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Annemary's latest comments
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19th May 2017Annemary commented on:
Should the Winter Fuel Allowance be means tested?Is it acceptable to 'have the guts' to challenge this racist list of lies? Pensioners lived through or remember the aftermath of the fascist threat that brought about WW2. Winston Churchill championed the European Convention on Human Rights and International conventions to protect those fleeing persecution, leading to an agreed set of rights to asylum for the vulnerable and desperate. Our country is proud to offer safe harbour to such people. Your post is one I have seen before, spreading hatred and misinformation. A Refugee is a person who has been forced to flee, often in fear of their life. The burden of proof, and it is a tough process, is on them to demonstrate the threat is genuine. If they prove this to be the case, they are granted leave to remain, usually for 5 years, and some need to join our Benefits system to survive. Contrary to false claims, they receive no additional or special help. Many find work, and are desperate to finance themselves. Some are skilled people who add value to our economy or set up businesses which also contribute. In this way they begin to pay taxes. You may argue desperate asylum seekers should simply not be allowed to stay in the first place, what ever their case, but their right to ask for asylum is enshrined in international law based in human decency. Those granted Refugees status are able to claim help such as Jobseekers Allowance and related support, but whatever the amount, it is equal to that received by a British Citizen. Perhaps the point is that pensioners are treated less well by the benefits system than than non-pensioners, hence the fight many of us are undertaking to protect the triple lock and the heating allowance. While in the process of claiming asylum, vulnerable people in this situation are, frankly, treated as the lowest of the low. They flee danger, including things like bombs dropped by their own governments, female genital mutilation, genocide, forced child militant recruitment, arrive here, and are sent, with no choice in the matter, to a 'dispersal' town, to live in accommodation generally agreed to be of the lowest standard. often crowded hostels or poorly maintained homes in extremely deprived neighbourhoods where services sometimes struggle to cope. Their rent and utilities are provided, which you may think unfair, and that they should be kept in some kind of camp. They receive £37 a week to cover all other living costs. That's roughly £5 a day for travel, food, clothes, sanitary products, household cleaning items, etc etc. £37. Not £250. If a woman is pregnant she needs good nutrition and to look after herself. For that, she gets another £3 a week. If she has a baby under 1, she gets £5 a week extra on top of their allowance. For a child between one and three years, another £3. I don't know where the figures you quote came from but, frankly, they are so wrong only one conclusion is possible. They are motivated by hate and deserve to be laughed at. Stop scape goating people who actually get the absolute minimum to survive after having gone through hell to seek help elsewhere. The real struggle is protect all our communities, elderly, young, with a disability, those seeking refuge. Picking on one another is exactly what serves those who hope to take welfare away.ViewDate:
19th May 2017Annemary commented on:
Should the Winter Fuel Allowance be means tested?I can't verify the Pension figures but the racially-hostile text is incorrect.