I feel I might get slaughtered for saying this - but who cares, it's what I think:
For me, the coalition has done nothing to protect local services, which - although New Labour made more than their fair share of idiotic and hurtful mistakes - is something that the previous Labour government got right in trying to maintain and protect these services. In my local area this has meant that children's services have been reduced dramatically, with sure start centres in deprived areas left underfunded, understaffed and only open for a few half-days a week. This obviously impacts on working families harshly. Additionally, the local council is now in a funding crisis and is in the process of reducing its workforce by 25%. No matter how government officials dress this up, it does affect service. Council spending has also been reduced enormously on Youth services. As a final point on local government, my local town hospital is also due to shut down and integrate with another 15 miles away. For us this is a big loss to the community, particularly for elder residents who rely on its close-to-home services. Of course some of these cuts are needed and would probably have been legislated by a Labour government, but the size and impact of these cuts have not been thought through and no attempts have been made to try and protect these vital services. This appreciation of local services was the main difference I encountered on my work experience last Summer - one with a majority Conservative, and the other Labour council.
The lack of the coalition's consideration over policy is particularly evident in the bedroom tax. Families with carers or foster children are not exempt from it. Clearly this could create huge negative impacts, as families simply can't afford to loose tax credits to save their "spare" room. The other problem with the tax is that there simply aren't enough one or two bedroom houses to go round as building goals created under Labour encouraged the building of family sized homes. Councils are reluctant to build more one and two bedroom homes as they know that there is in reality little demand for it, and the chances are that the policy will be abandoned if Labour wins the next election, which is looking increasingly likely. The bedroom tax was basically a rushed through policy to create votes, with no real consideration over its impact or application.
Finally, the government's lack of consideration is shown in its farming out to private firms - in particular ATOS. This French company now has the responsibility of determining whether or not people on disability allowance are fit to work. Even though I'm not a fan of privatisation, I can see that if this is a cost effective way of doing this then we should accept it. However, ATOS are employed to find as many people as possible as fit to work, working to strict quotas, even if this might not be the case. "The government's own figures revealed that 1,300 people had died after being told they should start preparing to go back to work, and another 2,200 had died before their assessment was complete." Michael Meacher MP. These figures should of course be scrutinised as they come from an opposition MP, but the fact is that several people have died as a result of these quotas. Again, this has probably occurred after government health assessments, but not on the same scale.
Basically, I do not think that most people are better off under the coalition. Economically this has been shown with working people on average £1500 worse off per year under the coalition. Furthermore, socially I think there has been a step backwards with the use of derogatory language like "workers and shirkers" to turn people against each other, and in particularly the unemployed. This does not help solve the problems the country faces.
Rant Over.