New Bursary replacing EMA

davefrombristol

The course that my daughters on - Cost me £75 to be paid on the first day - next month she will be going on a trip to Amsterdam ( Travel & Tourism Course btw ) Cost of that trip £150 and then on top she will need money whilst over there for a few days. Lets face it a child of 16 can cost 3 times the amount of a child under 8.

OK so I'll pay out of my CTC and CB - money that should be spent on everyday living costs like food, bills, clothes.

On the transport side like I said we live 10 miles from the college ( This is the nearest college btw ) The only logical way to get there is by train as no one catches the bus as there is not a direct bus route that goes to the college and it would mean catching 2 buses and going on a 1-2 hour trip every morning and every evening to get home as opposed to 1/4 hour on the train. at 16 they pay an adult price ticket and train fares are rising by x percent every few months.

Anyway shes not well this week and twice I have had to travel to pick her up from college this week - I think it is unfair on families with children that have a disability especially where the parent is a carer to deny any access to the bursary fund.

Whats the point in creating a fund if it only applies to a child in care or on income support - If this fund was started to replace EMA then its a complete joke as I suspect about 1 in 100 would get it - I don't know any 16 yr old on income support living by themselves and going to college do you ?

davefrombristol

sunnyone wrote: »

Getting to the hospital 10 miles even daily dosnt come close to touching the £75 extra and you get all travelling costs for appointments back because you get IS anyway so thats another red herring.

How about travelling to hospital by taxi at 2 am not for appointments but emergency and then travelling backwards and forwards whilst shes stuck in hospital on a drip for days - do you really think I can claim any costs back on that you thoughtless inconsiderate individual. On a number of occasions I have failed to get any money back for appointments - you obviously have no idea what its like bringing up a disabled child

kathyb1tch

dont forget the fact that whilst our children are in hospital we have to feed ourselves. The hospital doesnt feed you. I also have two younger children. So someone telling me that i get enough money to live in is bloody ludicrous and as davefrombristol says downright inconsiderate.

Why should a family who can afford for their child to go on their own benefit get the bursary that we were told would help the most needy...it only helps those on a middle -high income.

I would love to work but unfortunately i was inconsiderate enough to have a child that needs me 24 hours a day 7 days a week and the government pay me £55.55 per week to do this job!!!

MissMoneypenny

kathyb1tch wrote: »

I would love to work but unfortunately i was inconsiderate enough to have a child that needs me 24 hours a day 7 days a week and the government pay me £55.55 per week to do this job!!!

Why are you only getting £55.55 per week, when davefrombristol is getting £220 per week cash; free housing; free council tax; free dentisty; free prescriptions, free travel for hospital visits; plus his daughter receives DLA? Why such a big difference between what the two of you are given?

kathyb1tch

MissMoneypenny wrote: »

Why are you only getting £55.55 per week, when davefrombristol is getting £220 per week cash; free housing; free council tax; free dentisty; free prescriptions, free travel for hospital visits; plus his daughter receives DLA? Why such a big difference between what the two of you are given?

I only get £55.55 per week to be a carer, you mistook what i said. I recieve ALL the relevent benefits. I dont get free housing and neither does davefrombristol if you had read properly, yes i get free prescriptions, yes i get free dentistry and yes i can claim for bus fares to and from the hospital, but only bus fares. If my daughter becomes unwell of a night i take her by car rather that phone for an ambulance, the parking at the hospital is £2 per day,as i said before i have 2 younger children so i need my car to travel to and from the hospital to spend time with them...
I pay toward my council tax, i pay the shortfall in my HB, School meals for my youngest 2, my eldest now gets £1.60 a day allowance from her college but as she is only on site 2 days and placement 3 days that doesnt help much.
My partner had to drop his hours to 16 hours per week due to my daughters frequent hospital admissions. We would of been a lot better off him giving up totally.

alluring29

My daughter is re-taking her A Levels and turned 19 earlier this month. This means no CSA from her father and she now has to pay full fares for travel. There is no Discretionary Fund apart from for students who are on IS or in Care.

Not sure how I am meant to fund her travelling costs and wish she could get a part-time job too but despite her applying for hundreds and most of the time not even receiving a reply,she has not been successful so far.?:(

I am quite angry because this Government lied when they said that EMA will be replaced. It quite clearly has not been!


I also don't think posters saying that people should spend their cb or ctc on funding their teenage's education needs and travelling costs helps matters and is downright rude. I am in London and my daughter's fares are £30 a week!

kathyb1tch

I have contacted my local MP, i am also thinking of starting an e-petition because if it gets 100,000 signatures it has to be looked at by parliament, i just dont know how to go about it or how to word it, if anyone is interested in helping with that please PM me. I have a feeling there are lots of people pretty peed off by the fact that the government lied...oh except the ijits..we all know who they are :-)

MissMoneypenny

alluring29 wrote: »

I also don't think posters saying that people should spend their cb or ctc on funding their teenage's education needs and travelling costs helps matters and is downright rude. I am in London and my daughter's fares are £30 a week!

Why is it rude to say that the childs welfare payments should be spent on the child, to make their life better? Child Tax Credits is a relatively new welfare payment that is meant to do just that; give the child extra money to make their life better. A good education and all the doors that unlocks, will give them a better life.

We see many posts on here where someone asks what other benefits they can get now that their child had reached 20 or leaves school/college to go to work/university; as the parent will struggle without the CB and CTC money. The problem being that the parent had always seen their child's welfare money as their own income and had just used this to fund the running of the house.

It's unfortunate that your daughter has to retake her A levels and that the CSA stops. Under the old system of Court Orders for maintenance, the payments continued until the chilld finished fulltime education and that included advanced education like university.

alluring29

MissMoneypenny wrote: »

Why is it rude to say that the childs welfare payments should be spent on the child, to make their life better? Child Tax Credits is a relatively new welfare payment that is meant to do just that; give the child extra money to make their life better. A good education and all the doors that unlocks, will give them a better life.

We see many posts on here where someone asks what other benefits they can get now that their child had reached 20 or leaves school/college to go to work/university; as the parent will struggle without the CB and CTC money. The problem being that the parent had always seen their child's welfare money as their own income and had just used this to fund the running of the house.

It's unfortunate that your daughter has to retake her A levels and that the CSA stops. Under the old system of Court Orders for maintenance, the payments continued until the chilld finished fulltime education and that included advanced education like university.

Because it is going to be a struggle, I get £75 a week and £30 of that now has to go to her travelling costs. Add on top of that food, clothes and her mobile phone contract and as you can see, it isn't adding up.

I do agree with your statement about the child maintenance, not sure why I have to continue to support my daughter but ex gets off scot free? oh well, onwards and upwards.

sunnyone

alluring29 wrote: »

Because it is going to be a struggle, I get £75 a week and £30 of that now has to go to her travelling costs. Add on top of that food, clothes and her mobile phone contract and as you can see, it isn't adding up.

I do agree with your statement about the child maintenance, not sure why I have to continue to support my daughter but ex gets off scot free? oh well, onwards and upwards.

If you get full CTC and CB its £80 per week and that leaves you £50 per week for everything else on the less than short amount of time she has to be in school to resit her exams, its her failing thats caused your problems so I would be making her life more difficult by £30 pw and she might do better this time, thats the problem with generous welfare payments for children they dont have do anything to earn it.