Maternity Grant

Becles

Anthillmob wrote:

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.

No benefits are paid out on disposable income left after you've paid housing costs and bills. Most are means tested on household income, as this one is.

lottee

Becles wrote:

No benefits are paid out on disposable income left after you've paid housing costs and bills. Most are means tested on household income, as this one is.

Yeh but, no but, yeh but (chavolottee here Devon!)

And that's what hacks me off big time. I know that's the way the system works, but IMO it stinks! Ok, so my husband works & brings in a good wage, I work PT also. So the total income each month is over the maximum to be able to 'get anything'. But when you take out the mortgage, council tax, etc & the nursery fee (- which at one time it worked out that I was working for half the month in order to pay this! Crazy.) we're probably no better off than someone who is entitled to these grants/benefits. I know some people have no choice - can't work, or do earn a !!!!!! wage, but once again it's another thing that penalises a lot of people for working.

Anyway, have a nice day everyone, I've got no plans - apart from housework. OH is at work - overtime, well no one else gives us anything extra, so he has to do it!

lottee

Graham_Devon wrote:

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

Oh, Mr Devon - you LOVE it really! :beer:

Graham_Devon

Yes the grabbing was lovely :rolleyes:

astonsmummy

Right my thoughts on this, i was left at 3 months preganant, had to sign on as i was in a flat with £400pm rent, i had to buy everything for my baby myself, NO hand me downs etc, that £500 was a god send, to all these people moaning about how they havent got money left after they and their oh's have paid everything out, a life on benefits aint a rosey, i manage only because i found this site and have learned to cut back etc, i would rather have a partner who works and not have loads of cash at the end of the month than be a lone parent who scrapes by and has to rely on the state to help me out (whils being branded a chav) Money isnt everything, yes i can see how it must be annoying that you work and get hardly anything back but i just hate the fact that we all get made out to be dossers when it's not alwys the case!

And for the person who said they have to borrow £1k for their baby, first of all think yourself lucky your in a position to borrow, and secondly and most importantly, what the hell do you need £1k for?

Becles

lottee wrote:

So the total income each month is over the maximum to be able to 'get anything'. But when you take out the mortgage, council tax, etc & the nursery fee

How would a scheme that looks at household income after housing costs work? Would there be any rules that say how much you can claim?

In the case of mortgages, should just the interest part of a morgage be covered? Or should the whole mortgage be covered to include either the capital repayment or the payment into the investment vehicle to pay off the mortgage?

How would you regulate what homes are suitable for certain groups? What's to stop someone moving into a huge executive style house paying high rent/mortgage, and high council tax, then claiming they are hard up?

You also mentioned childcare. You previously stated in the interest of fairness that all mothers should get the maternity allowance regardless. Does this apply to an allowance for childcare too. Some parents do not pay for childcare by using "free" childrcare such as grandparents or by staggering working hours around school times. Would they be entitled to benefits too?

IMO there are too many variables and what if's to make such a scheme viable. Household income is only one factor, whereas housing, council tax and childcare opens up many different variables that I think would be a nightmare for authorites to manage and open to abuse.

I'm interested in your thoughts on how such a scheme would work though.

misto

I live in a relatively affluent area, and anyone who has more than 1 child generally uses the same pram etc for subsequent children (you can play "guess the age of the eldest child" by the fabric of the pram!), but you can tell the people who receive the £500 sure start grant, as they're the ones who have a new pram for every baby!!!!

£500 grant for the 1st child, fair enough, but for every subsequent one????

rammy007

misto wrote:

I live in a relatively affluent area, and anyone who has more than 1 child generally uses the same pram etc for subsequent children (you can play "guess the age of the eldest child" by the fabric of the pram!), but you can tell the people who receive the £500 sure start grant, as they're the ones who have a new pram for every baby!!!!

£500 grant for the 1st child, fair enough, but for every subsequent one????

True i have got four kids and we both work and had 2 different prams for them all,my inlaws who also have 4 kids and have never worked(and never will)had a brand new one for each(infact they had 2 for one of them making 5 new prams)i thing it should be limited to 2 grants at the most.