Tax credits dropped from £500+ to £42 - help!

JC9297

I still don't understand why if a couple choose for the second parent to work and pay for someone else to look after their children a large proportion of the childcare costs should come from the state. The choice should be based on how much the second income adds to the family income after childcare is accounted for and if it is worthwhile doing.

For some the priority is maintaining their career, if that is the case you should have to accept having less money whilst children are young but you have more when they are older and don't need childcare.

People talk about disposable income but that is what is left after essential outgoings, childcare isn't essential it is a lifestyle choice for most 2 parent families. It is ridiculous if in some cases childcare costs are almost as high as the second parent's take home pay, and the state is paying for it.

evenasus

skcollobcat10 wrote: »

Some like to jump the engagement, savings and mariage bit nowadays. Some meet a person for a month or two and move them in, get pregnant and before the birth he's done a runner or she's threw him out. I suppose this happened in your day but I do not think as much as now.

I'm talking about the early 60's. So no, I didn't know of anyone that had a child out of marriage.
I did know of a couple of people who 'had' to get married, as they fell pregnant. But there was great shame in this.

skcollobcat10 wrote: »

Maybe its the times of the I want it all now brigade.

Yes, it is because people 'want it all now' and are not prepared to give up going out and save.

This is from a post I made a couple of years ago.

I am in my early 60's and of an era where, when first married, credit cards were not available. Well, I didn't know about them.

We bought a new very small 3-bed semi in Yorkshire, which cost £3120.00. People said how lucky we were – rubbish - luck had nothing to do with it. Three years of hard saving while we were engaged had more to do with it. Not going out anywhere that cost money, not spending anything we didn't have to. We still paid our respective parents our board too.

So after a 3-year engagement (old fashioned now I know) we had saved the deposit for the house and enough to buy a new bed (no headboard) and a few bits of basic furniture.
We didn’t have a fridge until 6 months after we were married. Unheard of to manage without one today I know.
We had my parents old black & white TV, my grandmother's old wardrobe and someone gave us an old washing machine with a hand mangle on top.
We had two children in pretty quick succession and this kept us poor for a few years and I did a lot of worrying. But we were never in debt, except for the mortgage of course.
Today, I suppose we are reasonably well off but it has all been down to hard work and saving.

MissMoneypenny

bestpud wrote: »

You are correct that course materials aren't supplied, but any text books have to be sourced from the nearest academic library and it is far more difficult to access help with travel costs - that is means tested and a limited pot of money.

A lot of courses books come with the coursework: I guess it depends on the course being taken? I took an IT and computing degree with the OU and never had to buy a single book. The OU have a free online library too.

bestpud wrote: »

Also, many students need to sort childcare, or time off work, in order to travel to exam centres.

I'm finding it hard to get to understand this 'having to pay for childcare' for a few hours once in a while: when my children were little we had friends that we left them with for a few hours and visa versa. Don't people have friends now? I know it is different if the child is disabled, but don’t the DLA payments cover the cost of childcare then?

Those who work get the free grant too??? I assume their childcare is already paid for, so they won't need this grant for childcare?

Some courses don't have an exam at the end and have an ECA instead (which is done at home). I just read on the OU site that there seems to be a limit to how many free courses can be taken now because of the total amount you are allowed to have for free? From what I have read, this amount only seems to cover two courses a year: so a maximum of two, three hour exams, a year (if any?). These two courses would be about half a university year for a full time student.

bestpud wrote: »

Tutorials arent compulsory but they are definitely recommended and people seem to find them worth the effort.

Those overseas (often in the army) who study with the OU, can't get to tutorials. TBH, I didn't get to many either, as they often clashed with work. However, the OU assigns a tutor to each student and they give lots of telephone and email support throughout the course, plus they give free online forums with tutors and free student forums for help and support. One day school was also provided just before any exams and these were on a Saturday, so that didn't clash with work for me.

bestpud wrote: »

It's not to be sneezed at but neither is it a windfall. Most manage because they carry on working and don't need the grant to live on.

It is a very generous grant: you could build a pc every year for that amount without even needing the pc grant!

In my OU days, they offered a student loan to those in need, but it had to be paid back. The flip side to that is they offered enough free courses a year to be able to take a full university year and therefore complete a degree in 3 years. I don't know if they offered pc grants then too.

