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Perhaps you'll learn more about me as you read my blog. For anyone who translates my blog using the translator facility, don't forget if you wish to read the comments in your own language to click on the title of the post down the left hand side otherwise they will remain in english. Also I assume that the translation is accurate but I don't know, so please allow for errors.

Thursday, September 29, 2011

As I Walked Around The Shop At The Hospital...

I knew it was going to be a long day so thought I'll buy a newspaper but the headline on The Daily Express was interesting(not the one I purchased)

It said something along the lines that millions will be better off as of this weekend because the minimum basic wage will reach £6.08 an hour(I think you have to be over twenty one years of age to benefit, if not though all minimum wage rates have increased, if you are younger you do not receive that)

Really? As the cuts and economic problems hit home that extra few pence will be swallowed up and any benefit will not be felt by many.

Of course wages should not be lower than £6 an hour but is it a living wage? Of course not.

If its your first job and you live Mum and Dad it may seem ok but who could really do anything worthwhile on that amount?

More and more companies are setting the bar at that level. And wages will again have to be topped up by the state.

And now social housing is being used as a political football, the latest idea being you will be higher up the list for being offered/considered for a house if you are in employment. Not if you are struggling, you could still be genuine trying to find work and find yourself penalised.

Few jobs are secure for life. What about the tenant who loses his/her job when living in what is called Social Housing?

I wish we could stop classing all who are unemployed or living in poverty as being scroungers or not worth bothering with. Each case is different.

In the States a friend of mine(where we are always told that there you make your own good fortune)says what is happening now is that society is being divided more. I paraphrase when I say now its a kind of them and us situation.

All we see is those who make it big in the media or they look for the dregs that are probably up to no good but you don't see the genuine people who are suffering through no fault of their own.

Cynically I could suggest that they want employed people in social housing so they can avoid paying or reduce how much Housing Benefit the tenant is entitled to so they could even look at what income you are bringing in.

It was a problem with the Tories(It always has been, the Lib Dems are trying to slow down the changes but will as they work in a coalition Government have to go along with some policies they would've dismissed and now the Labour party sounds so much like the other two parties I cannot see anything between them.

And its the same in just about any Western country politically and even some traits we have had for years are starting to show in countries you once would have said was impossible.

This will sound glib. We know everything moves on and little stays static, we know that in the past life was hard of course it was, what with slavery, poverty, wars etc...(wait a minute that still goes on)but its at a different level and a lot has happened to improve our lives accordingly but I do not like much of what I see that is happening and I see little to make the future for many look Rosy. We seem to begoing into reverse. Life is precious especially regarding loved one's and family but otherwise I'm not so sure.

And I've already mentioned previously about the 46 Million on the poverty line in the US, the christian charity giving out groceries to 100,000 families in the UK, now another story has broken after a press release from Fareshare no wonder many hate those who are in charge and make the decisions that affect so many. I don't think those who rioted in London fall into this category but its a wonder there is not more unrest on the streets.

Of course it feeds into my fears of how poor my life will be. If its bad for a family, for a single person the electric, gas, travelling to and from work(if you are well enough)rent, council tax and so on will cost the same but with less income coming in it's tough. All this about moving into smaller property doesn't wash either as the rent on another place will continue to rise and ultimately you will be living in accommodation that probably would not be seen as acceptable and your living standards are dropping, you are going back over.

I cannot believe that I have written this entry with all the worries I have at present but of course at the time I had not been with Mum to see the consultant and received what is the news we were dreading.

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