MSE News: Tory child trust fund cuts to hit 'normal families'

WASHER

DX2 wrote: »

Where should MSE move his thread too :whistle:

I personally think the "Discussion" board would have been ideal.

Threads such as benefits and the government almost always raise more questions than answers and since sometimes a thread can become heated due to the nature of the topic, I thought "discussion" board would have been the place for it.

LizzieS_2

Well lets start with the stereotypical groups:

Low paid/benefits = cannot save
middle income = some do, some don't
high income = will save

Assuming each does save, what will the child do in steotypical ways:
Low paid/benefit = spend it quickly on something useless like holiday or latest gadget
Middle Income = child could go either way
High income = child will have more money than sense

Realistically those sterotypes do not exist to all. Income, even at a basic level is intended to cater for all the childs needs - so savings must be one of them?

Instead of creating a bureaucratic nightmare of a different benefit, why don't they simply say £1pw for each child benefit claim will go into a trust fund? - at least all children are treated equally without being stereotyped.

Andy_Davies

smk77 wrote: »

The mess that we are in was caused by subprime mortgages - lending to those that can't afford to pay it back.

Since 1997 welfare benefits have increased from £115bn to £187bn. Sounds a lot doesn't it? During the same period NI and Income Tax contributions have increased from £101bn to £152bn. so, 63% and 51%. Yes, an increase but hardly enough to create the mess that we are in and some of that increase is for increase SMP for working mothers (not the single teenage mums that are easily targetted) who contribute to the revenue of the country.

Incidently, health spending has increased from £42bn to £102bn and education from £38bn to £77bn. Percentage wise this is far more than than the increase in welfare benefits. If you or anyone you know works in health or education then you'll know that this money has been absolutely vital following the 18 years of under funding by the Tories. This is EXACTLY why the Tories can't be trusted and the finger can be pointed back to the 80s and 90s.

As I said from the start the CTF may not be the right solution but there is a clear lack of personal responsibility of finances for too many people in this country and this has to be addressed somehow. I'm sure you'll agree with that.

The mess we're in was caused by many things, the sub-prime crisis was just the tip of the iceberg.

This government has been spending more money than it's raises in taxes since the day it was elected - you've only got to look at you're own figures above to realise that the outgoings are larger than the income.

Much of the "investment" in education and health has gone a the following of ways - increased salaries, increased red tape and on new buildings (which are all funded via PFI and so will still be costing a fortune in the future)

Why is it we're only (?) nation in Europe that believes the health system has to be totally publicly owned and run - why won't the French or German model work for us.

The current mess we're in is as much the governments fault as anyone else - they created the lax regulation that allowed the sub-prime disaster to unfold, the spend during the good times so unlike Australia we had no buffer during the bad times, they have created a culture where they believe they can spend our money better than we can and created a benefits culture - why else would families with 50K incomes be able to claim CTC it's nuts!

What we need is someone who'll not tell us they're prudent while maxing out the credit card, but will actually be prudent and start by reducing the grossly over staffed state we have and if that means the state stops doing some things then so be it - after all do we really need things like a potato marketing council?

Andy