No to the cuts that make Families suffer

  Last night, Redbridge Labour pushed through cuts to council tax support for the poorest residents, including the disabled. The cuts are listed below, it depends on the level of poverty, but over the years that Redbridge Labour has been cutting this benefit, the most vulnerable will have lost around £200 to £300 per year. I quote from a recent article "Numbers of hungry and malnourished households in the UK are on the rise  because of climate breakdown  and inflation, government figures show, with poorer, younger and disabled people hit hardest." The full article is at:  Poverty article There can be no doubt that these cuts will hurt the most vulnerable members of our community. Let's hope our campaign to stop these cuts will succeed at the budget meeting of 27th February 2025.  In his speech at the video, Cllr Rai uses the Wizard of Oz to defend his cuts: some might wonder which character Kam Rai is from the film when he attacks the poor. 

 Thank you to everyone who spoke and attended yesterday  I will write Councillors seeking support for our budget deputation on the 27th February. The poor already struggle to eat and heat their homes these cuts to council tax support will make things even worse.  I quote from a recent article "Numbers of hungry and malnourished households in the UK are on the rise  because of climate breakdown  and inflation, government figures show, with poorer, younger and disabled people hit hardest." The full article is at: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/dec/11/food-insecurity-rising-uk-climate-breakdown-inflation-brexit-defra-report

  The poor are getting a bad deal and countless studies show that because benefits are not enough the children of the poor suffer. One study at the Don't Starve Families blog goes into detail of how poor children are shorter than richer peers https://www.qmul.ac.uk/media/news/2021/smd/young-children-from-englands-poorest-areas-are-shorter-according-to-new-queen-mary-study.html#:~:text=The%20results%20show%20that%20around,of%20East%20and%20North%20London. Another study published in the FT shows the poorest 8 year old children die at rate 10 times than the richest children. An extract is below: the full article which may be behind a pay wall is at https://www.ft.com/content/4de0ac9e-0cf1-41f1-86da-4d2737cc5939 . We don't use starvation as a punishment for prisoners, but inadequate benefits mean the poor are literally dying earlier than they should be because they do not have enough to eat. Effectively a type of starvation punishment just for being poor, which the planned cut...