Don't get sick, don't be disabled, don’t be on low pay with children to feed.
Don’t rely on Universal Credit or depend on public services.
And don't be a single parent in work - because they will cut your benefit if you don't offer to do longer hours, even though you can't afford the childcare.
That's the message from the Conservative Party Conference this week, as Minister after Minister threatens cuts in the real value of benefits: threats that will cause sleepless nights for millions of mothers and fathers worried to death that they cannot pay their bills.
With the exception of Penny Mordaunt, each Minister has refused to guarantee to honour the promise made by the previous Chancellor and Prime Minister to uprate benefits in line with 9% inflation from next April.
And in the most insensitive comment so far - akin to the infamous 1980s Norman Tebbit lecture to the unemployed to “get on their bikes” - Tory Party Chairman, Jake Berry, shows little sympathy for families struggling to pay their bills.
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“People know that when their bills arrive, they can either cut the consumption,” he said, ”Or they can get a higher salary or higher wages, get out and get that new job.”
As if it were as easy for a struggling family as that!
Last week at the Labour Conference, Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves drew a powerful contrast between the Budget bonanza for top-rate taxpayers and the plight of hard-pressed families.
Now, this week, has come the harsh truth: that the £43billion of tax cuts - which benefit the wealthiest the most - are to be paid for by both reductions in much-needed public services and cuts in in benefits.
Already - even in advance of these cuts-to-come - the NHS is at breaking point, requiring extra funds to pay dedicated NHS staff decent wages, to cover hospital heating bills and afford the fast-rising bills for medical supplies because of higher import prices due to the falling pound.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies has said that linking Universal Credit to average earnings rather than inflation would save the Chancellor £7bn next year.
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But making 6 million who receive Universal Credit pay the cost of the crisis by backtracking on the benefits promise would be the unkindest cut of all.
Already families with two children have had their Universal Credit cut by £20 a week last October, and then seen their benefits uprated only by 3% when inflation had hit 9% - and could go as high as 11% for those on the lowest incomes.
Now since October 1 the typical family is paying £10 a week more in their fuel bills on top of the £14 a week increase since January.
So even after receiving the maximum help of £1,200, Universal Credit claimants facing a mountain of rising bills are nearly £30 a week worse off than last October .
And the Chancellor abandons the link between benefits and earnings from next April, they could be even worse off – around £40 a week down on a year ago.
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And that means millions will have no choice but to turn the heating down, cut back on the food shop, give up on laundry, toiletries and clothing needed for the children – and prepare for the bleakest Christmas for years.
The numbers of children in poverty will exceed 5million for the first time in a generation.
Charities, churches and faith groups are doing what they can to help those in need, and next week will launch Warm Welcome, the inspirational effort to invite people unable to afford their heating bills to use their warm halls to fend off the cold.
The Government should listen to the churches and the charities - and worry more about millions on the breadline than millionaires in the boardrooms.
And after two U-turns in two days - on top rate tax and on the timing of their financial update - there must be a third U turn, a guarantee that benefits will rise in line with inflation.
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It’s the U-turn that really matters for millions of hard pressed families.
And to make it happen quickly, churches and charities, anti-poverty campaigners-and councillors, must step up their nationwide campaign to prevent a benefits bloodbath.