Maternity Grant

robindunne1

Child Benefit anyone?

A non means tested benefit for anyone with kids. Bit of a waste of time in my opinion. As with most government schemes it is costly to administrate and just recycling the money back to the tax payer.

This whole tax credit business and benefits relating to children. Why don't they simply tax people accordingly instead of taking the money, then moving it about a bit, and giving it back to people through a system that is complicated, expensive and error strewn.

The tax code is there to make sure people pay the right amount of tax. They do it for pensioners - so why can't they adjust it for people according to the number of kids they have.

I would guess the Labour government want as many people as possible relying on their policies as the electorate are hardly going to vote against policies they are forced to rely on.

seven-day-weekend

Graham_Devon wrote:

Which means those who put into the pot are not eligible to take it out. Based on discrimination basically.

It's the same either way. One family has a baby and get's given £500. One has a baby and gets given £250. One has a baby and get's nothing.

Why? Because one family don't go to work they get more, because another do a struggle, they get half the family who don't go to work, and the other family have worked hard to get where they are so get nothing.

Maybe if more of them worked, the pot would be bigger?! Or am I being silly now?!

Yep, silly, thought so!

Don't give it to ANYONE apart from the absolute poorest (which is considerably less than £25000 - I couldn't believe it when i read you could earn that much and still get it), and then only because it's not the baby's fault that they are born into a poor family.

I don't agree with getting paid to have a baby.

Graham_Devon

If it was given as a 'thankyou' or incentive to have kids, then why is it given to some and not to others?

It's not an incentive is it.

So chavolottee (hehe) who has a kid because she wants to live on the benefit ladder as it's easy gets a bigger bonus than a family who have worked to achieve something and get more than 25k a year. I have to disagree, 25k a year is NOT a lot.

Thats gross. So you can scrap 22% of the 20k.

These 'wealthy' people earning 25k who are not entitled to it most probably have mortgages to pay also.

Put it into perspective. 25k at a push (if you have no other financial comitments) will get you a 100k mortgage.

25k is not much!! Not enough in my mind for the government to say 'ok we will giev £500 t othis family because they dont work and £0 to the 25k family as they got enough money anyway'

zoezoe_3

Graham_Devon wrote:

25k is not much!! Not enough in my mind for the government to say 'ok we will giev £500 t othis family because they dont work and £0 to the 25k family as they got enough money anyway'

it has NOTHING to do with working !!!

If you have over a certain amount coming in, then you dont get it. Simple. The government drew the line at 25k or so. Where do you think the line shoul dbe drawn. Dont forget that every pound that is given out has to be taken away from something else, we cant just print this money.

Anthillmob

Becles wrote:

because they don't have any wages to buy baby essentials with?

neither do a lot of people who do work after theyve paid thei mortagege/rent bills etc. just because you work dont mean you have £500+ to chuck about on baby gear.

Lianne656

I completely disagree with the OP. This grant was introduced to the people that need it the most, so why should EVERY family get it?
IMO the cut off point of 25K is quite reasonable and I probably wouldnt expect any more help - thats just my opinion!!

When my DD was born 3 years ago, I had just put a claim in for tax credits and applied for this grant while I was waiting for the claim. It got refused as I wasn't recieving tax credits at the time (they took 4 months to sort my tax credits out). I was recieving maternity pay and thats it at the time (my husband didnt have a work permit) and they still refused!

I hope that all made sense, I am really tired and starting to confuse myself now lol

Graham_Devon

In my view, the way it is now it favours the 16yr old wanting a baby so she dont have to go to work (lets face it, they are everywhere). It rewards her.

It punishes the working families and those who pay their way (in th form of not giving the money to them).

Seems Lottee did indeed manage to grab me by a painful bit and pull me onto her little rollercoaster!! :rolleyes:

rachnbri

I've started a petition to the prime minister stating I think the grant should be avaliable too all mother regardless of earning because have a baby is expensive.

I've had two babies and if you think they're expensive now just wait until they're at school!
Babies don't NEED posh prams, moses baskets, next and baby gap clothes - that's to satisfy the parents vanity. If you breastfeed you don't need bottles, teats, sterilisers, milk etc. And at that age you can't tell 2nd hand clothes from new!

rachnbri

we will have to borrow around 1000 pounds to buy everthing needed for the baby[/QUOTE]

What in God's name are you buying the kid?

demonicangel

rachnbri wrote:

we will have to borrow around 1000 pounds to buy everthing needed for the baby

What in God's name are you buying the kid?[/QUOTE]

Must be top of the range stuff from Harrods.