EllanVannin
Would we have been treated differently if we'd been Labour voters ? I wonder.
EllanVannin, I don't blame you for feeling the way you do. I don't blame ANYONE for trying to make a little extra, cash in hand. I'm very, very fortunate that I haven't needed benefits, because I know that despite my level of education, that I would struggle to access the system. It is one of many steps to make it deliberately difficult to prevent people from being able to access it.
The woman who cleaned my classroom in my last UK school was on Universal Credit. She could barely afford to eat and in the time I was at the school, she deteriorated hugely. She went from an average slim person, to being skeletal in appearance. We were the same age. I drove in my nice warm car to work everyday. She walked, ran or shine. Obviously a car was so far outside her orbit that it wasn't ever a consideration. She told me about how when she switched from the previous benefit, to universal credit, it took them over 3 months to sort it all out, leaving her penniless. No money for rent, utilities, food. That was when she started having to use food banks.
I pay a lot of tax and national insurance. I pay them (IMO) to enable a welfare state. I DO NOT pay them for the likes of Dominic Cummings or Rees Mogg to line their pockets with dodgy deals which benefit our country in no way, shape or form.
There for the grace of god...
As for your vote. I hesitate to bring politics into this. But with an elitist government in power, the poor or needy are NEVER going to be a consideration. I wish you the best now and hope you (and I!) never need to rely on benefits again.