefinite award (used to be life) of DLA, whereas with PIP this will not be an option, so would need multiple medicals/assessments. Don't forget the last time this lot were in (just the tories, not condems), the riots made them get rid of the Poll Tax. The resulting riots from the changes to welfare may work again.