15 kids and counting

LilacPixie

Does it cost under 1k a year to feed and clothe a child?? I must be seriously going wrong someplace.

Derivative

LilacPixie wrote: »

Does it cost under 1k a year to feed and clothe a child?? I must be seriously going wrong someplace.

Well, presumably you don't go for absolute bare minimum subsistence level - that is what welfare payments should give, in my view.
I am a student and I spend less than £1500 yearly on the aforementioned, with no freezer and therefore no ability to buy in bulk.

LilacPixie

EdgEy wrote: »

Well, presumably you don't go for absolute bare minimum subsistence level - that is what welfare payments should give, in my view.

Thats true we don't but I happened to notice that formula is £8 a tub now and I think that used to do us 5-6 days it was only our first who was formula fed so my mind could be a bit faulty.

That being said your ida od 5k per adult would actually give us considerably more 'benefits' than we get because we both work and earn over the tax credit threshold so we get child benefit for 3 kids, around 2.5k a year.

Derivative

LilacPixie wrote: »

That being said your ida od 5k per adult would actually give us considerably more 'benefits' than we get because we both work and earn over the tax credit threshold so we get child benefit for 3 kids, around 2.5k a year.

Depends how much income tax would have to be raised to budget for it.

I don't have a problem with people on benefits in general (it does after all, include a large part of the population) - I just think the system is broken.

If you want to get a job, you should be able to go for one without having to think about "will this reduce my benefit x, or my other benefit x, or will I go over that cap".

Or saving money. There should be no "Oh, you've saved £16k? Sod off then."

Why should someone choosing to live in the South East have more Housing Benefit paid than someone choosing to live in the North?

The system promotes inequality rather than reduces it. It provides incentives to remain out of work. It produces inefficiencies in housing allocation (why use housing stock that could be rented to someone working in Central London for someone who can't afford it by themselves?). It encourages people to waste money to remain below savings caps (want to save for a house? better not be made unemployed, you'll have to spend it all!)

Thats true we don't but I happened to notice that formula is £8 a tub now and I think that used to do us 5-6 days it was only our first who was formula fed so my mind could be a bit faulty.

I am not familiar with formula feeding, but that sounds like about £10/week, so £500 a year. I haven't really stress tested the figures, I just pulled £1000 out of a hat. Child Benefit is roughly £1000pa for first child last I checked.

property.advert

EdgEy wrote: »

Well, presumably you don't go for absolute bare minimum subsistence level - that is what welfare payments should give, in my view.
I am a student and I spend less than £1500 yearly on the aforementioned, with no freezer and therefore no ability to buy in bulk.

Obviously your studies are not going very well or you would be able to quickly work out that a cheap or even free second hand freezer would allow you to buy in bulk and once you had offset any initial cost you would be quids in with bulk purchases and on your way to your first million !

hugheskevi

This would cost ~240bn pa, given 48 million citizens >16 in UK.
Current benefit budget is £180bn pa - so you'd have to make up 60bn, or the equivalent of taxing every working age Briton an extra ~£1500.
More than made up for. You could knock it up to £6 or 7k if you wanted people to live more comfortable lives.

This would involve cutting the pensions of most pensioners, and putting many below the 60% median income level (commonly referred to as poverty level).

About 2/3 of the benefits bill goes to pensioners, so this would be a big redistribution from pensioners to younger individuals.

Another big area of spend is on disability...disabled people with significant care needs would presumably have to look after themselves as best they could.

But personally I'm all for it, I'd gain

Derivative

property.advert wrote: »

Obviously your studies are not going very well or you would be able to quickly work out that a cheap or even free second hand freezer would allow you to buy in bulk and once you had offset any initial cost you would be quids in with bulk purchases and on your way to your first million !

Unfortunately enough for me, freezers are not allowed in my halls of residence, and moving out would increase my rent by more than enough to make up any savings of having a freezer.

I am currently pressing the issue to see if we can have freezers put in our kitchens - I'd gladly pay for one.

Derivative

hugheskevi wrote: »

This would involve cutting the pensions of most pensioners, and putting many below the 60% median income level (commonly referred to as poverty level).

About 2/3 of the benefits bill goes to pensioners, so this would be a big redistribution from pensioners to younger individuals.

Another big area of spend is on disability...disabled people with significant care needs would presumably have to look after themselves as best they could.

But personally I'm all for it, I'd gain

Indeed it would, but not all of us agree that 60% of median income is 'poverty'.
Median household income is ~£25k. £20k if you include part-timers.
Do you really believe that a person living on £12,000 per year is in poverty?
You can get the essentials for half of that. If you have a warm house, food and clothing, and £5k a year left over, are you really in poverty? Really?

I chose £5k as a figure of illustration, just to get the 240bn number to come out reasonably.

You could just as well choose £10k as a basic income - you'd have to tax people far more when they earned above the threshold though.

hcb42

people who are born in the south east might choose to want to live there.....

tescobabe69

hcb42 wrote: »

people who are born in the south east might choose to want to live there.....

Then they should ensure they can earn enough to do so.
Long term unemployed should be housed in the cheapest possible housing areas.