Although many people are forecasting a hard time for the unemployed from april it really isn't scaremongering. If these proposed cuts start in april 2013 which is only four months away it will cause great hardship to many. The government spout such things as the unemployed gaining some 20% rise in benefits during the last five years but that is from a small base. From around £60 a week to £71 and that is still a small amount to live on and pay bills. From april 2013 if you have a spare bedroom in your council flat you could be paying around £10 a week because of your housing benefit being reduced and around £2 a week towards council tax. That means you will have to find around £12 a week and at the same time the 1% rise in benefits will give you 71p to cover it. That will in effect reduce your income to around £60 after those two new bills. You could end up with less in actual cash terms than you would have received five years ago with nothing to cover inflation for those five years. Fuel bills and food are rising rapidly and if the water rates go up in april then it could be a case for many of paying bills or going without food. With many people struggling to survive from week to week the Universal Credit scheme will start from october 2013, first in the North of England and then going nationally. Receiving your benefits on a monthly basis and with your rent and council tax included it is going to be very difficult not to dip into the rent money to pay for food when you are struggling. Universal Credit is a way of knowing instantly how much benefit the individual is receiving in total and although they say it will help people budget and get used to being paid monthly and therefore be more ready for work it will create so much distress to many that it would be better scrapped than allowed to go ahead. It wouldn't surprise me if this is an attempt to make the unemployed suffer even more in the future by bringing in such things as food stamps and give people less money to spend as they like. This government are in power it seems to at least 2015 so all these changes look likely to be put in place. Let's look on the bright side, the majority of people in Britain are poor and if for once they took up the right to vote then this government can be kicked onto the sidelines and maybe then things could be reversed and even some retribution such as a massive hunt for wealthy tax evaders and a way of fining them so much that the amount they have got away with is peanuts in comparison. Also we need to make it illegal for any serving member of parliament to receive any kind of income from companies that have a government contract. I'm trying to think of some good thoughts as the prospects for many unemployed in the new year look grim. Let's hope in Cardiff that the Welsh Assembly and Cardiff Council hold back from those benefit cuts.