Will somebody give me a free child?

Martinslovechild

Today's pre-budget announcement was my love affair with New Labour well and truly over.

After Child Benefit, Child Tax Credit, Working Family's Tax Credit, Children's Tax Credit, Baby Bonus, Additional Maternity Rights, Paternity Pay, An additional 2500 Surestart Childrens Centres etc etc, how much more do we have to endure?

What about those people like me without kids?

MIRAS was taken away
We have to pay 1% extra National Insurance
We had our Pension Fund Tax Dividends taken away in a £5 billion raid

Thanks Tony. Thanks Gordon. Thanks for NOTHING.

peterbaker

Yeah I was watching the speech and happened to be IMing to my friend in Denmark at same time.  She couldnt believe the single mother biased cr*p in that budget either.

We really do have a bloody weird idea of equality in the UK.  Why the hell do single mothers in particular need an extra £40 a week if they go back to work?  Don't they get salaries like single CSA burdened fathers?  Why do toddlers now need to be institutionalised in schools at age 3 when 4 is too flippin young anyway?  I suppose new dads Blunkett and Brown have already bought little satchels, short trousers and caps for theirs.  Do they have any idea of the difference that ought to exist between kindergarten and nursery and nursery and school?  I doubt it, since all this extra money seems destined now for primary schools with bolt on nurseries and half-hearted staff to switch the tv on for kids who can stay from 8am to 6pm now.  It will be sad to disappoint them by telling them that actually our system turns out some of the most socially inept people in Europe and mostly because we completely neglect the need to develop social skills in the early years and instead pat our little Williams and ourselves on the back if our prodigies can calculate the square root of 25 before they reach that age.

And did our Gordon not then go on to say something about paying mothers to stay at home rather than go back to work?  So he won't be paying the £40 then? or will he?  I was confused as hell after listening to him.

But did you see Blunkett nodding and panting furiously with delight just as his labrador might when all those jelly baby related items tumbled from Gordon's mouth?  What a bunch of amateurs we have in charge of such important matters.  I am also sick of seeing Chris Woodhead wheeled out on tv to defend madcap ideas like special institutions to handle all the excluded pupils they plan to create to "fix" poor classes.  I hated it the other day when I heard him say "we as headmasters" - I don't think he has been a headmaster for donkeys years.  And didn't he marry one of his pupils or something equally odd?   I think the lot of them have lost the plot.  We should first look at basic things like how on earth did the UK end up with a system that turns out employees of organisations such as the BBC who get paid to create subtitles for the hard of hearing on BBC News 24 for reports featuring Chris Woodhead's ideas about institutions for excluded pupils and then spelling the concept of Borstals as "bore stalls", not once, but three times!!  I couldn't believe my eyes!

And as I write this I have just seen another BBC report that actually suggests that what Brown announced today will make our system closer to that in Denmark. I can tell you that comparison is complete and utter rubbish. Most Danes easily speak and write better English than we ever will, and they know how to behave, and how to preserve their way of life a little more robustly. They are taught social skills and not much else up to the age of 7 - there certainly isn't much of a market for leather satchels and caps there.

Poppy9

Martins love child

Are you by any chance childless :-*

If you don't hurry up and produce some off spring who is going to pay taxes in the future? You need their taxes to pay for your pension in the same way that your taxes are paying your parents/grandparents pensions.

Part of the reason taxes have to keep rising is that the birth rate is dropping and people are living longer. We need more kids - I personally think everyone should have a minimum of 10. More children in school, means more teaching jobs, more kids need more clothes, foods PS2's so manufacturing increases, thus employment in these industries increases ;D.

Another personal view is that we scrap all benefits so we don't have an army of people processing income support, DLA, incapacity benefit etc. If you aren't working regardless of the reason you get 1 set amount per week. No scope for extra - just a basic amount to cover the essentials like housing, utilities and food.

Paul1_2

What about those people like me without kids?