It's interesting to see the way OU funding has developed for those on benefits (low wages now too I assume?). Now, it is free money to study, free pc and free internet connection, but as you can't get a degree in 3 years, you do a lot less work each week. Before, it was borrow the money, work twice as hard and have a degree in three years. I’m not seeing this new way as being very progressive.

melly1980

evenasus wrote: »

This is from a post I made a couple of years ago.

I am in my early 60's and of an era where, when first married, credit cards were not available. Well, I didn't know about them.

We bought a new very small 3-bed semi in Yorkshire, which cost £3120.00. People said how lucky we were – rubbish - luck had nothing to do with it. Three years of hard saving while we were engaged had more to do with it. Not going out anywhere that cost money, not spending anything we didn't have to. We still paid our respective parents our board too.

So after a 3-year engagement (old fashioned now I know) we had saved the deposit for the house and enough to buy a new bed (no headboard) and a few bits of basic furniture.
We didn’t have a fridge until 6 months after we were married. Unheard of to manage without one today I know.
We had my parents old black & white TV, my grandmother's old wardrobe and someone gave us an old washing machine with a hand mangle on top.
We had two children in pretty quick succession and this kept us poor for a few years and I did a lot of worrying. But we were never in debt, except for the mortgage of course.
Today, I suppose we are reasonably well off but it has all been down to hard work and saving.

Yeah but your forgetting that people are "entickled" to these fings for free these dayz

MissMoneypenny

StormyWeather wrote: »

The laptop was for the children to use not the parents. I don't know if you've tried booking time at the library to use the computers. We tried a while ago, I wanted to use the printer as mine wasn't working. It was all booked up.

Why didn't you just book for the next free time slot?

If you go when the library opens, there should be lots of spare pcs. It's later in the morning that our library gets booked, when people have rolled out of bed.

MissMoneypenny

teabag29 wrote: »

Yes but bear in mind 'back in the day' when there was no financial assistance from the government women were often trapped in abusive relationships as they had no finances to build a life of there own

There was financial assistance then from the government 'back in the day', enough to house, clothe and feed you and your children, as welfare should be.

If you wanted more money for holidays, days out, a car, new things etc, you came off welfare and worked.

I can't believe how much welfare payments people are claiming for their children, when they work! As for couples, what ever happened to parents sharing the childcare and work, by working at different times???

Aarons_mummy

MissMoneypenny wrote: »

there seems to be a limit to how many free courses can be taken now because of the total amount you are allowed to have for free?

However, the OU assigns a tutor to each student and they give lots of telephone and email support throughout the course, plus they give free online forums with tutors and free student forums for help and support.

It is a very generous grant: you could build a pc every year for that amount without even needing the pc grant!

It's interesting to see the way OU funding has developed for those on benefits (low wages now too I assume?). Now, it is free money to study, free pc and free internet connection,.

It goes by course credits rather than a limit on the amount of courses you can take. IE if you were paying you can do 120 credits per year as a maximum, if you require help with fee's you can do just 60 credits in the first year and 120 thereafter so basically the same as if you were paying.

This is based entirely on your tutor that is assigned, my tutor never replies to emails etc so is basically useless. The OU forum is dead, no-one ever comments despite a couple of students attempts to get a conversation going. It depends on your area and the people in your group along with your tutor as to how effective these will be.

The grant is given once per academic year and only to those in England and Ireland (I believe Scotland definately doesn't and I'm sure I read that Wales receive nothing either).

Not really on the last point, in Scotland you can get a loan of a PC which has to be given back when study ends. There are no grants and no payments so no free internet connection, no free money but I agree yes there is a free PC for a limited time unless of course you're in England and receive the student grant and PC grant in which you can buy your own and keep it indefinately.

I think the OU has provided a way for people who wish to study a degree by continuing to work as well as raising children/working part time etc, rather than be out of the workplace for years doing nothing to further education and then when children are old enough, getting into university and taking another 3-5+ years gaining their degree.

Anyway I agree with a few people on here who have said that yes it will have come as a big drop but the only reason for the huge payments last year were due to a drop in income the year before. As others have also said this has been known for a long while that TC cuts are coming in and everyone should be prepared to tighten their belts.

SingleSue

MissMoneypenny wrote: »

A lot of courses books come with the coursework: I guess it depends on the course being taken? I took an IT and computing degree with the OU and never had to buy a single book. The OU have a free online library too.

I'm finding it hard to get to understand this 'having to pay for childcare' for a few hours once in a while: when my children were little we had friends that we left them with for a few hours and visa versa. Don't people have friends now? I know it is different if the child is disabled, but don’t the DLA payments cover the cost of childcare then?

Those who work get the free grant too??? I assume their childcare is already paid for, so they won't need this grant for childcare?

Some courses don't have an exam at the end and have an ECA instead (which is done at home). I just read on the OU site that there seems to be a limit to how many free courses can be taken now because of the total amount you are allowed to have for free? From what I have read, this amount only seems to cover two courses a year: so a maximum of two, three hour exams, a year (if any?). These two courses would be about half a university year for a full time student.



Those overseas (often in the army) who study with the OU, can't get to tutorials. TBH, I didn't get to many either, as they often clashed with work. However, the OU assigns a tutor to each student and they give lots of telephone and email support throughout the course, plus they give free online forums with tutors and free student forums for help and support. One day school was also provided just before any exams and these were on a Saturday, so that didn't clash with work for me.



It is a very generous grant: you could build a pc every year for that amount without even needing the pc grant!

In my OU days, they offered a student loan to those in need, but it had to be paid back. The flip side to that is they offered enough free courses a year to be able to take a full university year and therefore complete a degree in 3 years. I don't know if they offered pc grants then too.

It's interesting to see the way OU funding has developed for those on benefits (low wages now too I assume?). Now, it is free money to study, free pc and free internet connection, but as you can't get a degree in 3 years, you do a lot less work each week. Before, it was borrow the money, work twice as hard and have a degree in three years. I’m not seeing this new way as being very progressive.

My brother (works full time but on very low pay), has to buy additional books to go with his study. He does receive a course grant and he uses this to purchase the books with.

Re childcare - I have never claimed expenses for childcare mainly because so far I have been lucky in that the exams have been during school time and the teachers have been briefed that my parents would pick up the slack if an emergency occured. DLA could indeed pay for some childcare...if you could actually get someone to do it in the first place.

I can't get to tutorials, no begger to look after the boys, so have to do without them. What is good for the working person (a Saturday), is an absolute nightmare and a complete no no for me.

I do receive free courses but in an attempt to get my degree quicker, had started to double up and of course, pay for the additional courses...all gone a bit wrong now though as mine and the boys needs have gone slightly pear shaped over the last few months.

For me, OU has given me an opportunity to keep my brain active, to gain a degree which could help in future employment, when and if the boys are off hands. It has given me something to feel proud about, made me feel a little more like a proper human being, given me some self worth, given me hope for the future,

Mind you, it has also given me oodles of stress trying to meet the deadlines when children have been in hospital! The nurses thought they had some mad woman on their hands sitting there with books all over the place at 3am in the morning :rotfl:

MissMoneypenny

Aarons_mummy wrote: »

This is based entirely on your tutor that is assigned, my tutor never replies to emails etc so is basically useless.

Then phone or email the OU now and tell them about that and ask for a different tutor today. The OU don't know how bad their tutors are if nobody tells them. You are paying for that course and deserve a decent tutor (even if you aren't paying, but you know what I mean). I swapped tutors one year as I didn't like the opening letter the tutor sent his tutorial group. It would have ended up in tears and I hate to see a grown man cry.

Aarons_mummy wrote: »

The OU forum is dead, no-one ever comments despite a couple of students attempts to get a conversation going.

The national forums are usually more active. I loved the OU forums.

StormyWeather_2

MissMoneypenny wrote: »

Why didn't you just book for the next free time slot?

If you go when the library opens, there should be lots of spare pcs. It's later in the morning that our library gets booked, when people have rolled out of bed.

The printer clapped out, so I went to the library at that point & the PCs were booked up for the day. Most of the times I go there it's outside of normal work/school hours and all the PCs are booked.

The free laptops weren't for the out of work parents who are at home during the day and can get to the library any time. They are for the children for school work and they would need to use the library at peak times.