Free Computer & Internet Access for Children aged 7-14 of Low Income Families

sarahf191979

isabel.h wrote: »

What a shame I had to go to work to get the kids a computer

I would have rather worked and got my son his laptop but we can't all have what we want!

I didn't want to be out of work at the time but I was as I had been made redundant.

Should I have turned round and said NO to the Grant??? just because I would have rather bought it myself.

I know what you are saying, and agree the grant is a bit unfair and OTT and their will be people who abuse/ or try to abuse it but who do you have to feel more for them or their Kids.

kizzykizzywizzy

Info on suppliers, looks like BLI give an educational package with thiers too
http://www.realwire.com/release_detail.asp?ReleaseID=14746

Hope this helps someone

fazeypie

kizzykizzywizzy wrote: »

Info on suppliers, looks like BLI give an educational package with thiers too
http://www.realwire.com/release_detail.asp?ReleaseID=14746

Hope this helps someone

Thanks, the computers offered are quite basic ones by today's standards, they are a similar spec to a laptop costing £350 that a bought for my son a couple of years ago which has recently broken. I agree with another comment that the associated retailers have hiked the prices up to cash in on it.
Also be wary of having a three mobile Internet dongle, I had one when they first came out and it was great at first but then it just got slower as time went on. Three were awful every time I rang about it, I ended up having to just pay until the end of the contract even though I had little or no Internet access.
I am not working at the moment and to be honest I'd have been going mad at this when I was working, I think it is unfair. I think a few people on here are misdirecting their anger at the people who benefit from the schemes when it's the government to blame for leaving out hard working families on low incomes. Use your right to vote! At the end of the day, if someone is offering you grants for this and that and laptops for your kids, IMO you'd be silly not to take them. I have requested a form because working or not, my kids always come first.

Cinders2001

"…who attends a state-maintained school in England full time**?"
...Shame I Home School!! lol

But on the up side....
Our Education Authority in Somerset has given us a laptop for a whole year, possibly 18 months for us home schoolers!
So we've not missed out at all!! :T

fazeypie

Cinders2001 wrote: »

"…who attends a state-maintained school in England full time**?"
...Shame I Home School!! lol

But on the up side....
Our Education Authority in Somerset has given us a laptop for a whole year, possibly 18 months for us home schoolers!
So we've not missed out at all!! :T

That's really nice to hear. I homeschooled my son for a while due to bullying and I was appalled at the lack of funding available to parents who choose or are forced to do this.
Well done you and thumbs up to Somerset lea

lucinad

ok i have been scouting around looking at what is available under this scheme and as far as i can see there is only 6 companies that will be supplying the home access pc/laptops and software and seems to be only 1 or 2 options from each and the specs are very poor compared to what you could get if left to find your own anyway click on the links to see what they are offering

bli education http://www.homeaccesscomputers.com/
comet http://www.comet.co.uk/shopcomet/search.do?n=0&searchTerm=home+access&searchButton.x=0&searchButton.y=0
misco http://www.misco.co.uk/content/homeaccess/homeaccesspackages.htm
positive it http://www.homeaccessgrant.com/purchaseproducts.html?p=catalog&parent=5&pg=1
xma i cant see what they are offereing as you need the letter code to go thru to their wizard
centerprise http://www.cihomeaccess.co.uk/full-package/

elr49

hi, i live in wales and do not qualify for the laptop grant, do anyone know if this will be available in wales in the future.
thanks

lorweld

Guys can I ask that any further discussion be about the freebie and not about the rights and wrongs of who should and shouldn't be eligible for the free pc. Please use the discussion board if you want to continue. Thanks:)

dentonal

Does anyone know if this is limited to one per household or one for each eligible child?

Starmog

I was looking around for a laptop and saw someone in comet setting up a display about this home access thing. I asked him what it was about and he said they were giving away free laptops to people, sounds great!

He also said that you dont have to pay anything towards the laptops as they are doing the full package for the grant value and you get to choose what network to sign up to. They said they were going to get loads of stock in the next 5 days. :beer: