The current row over the housing benefit cap is obscuring the real impact cuts will have on low income people across the country.
With the government's decision to raise the cap for tuition fees to £9,000, access to higher education will become a financial leap of faith for poorer students.
Even with the benefit of hindsight it was impossible to tell, as I travelled around Oldham East and Saddleworth with Phil Woolas and Elwyn Watkins, what lay ahead. But the clues were there.
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