Boom-time on benefits: The 140,000 families who claim £20,000 a year in handouts

SingleSue

Will the youngest always have these illnesses? Or can he get better as he gets older (thinking Asthma which can improve as child grows up)....sounds like a huge amount to cope with to me.
Mine never even got ill enough for a dose of antibiotic....though son was always fracturing bones in Rugby. I can't imagine coping with all that .....so I promise not to moan too much on here anymore.;)

The food intolerances have improved as he has got older but the asthma has got worse, he was a prem baby and has had problems from birth with his lungs, my eldest son developed asthma at age 3 or 4 but had grown out of it by age 7 but it always very mild.

The rest could well stay static, his responses to his autism could improve (or his ways to cope with it) but he could end up properly diabetic and more mobility impaired as he gets older.

My eldest son is much the same as yours, he is rarely ill although he does have mild hypermobility.

Middle son has aspergers, a learning disability in verbal understanding, bowel disorder, gross food intolerances (which are improving), mild brain damage which causes something to go blotto with his emotions/anger and appetite control and similar clinical symptoms to Prader-Willi syndrome but he is intelligent rather than learning disabled (apart from verbal understanding).

And it is a lot to cope with, I had a nervous breakdown over it due to complete physical and emotional exhaustion.

olly300

mvengemvenge wrote: »

Personally, I think this constant reference to Poles coming over here is a red herring. They were never the problem. They worked hard and paid their way. The Government always makes reference to them, but that's to throw people off the scent of the much bigger numbers of non-EU people who come over and just go straight onto benefits. Labour never want to discuss this group, as it's not 'pc'.

Single adult asylum seekers don't get the same benefits as the unemployed. And it's very hard to smuggle yourself let alone your family into the country. Therefore if they have the choice they try and get themselves into this country as illegal immigrants and work for example as Parking Attendants for the company that provides parking services to Lambeth Council.

Those who actually are children, and those who are older but claim to be children get taken care of by the state so they get housed sometimes with foster parents, free education if they can be bothered to attend school and some money. The people I know who work in different child services have stories of people who they suspect of being adults between 19-23 claiming they are children of 16. Unfortunately its not possible to prove conclusively someone's age.

fc123

SingleSue wrote: »

The food intolerances have improved as he has got older but the asthma has got worse, he was a prem baby and has had problems from birth with his lungs, my eldest son developed asthma at age 3 or 4 but had grown out of it by age 7 but it always very mild.

The rest could well stay static, his responses to his autism could improve (or his ways to cope with it) but he could end up properly diabetic and more mobility impaired as he gets older.

My eldest son is much the same as yours, he is rarely ill although he does have mild hypermobility.

Middle son has aspergers, a learning disability in verbal understanding, bowel disorder, gross food intolerances (which are improving), mild brain damage which causes something to go blotto with his emotions/anger and appetite control and similar clinical symptoms to Prader-Willi syndrome but he is intelligent rather than learning disabled (apart from verbal understanding).

And it is a lot to cope with, I had a nervous breakdown over it due to complete physical and emotional exhaustion.

I know a bit about Prader Willi as my step sister's daughter has it....though we aren't close so I'm still a bit ignorant about it. She's a nice kid and is coping in mainstream school...just.......but I know how much strain it puts on the other 2 kids and the family as a whole.

I hope things improve SS...I can't think of anything more helpful to say?!;)

davidjohndean

I have'nt read the 150 + posts - but all I'd like to say is that benefit payments should be there for people in complete dire need for them and not for people who think they are rightly theirs.

There are far too many people in this country who know how to 'play' the system - this is something that should be made tougher for a start.

WTF?_2

MrsE wrote: »

I'm surprised at the venom shown to the Poles, they were our staunchest allies in WW2 & their bravery was unparallelled, why do they get such a hard time now

That's because Britain entered the war because of a treaty obligation to defend Poland.

nickmason

mvengemvenge wrote: »

Personally, I think this constant reference to Poles coming over here is a red herring. They were never the problem. They worked hard and paid their way. The Government always makes reference to them, but that's to throw people off the scent of the much bigger numbers of non-EU people who come over and just go straight onto benefits. Labour never want to discuss this group, as it's not 'pc'.

What is the number? You say "much bigger"?

neverdespairgirl

Generali wrote: »

The cut off point for WTC is set very high for that reason IIRC I was earning more than 50k and could claim. The higher it is, the more gentle the taper. In the 1990s, some mothers faced an effective marginal tax rate > 100%!

It's not that high - we don't get it, and we don't earn absolutely insane amounts.

neverdespairgirl

SingleSue wrote: »

when I went back to work after my children, my father wouldn't speak to me for a while as he saw it as me neglecting my duty as a housewife and mother. He didn't quite understand my need to have my own identity or the fact that I found being a stop at home mum rather boring..he would just say it was good enough for mum so why couldn't it be good enough for me.

My parents married in 1974, and my mother carried on working as a teacher until she was pregnant with me (I was born in 1977). She then stopped teaching, and my sisters were born in 1979 and 1983, and my bruv in 1985. She went back part-time (at the school where my sisters and I went - she taught me one lesson a week) when I was 17, in 1994.

I went back to work for a day here and there when Isaac was very young - I had a day in court when he was 5 weeks old, as it was a long-running case and I couldn't pass it on. I had a couple of other days I had to do until he was 3 months old, and then did 2 days a week until he was 6 months, then I went back part-time.

My mother has been very supportive of my choice. She looked after him a couple of the days I had to work when he was very young, and when we first employed childcare, spent the first couple of days with the pair of them, to reassure both of us he was OK!

I think that because she was happy with the choice she made, she doesn't need me to make the same choice in order to validate hers.

neverdespairgirl

SingleSue wrote: »

He can't understand my ex hubby at all as my ex has the children (not overnight) once in a blue moon for a very short space of time and they come a long way down his lift of priorities.

I can't understand that at all. If I only saw Isaac every other weekend, on contact visits, that would be hell on earth.

neverdespairgirl

olly300 wrote: »

Edited to say: some of the saddest things I've seen is teenagers only thinking they are worth something or will have someone who loves them if they have a baby.

I agree. I remember reading that more than half of 16 year old girls in "care" are pregnant or already have a baby. That seems to be a massive failing in the care system.