The Budget

ukcarper

wotsthat wrote: »

As people are forced to contribute more to the costs of their choices they might start to make different and, hopefully, better choices.

I tend to agree but it's not always through choice that people find themselves in the position they are in.

Generali

michaels wrote: »

Presumably the OBR is the arbiter of the plans? the outcomes afterall are bound to be uncertain and of course their are lags in the real economy.

No idea. Is it?

There are plenty of things that even the OBR can't predict. Nobody really predicted the GFC. There were lots of canaries in the mine but nobody stated that in August 2007 the banking system would become insolvent. The closure to redemptions by BNP Paribas led very quickly to banks stopping paying tax.

wotsthat

ukcarper wrote: »

I tend to agree but it's not always through choice that people find themselves in the position they are in.

In Graham's narrative no doubt the missing father is dead* so it's no fault of the woman.

* Yes I know people do sadly die young but it's highly unusual for it to happen to a young man and a more statistically likely explanation for most couples is the relationship has broken down.

Maybe just a nudge for better choices. Relationships do fail but it just got a little more important to choose fathers who aren't likely to abdicate responsibility at the point of relationship breakdown.

lisyloo

In Graham's narrative no doubt the missing father is dead* so it's no fault of the woman.

Death is pretty much the most forseeable event there is and very easy to make contingency for (to be clear I mean life insurance).
As it's unusual to die young, it's also pretty cheap for healthy young people to buy.
Anyone with enough to live on who chooses to have kids should get it (if you dont' have enough to live on and look after them then don't have them!!)

The CSA (or whatever they are called now) are pretty good at pursuing father who are "in the system" i.e. can be traced by NI number.
So should only be an issue if they have dissapeared or are unemployed or very low income (even on a low income they have to support their kids even without enough to live off themselves).

bloolagoon

Has anyone mentioned the snuck in SMI - it's now a homeowners loan. Anyone know more details of this?

ukcarper

wotsthat wrote: »

In Graham's narrative no doubt the missing father is dead* so it's no fault of the woman.

* Yes I know people do sadly die young but it's highly unusual for it to happen to a young man and a more statistically likely explanation for most couples is the relationship has broken down.

Maybe just a nudge for better choices. Relationships do fail but it just got a little more important to choose fathers who aren't likely to abdicate responsibility at the point of relationship breakdown.

Relationship breakdown is very common and I don't think to many people base their relationship on how responsible their partner will be. I have sympathy for parents whose partner leaves them and they find themselves needing to claim. But I agree something needs to be done to discourage people putting themselves in that position by choice I'm not sure how big that problem really is.

cells

If the state gives you £10k a year for 10 years and then it drops it to £9k a year should you be grateful that you are getting £9k or !!!!ed off that you were getting more last year?

[Deleted User]

cells wrote: »

If the state gives you £10k a year for 10 years and then it drops it to £9k a year should you be grateful that you are getting £9k or !!!!ed off that you were getting more last year?

That's a fair question. However, if you consider yourself to be in a hardworking family, and before an election you are repeatedly told that a party has your inerests at heart, then after the election that party decides to kick you in the nazzums every year for five years, I think you would possibly feel !!!!ed off.

WR

wotsthat

cells wrote: »

If the state gives you £10k a year for 10 years and then it drops it to £9k a year should you be grateful that you are getting £9k or !!!!ed off that you were getting more last year?

I'd be incandescent whilst simultaneously trying to figure out how to maintain my lifestyle.

lisyloo

I'd be incandescent

It's just possible you might have calmed down in 5 years though.
It's a pretty obvious strategy to get the difficult decisions out of the way early on in the term.