Schools charging & people on benefits!

kezlou

dmg you make me laugh, people are in low paid paid jobs by choice?!,
say that to the thousands of people who are trying to get higher paid jobs. Its a recession for gawds sake, many people i know know on £50grand + are now on less than £10grand because of redundancies/loss of contracts etc.
Is that through choice emmm i don't think so.

My partners a trainee plumber, thats less than £10000 a year, through choice, i wish.

Would love to see your face if it suddenly happened to you.
Through choice, yeah right.

child tax credits are there to feed, clothes and keep a roof over a child's head - not for school trips etc As for hardship funds, my chidlrens school don't have one. We receive no help with the costs of uniforms.

DaisyFlower

dmg24 wrote: »

Surely this should act as a motivator for parents to increase their earnings, either by working more hours or increasing their skills?

With limited exceptions (such as the disabled), those who are on a low income are in that situation through choice. Why should other people subsidise them just because they choose to stay in a low paid jobs/ work limited hours/ only have one parent working?

I totally agree. Lots of people are on benefits by choice so why should they receive even more state help? Lone parents dont have to work, tax credits allows people to work the bare minimum hours and if one parent chooses to stay home then they can really complain when the household income falls.

Children are expensive, if you dont want to pay for them then don't have any. Too many people have children and then expect everything handed to them on a plate.

Tax credits and CB alone on the bare minimum is £120 a month - thats enough to buy clothes, uniform, activities etc.

Memory_Girl

DaisyFlower wrote: »

I totally agree. Lots of people are on benefits by choice so why should they receive even more state help? Lone parents dont have to work, tax credits allows people to work the bare minimum hours and if one parent chooses to stay home then they can really complain when the household income falls.

Children are expensive, if you dont want to pay for them then don't have any. Too many people have children and then expect everything handed to them on a plate.

Tax credits and CB alone on the bare minimum is £120 a month - thats enough to buy clothes, uniform, activities etc.

On benefits - not through choice though and heading back to work soon thankfully .

I'm brilliant at managing my money - but I'll be honest. My child Tax Credits are spent on luxuries for my children - LIKE FOOD!!!! Like essential petrol to get him school -too far to walk both kids along roads with no pavemement but car is ONLY used for school runs. Like "essential" clothing to keep them wind and water tight. Ther is no LUXURIES contingency inthe tax Credit system just for basics.

We have no spare income for activities at the moment - and if either of them need new shoes before the end of term I am scuppered because there is no excess in the budget.

I am now resolved to telling the school "No, my kids can't do that" because there are no funds - at least my nine year old recognises this is not forever and things will get better.

I'll get off my soap box now

Memorygirl

pukkamum

DaisyFlower wrote: »

I totally agree. Lots of people are on benefits by choice so why should they receive even more state help? Lone parents dont have to work, tax credits allows people to work the bare minimum hours and if one parent chooses to stay home then they can really complain when the household income falls.

Children are expensive, if you dont want to pay for them then don't have any. Too many people have children and then expect everything handed to them on a plate.

Tax credits and CB alone on the bare minimum is £120 a month - thats enough to buy clothes, uniform, activities etc.

But you are assuming that only people on benefits struggle with paying out for these 'luxuries'.
There are many many families surviving on a low income where both parents work, there are many many people who can only earn minimum wage due to lack of skills education or oportunities.
The child benefit and tax credits i get go towards keeping the children not for luxuries!!!!

sock-knitter

i wish every school in the country was run like my childrens schools
there is no school uniform in either school, and most trips are funded by the school, with the exception of residential trips, but they are heavily subsidised.
i am a single parents on benefits and not thru choice, i am disabled not lazy.

shellsuit

The thing that annoys me is that my children's school seems to think we have a bottomless pit of cash to throw at the school.

Uniform can only be bought in one place.
It's lovely and smart and I have no problem with the main uniform, but they HAVE to have a certain bag (which falls apart after a couple of months) and now I see that if they want to wear a scarf, they HAVE to have a 'college scarf'.

Now excuse me, but if my children want to wear a scarf to walk to school and back home again, ie not IN the school, they will wear whatever bloody scarf they want!

Then it's the £300 for this trip and £400 for that trip.

Then it non clothes day so a couple of quid for that. (No mention of where the money is going, that's what annoys me about it)

Then it's money for the plant sale, or the book sale.

Then it's project week, where each class gets to do something different, during school hours, but we have to pay. One class last year went to London for 3 days. One class went to Alton Towers. My son's class? They went to Liverpool museum then Albert dock for lunch (we were told which restaurant they were going to and we had to pay) and then to Liverpool One for a mooch around the shops. Brilliant! Excellent! Who thought of those fair half brained ideas?

When I was a kid, schools used to be their own little communities, where kids were proud to go and parents didn't mind paying out for various things because you know the money was going to be well used within the school. Now they are just another money making racket.



BUT I don't agree with this parents on benefits whinge.

Some parents on benefits are much better off than working parents as working parents have more overheads, such as their mortgage or rent and council tax, and that's just for starters.

If a family can't afford something, they can't afford it, and it shouldn't matter whether they are working or on benefits, they should all be treated the same.

So please don't give me this 'poor parents on benefits', because I had more money in my purse to spend when I was on my own with the kids, than I have now, in a working household. (But Yes, I do understand some familes on benefits are on the bones of their backsides and have no spare cash)

1more?

i am a school governor at my sons school, we live in a communities 1st area (deprived) and i have to stick up for the school they really dont get a bottomless pot of money, there isnt enough money to pay for out of school activities

i will get jumped on for this im sure but can you remember going on trips??? well i can they were some of the best memorys from school
i think worth the few pounds that our school charges £10-15 max
maybe some over charge i cant speak for other schools
but the parent who do complain are usually the ones who smoke 20 fags a day and are out every saturday night

LJM

i think that my girls school is lovely i have no problems in them asking for money for trips or the uniform,we are by no means rich as i am a sahm and partner works.i feel that my girls education is very important and anything i can do to help them along the way will prove invaluble later on. as the poster previously said i also recieve child tax credit and child benefit for my girls and this is what is used for uniform trips lunches etc as after all if i didnt have children i wouldnt have that money in the first place

merlin68

I am on income support and get no help with school trips. Just had to pay £150 for 4 days in suffolk, £4 for a day trip, £15 for a trip to the olympic site in october. About £5 a week in cookery ingredients. I try and save £10 a week for school expenses.

LJM

i have to agree you know as a parent these expences are coming up so saving a little a week helps our school also does a saving scheme for trips which is good