Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

SHOCKING SHOCKING SHOCKING SHOCKING SHOCKING SHOCKING SHOCKING

News & features

One in 11 Britons has less than £10 a month disposable income

One in 11 people, or 4.5 million British adults, have less than £10 a month left over once they have paid their essential bills, new research from thinkmoney has found.

With many households struggling to make ends meet, the findings from budgeting account provider thinkmoney reveal the worryingly small amounts of disposable income people have left once they've met all their financial commitments.

Of the 2,149 people polled, one in four said they had less than £50 a month to spend after bills.

Across the UK, the average monthly disposable income was £224.50. However, there was a wide gender difference with men reporting having disposable incomes averaging £272.50, almost twice as much as women (£190.20).

Young people reported having the least disposable income, with 18-24 year-olds averaging £174.20 – some 22% below the overall UK average. Almost one in three people in this age group have less than £50 a month to spend after bills.

By contrast, the wealthiest in terms of post-bills spending money are people over 65, with an average of £269.50 a month available to spend.

The amount of disposable income also varies depending on where people live. It is highest in London, at an average of £261, and the South East, at £244. People in the North East and Wales have the lowest disposable incomes, at £199 and £181 respectively.

Worryingly, one in six people questioned in Wales said they had less than £10 a month to spend after bills.

“It’s stressful not knowing if you will have enough money to pay the bills and afford added extras each month,” said Ian Williams, director of communications at thinkmoney.

Use our Budget planner to work out how much money you have coming in and what you're spending it on

SHOCKING SHOCKING SHOCKING SHOCKING SHOCKING SHOCKING SHOCKING

News & features

One in 11 Britons has less than £10 a month disposable income

One in 11 people, or 4.5 million British adults, have less than £10 a month left over once they have paid their essential bills, new research from thinkmoney has found.

With many households struggling to make ends meet, the findings from budgeting account provider thinkmoney reveal the worryingly small amounts of disposable income people have left once they've met all their financial commitments.

Of the 2,149 people polled, one in four said they had less than £50 a month to spend after bills.

Across the UK, the average monthly disposable income was £224.50. However, there was a wide gender difference with men reporting having disposable incomes averaging £272.50, almost twice as much as women (£190.20).

Young people reported having the least disposable income, with 18-24 year-olds averaging £174.20 – some 22% below the overall UK average. Almost one in three people in this age group have less than £50 a month to spend after bills.

By contrast, the wealthiest in terms of post-bills spending money are people over 65, with an average of £269.50 a month available to spend.

The amount of disposable income also varies depending on where people live. It is highest in London, at an average of £261, and the South East, at £244. People in the North East and Wales have the lowest disposable incomes, at £199 and £181 respectively.

Worryingly, one in six people questioned in Wales said they had less than £10 a month to spend after bills.

“It’s stressful not knowing if you will have enough money to pay the bills and afford added extras each month,” said Ian Williams, director of communications at thinkmoney.

Use our Budget planner to work out how much money you have coming in and what you're spending it on

MP’s Scrounging Is Out Of Control: Cap Esther McVey’s Housing Benefit
Posted on June 10, 2014 by johnny void

Generation-rentMPs are being handed huge subsidies to rent second homes in London whilst thousands of the capital’s poorest residents are being socially cleansed due to slashed benefits and soaring rents.

Unemployment Minister Esther McVey claimed a whopping £17,227 last year to rent a swanky central London pad whilst invisible Housing Minster Kris Hopkins trousered £18,045.

The total bill for MPs languishing in luxury properties at our expense came to over £5 million says pressure group Generation Rent who compiled the figures.

The maximum Housing Benefit available in London is just over £250 a week for a single person, around £100 a week less than McVey scrounges. This benefit goes to people in and out of work alike and was capped shortly after the current government weren’t elected. Soaring rents in London have meant that many new housing benefit claimants are working full time but still cannot afford the eye-watering cost of living in the capital.

Previously ministers, including Iain Duncan Smith, have claimed that there are plenty of properties still available in London to those affected by the cap. So why can’t McVey live in one of those instead of living on hand outs?

McVey earns far too much already to be eligible for housing benefit and in any case it is not payable for second homes, even if you claim you need them for work. She can easily afford to pay her own rent and if not then any state support she receives should be capped at the same level she expects everyone else to survive on. It’s about making the system fair after all, and it might even incentivise McVey to get a real job for once in her miserable life.

Jobs jobs LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL

JOB these days means 6 MONTH TRAINING COURSE's resulting in nothing.

Explain how GDP is back to pre recession levels BUT the majority of middle class people in this country face a Cost Of Living Crisis.

Could it just be that the top 1% of the population have found that their as been a transfer/redistribution of wealth into their hands!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh dear.. Tory MP drunk in the chamber http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-27792964

DISGRACE. Mind Ken Clarke looks like hes blathered every time he enters the house.

electionista @electionista · 4h
Forsa poll: 60% of Germans say Merkel should back Juncker for commission president, 19% should favour relations with Britain over Juncker

UK unemployment falls , boom in job sector... coincidents with borders open for more people taking jobs that others dont...

Boom? what boom.. there's no boom in this Country.

Neither here..lol

Get it right tomasz........... boom in training sector. Boom in self employed Zombie Jobs where they have to apply for tax credits and then get caught by HMRC for over claiming because they are doing no where near a full time job.

Tuesday, 10 June 2014

At last, Atos turn whistle-blower!!!!

We knew this day would come. We've known for a while that it was coming, but finally it's happened, as it always had to.

The gloves have come off between Atos and the DWP!

To be honest, I couldn't believe it had gone this long. For months we've known that the contract with Atos had failed, long before we heard officially in March that they would be walking away from the detested "work capability assessments" or WCAs. I'd been hearing of wranglings and arguments, deadlocks and very unhappy bunnies in general. On both sides.

To keep that quiet for so long has been quite an achievement in itself.

But today, Atos start the long journey of rehabilitating their decimated public reputation, by finally telling their side of the story on - wait for it - BBC news no less! Now that the contract is broken, for the first time, they get to defend themselves and point out the failures that were never anything to do with them but all set in stone at the DWP. Let's hope that at the same time they acknowledge their own very considerable failings too.

However, today is the day when absolutely every voice in the Employment and Support Allowance debate are against the DWP. And doesn't that make everything so much tidier ;)

Although please note the almost ludicrously dismissive "Campaigners argue the tests are fundamentally flawed" with no mention whatsoever of why or what these failures in the whole sorry process are. The BBC record on covering this issue with any kind of balance, has been unforgivable and becomes more so by the day.

On a serious note, whilst the article does say that claimants and campaigners made doing the job impossible, (YAY FOR US!) but it goes a long way to explaining why claimants were justified in their fierce opposition. This is a slight shift in the Atos line it seems to me, away from blaming claimants to blaming the system design itself and the DWP

CELEBRATE, DO CARTWHEELS, RT AND SHARE!!!!


http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-27767779

An Australian woman dances on the sea bed amongst tiger sharks, some as big as 17' long, as a protest to get publicity and to try to prevent their culling....

Disgusting,

The tories are all the same!

8-)

Yep pass port office in a mess, Home Office in a mess, DOE in a mess, Energy dept in a mess, DWP a shambles, and Chancelor and PM both going funny in the head.

Is that why bag carriers like Haze are also in a mess?

===

But mind Captain U-Turn Marvel is looking after our interests on a boat in Europe!

No wonder Scotland wants to leave the "Empire" to escape the ravishes of London and "Hic" Hilary!

Yep, Hilary The Hairy.

Thought we were dispensing with the personal insults GF?

Mind (his favourite word). Fred is an exception. Once a Twat always a Twat! :O)

Only you Chris only you, I realise you and Hays have the online hots for Hilary.

Respect Gf Respect!