Leaving school - is this true?

Spendless

SkyeKnight wrote: »

It still won't be worth it though, because they have a younger child. If the mum works they will lose HB, Council Tax Support, Working Tax Credits and Child Tax Credits -- probably at a rate of around 90p for every pound she earns. She may well have to get a job paying £500+/week to make up that missing £80 in benefit.

Seriously? I have no idea if this is an over exaggeration or not. If it isn't then the benefits system is more messed up than I realised.

I believe that the Universal Credit system addresses this, so that as the children become older, the more hours you are expected to put in between 2 adults in the house when on a low income.

And if anyone does have the figures, I'm curious, thanks.

HB58

allen35 wrote: »

The family should of still been receiving Child Benefit for their eldest if the course and her education was continuous, this can continue until the day before their 20th birthday.

You have to have claimed Child Benefit before they reach the age of 19, I would contact HMRC and ask, it seems they never renewed in Sep'14 when you are meant to inform CB office that the young person is still in FTE.

The whole point is that the young person will be finishing 6th form and not continuing into further/higher education.

allen35

HB58 wrote: »

The whole point is that the young person will be finishing 6th form and not continuing into further/higher education.

Your whole point is what exactly !!!

There has been enough info' on their options for when the young person either reaches 20yrs of age or finishes 6th Form.

My whole point is:

Child benefit stopped when she reached 19. She is still in FTE and therefore there has been entitlement to CB which obviously hasn't been claimed.

AngelOfTheNorth

SkyeKnight wrote: »

It still won't be worth it though, because they have a younger child. If the mum works they will lose HB, Council Tax Support, Working Tax Credits and Child Tax Credits -- probably at a rate of around 90p for every pound she earns. She may well have to get a job paying £500+/week to make up that missing £80 in benefit.

I'll take your word for it on the relative financial merits, but the problem with thinking of it in those terms is that it simply kicks the can down the road. There is going to come a point when this household will lose child related benefits, be it due to welfare reform or the youngest becoming too old. It would be wise to make at least some preparation for this, as the family's current predicament proves.

If the mother isn't going to work, which to be fair may not be possible for her even if she wants to, she needs to be thinking about ways to make herself employable in the future: volunteering, college, investigating if there's any local gaps in the market she could plug with a small business. She is not going to become a more attractive proposition to employers with nine more years out of the workplace. Either that, or accept there'll come a time when she and the dad are living on his low wages, perhaps a sliver of HB and WTC on top and nothing else- quite possibly with a non-financially independent adult child still in the house too.

HB58

allen35 wrote: »

Your whole point is what exactly !!!

There has been enough info' on their options for when the young person either reaches 20yrs of age or finishes 6th Form.

My whole point is:

Child benefit stopped when she reached 19. She is still in FTE and therefore there has been entitlement to CB which obviously hasn't been claimed.

The OP said that child benefit will stop when the eldest finishes 6th form soon. I didn't see anything that said they have been without child benefit yet - unless there is a post that I missed?

thorsoak

The_Last_Username wrote: »

PLEASE bear with me and read this?:D


....................
Background (from what he told me, ? how true) which I will try to keep brief:

Father @ work, minimum wage & mum SAHM.
Daughter age 19 & son aged 12.
Daughter in 6th form @ school & no idea what to do next; seems not enough qualifications for uni; works 4hrs/week only @ weekends for "pin-money". Son at school.

Receive Working Tax Credits and Child Tax Credits; these to reduce August by about £60/week as daughter will be finished education AND over 19 years old.

Child Benefit stopped once she reached 19 too; so another £13/week less.

As you will see from the first post of the OP, this will be the situation in August - not the current situation.

The girl should either (a) talk about an apprenticeship if she has not enough qualifications/inclination to go to university or (b) up her pin money up to a working wage. She can then pay her parents "keep" - just as we paid our parents when we started work.

allen35

thorsoak wrote: »

As you will see from the first post of the OP, this will be the situation in August - not the current situation.

The girl should either (a) talk about an apprenticeship if she has not enough qualifications/inclination to go to university or (b) up her pin money up to a working wage. She can then pay her parents "keep" - just as we paid our parents when we started work.

I agree with the above advice.

From original post:

Daughter is 19.

Chlid Benefit stopped when she reached 19 too.

Am I missing something!!

custardy

The_Last_Username wrote: »

Whilst I generally agree with the comments above, is it not wrong that a family is expected to either support this girl ad infinitum or expell her from the family home & make her stand on her own 2 feet?

How old are you?
Why is this such a shock to you? This is the reality of raising kids to adulthood.

greensalad

That's kinda how benefits work. There has to be a cut off point, or should we just continue to support fully grown adults who live with their parents still?

She doesn't need to "know" what she wants to do in order to get a job. She can get a job elsewhere or maybe up her hours while she decides what to do.

She should get a job and pay £80 p/w rent to her parents.

margaretclare

I really do live in a different world. Or, as the late P D James wrote in one of her last novels '...an England they no longer recognised'.

It used to be accepted that when a child left school and entered the adult world, he/she was expected to contribute to the household income. Other writers e.g. Alan Sillitoe described how they left school on a Friday and started at the bike factory Monday morning.

When my elder daughter was staying on at school past 16 I was severely taken to task by a woman I'd known all my life, in the village where I grew up. 'Time she left school and started bringing some money in instead of you keeping her'.

'Bringing some money in' and 'keeping her' were words you often heard then. This was the mid-70s.

DH tells how he brought his very first pay-packet home from his first week as an engineering apprentice. It was so small and when he handed it over to his mother unopened she didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He'd had an argument with his father who had arranged for him to be articled to a firm of accountants he knew. DH didn't want that. 'Well, we can't keep you' - the sub-text 'keep you in idleness'. DH went to an engineering firm he'd visited while at technical school and they agreed to give him a trial.

When my first marriage broke down after weeks and I went home, those words were said by my mother 'I can't keep you'. I was indignant and insisted on keeping myself.

Where do all those benefits come from that the OP is describing and which will disappear when a child becomes an adult? When was it ever decided that having children was a paying proposition, to be lamented when it comes to an end?

Incidentally, how can someone claim JSA if they've never worked, never paid in any NI contributions? Isn't this meant to be the 'safety net' for those who really have no other opportunity?

My youngest step-GD hasn't yet achieved her ambition, to go into the airline industry. She, too, didn't want to go to university but she had 2 job offers on leaving 6th form. One was as a care assistant, but she turned that down. She's now learning to be a pizza chef in a gastro-pub near her school. Not what she wants long-term, but she's working and saving for it. A civilian pilot's licence is very expensive. But she knows what she wants and I haven't the slightest doubt that she'll get there.