Well, someone has to pay for Tony's vision ::)

Paul1

Spendless

After Child Benefit, Child Tax Credit, Working Family's Tax Credit, Children's Tax Credit, Baby Bonus, Additional Maternity Rights, Paternity Pay, An additional 2500 Surestart Childrens Centres etc etc, how much more do we have to endure?

.

Child Benefit is paid at around £16 for the eldest £11 for younger children - hardly a fortune

Child Tax Credit depends on income - after your household income gets to around £25,000 you receive £10.45 a week
- in total - not per child

Working Families Tax credit - is again means tested -

Childrens Tax credit - as far as i'm aware no longer exists - it was replaced by Child Tax Credit.
Childrens Tax credit - in turn replaced the married mans allowance - Once i was single and living alone but my married parents and married sisiter with a dual income and no kids get a better tax benefit than me - why? I'd rather see it go to people with kids instead (and not just cos i have them)

Baby Bonus - is only eligible for kids born from 1 sept 2002 - one of my kids qualifies - the other doesn't - and is highly likely to be put towards the student debt they will acquire

Additional Maternity Pay - came in for babies due on or after 6 april 2003. my daughter was due 6 days b4 - i didn't get it - despite having workedfull-time for 17 years -it doesn't mean i begrudge others having it

Paternity Pay was the same - but it is paid at £100 a week - there was an article on here some time ago about very few men taking it up

Surestart - we have in certain areas of the town but not mine
From what i can gather certainly here they are put in disadvantaged areas to help with childcare issues etc - i'm not sure cos i don't have them

A single mum friend of mine works cos she can claim WTC etc - the alternative when her marriage ended was to go on IS.

Poppy is quite right too - who do you think is going to be working in 20 years time supporting an ageing population

goolieman

Again no encouragement for existing Mothers to stay home and look after their children rather than paying someone else to do it. >:(

Spendless

Again no encouragement for existing Mothers to stay home and look after their children rather than paying someone else to do it. >:(

I'm stuck in that trap too. If i worked my money would go in childcare and my husband earns over the amount to receive any help. People seem to be under the impression that if you have kids you are entitled to all sorts - it isn't true

divadee

I'm stuck in that trap too. If i worked my money would go in childcare and my husband earns over the amount to receive any help. People seem to be under the impression that if you have kids you are entitled to all sorts - it isn't true    

hear hear

i fall into this trap as well, not so bad in the term time now shes at school but what do you do in the holidays, i would be working and i would probably be out of pocket as childcare costs are so high down here for the holidays.

How do people do it thats what i want to know :-/

bridiej

Dont get me started on this topic MLC.

We are a childless couple, we plan to have kids in a couple of years when we know we can afford to look after them.

Every year it seems there is more and more support to "families", but that always includes people with kids, never a mention of us hard working tax payers who have to pay for absolutely everything and get nothing back in return.

It's all very well saying child tax credits and family allowance arent a fortune, but why should they be? If you cant afford kids dont have them, and fair enough accidents do happen but then why do people go on to have three or four more kids if they cant support one?

I understand that kids are the future taxpayers, but I am not going to be forced into multiplying with the incentive of extra paid maternity leave or £250 for each kid on their 7th birthday (or whatever)

What I would also be interested to know is what about self employed women, what maternity pay will we get?

My average monthly earnings over the past year have been around £1500, which means I will be paying Brown lots of lovely tax at the end of the year - can guarantee I will get nowhere near that amount if I was to fall pregnant.... >:(

bridiej

Child Tax Credit depends on income - after your household income gets to around £25,000 you receive £10.45 a week
- in total - not per child

Not entirely true, I know someone whose husband was on nearly £40K a year and they still got over £500 in CTC - why?

Spendless

You've lost me Mistletoe and wine

you start by saying that there is help given to families rather than childless couples

and then go on to complain about the lack of maternity poay you'll receive :-/