Child Care on benefits!!

[loz]

I was listening to BBC Question Time, Am I hearing this correct? people who do not work get child care benefits or tax credits, for goodness sake why if they don't work do they get this?

[bewva]

How else can they afford their 50" plasma TV, Sky TV, fags & booze.

Puts tin hat on ready for "don't tar all people" etc

[Scunner]

That can't be right - why would you need to pay for child care if you didn't have anywhere to go yourself!

[loz]

I was wondering the very same, why do they get child care is they are at home.  I hope I heard incorrectly, I tried rewinding the part of the program and still hear the same. 

[nichola]

Lone parents and those with a partner on benefits can get help with child care if they are participating in the Steps to Work programme.

[loz]

Is it too late for me in my mid 50's ? looking after Gordon is at time like looking after a child.  £120 - £240 pw and if a relative can look after the child £70 pw.  I can see this so open to abuse, just sign on and say "Yes I am looking for work"  who actually police this benefit.


http://www.nidirect.gov.uk/index/information-and-services/employment/jobseekers/jobseekers-programmes/stepstowork/stwchildcarecosts.htm

[Scott and Lisa]

My daughter having worked from 15 (before and after school)untill 23  is on benefits after having her first (of many i hope!) child, her partner works and they do some small benefit. She has a site to login to daily to chart her progress of looking for a job, she then has a n interview every two weeks. this is no problem for her as she id looking for work, i can imagine a bit of a pain if your not! as everything is recorded   

[loz]

I have been contacted by friends and family, my niece has now put me straight to the fact that as a lone parent of 2 girls (one is 15 so can not claim for her) she gets £110 per week, because she is going back to college with a hope to go to university when the youngest is more independent in 2 or 3 years time, she is studying Criminal psychology, my other friend, her daughter is now 12, she has had received help since her daughter was 10months, I worked with her before I went to live in Turkey, she left to have a baby and returned after maternity leave, she is a lone parent.


I can understand the benefits/tax credits for the above, if they have a job or back at learning, even an apprenticeship, it just confirms the that wages do not meet the needs of some, basic minimum wage, if this is the case then every tax payer in the UK is subsidising businesses in their wage bill.


I was a lone parent for 4 years, I worked, I claimed child allowance (which is not means tested) and £4pw lone parent benefit, this was 30 years ago, that was the extent of help, my mother only had child allowance and her wage after a divorcee,  my grandmother, none, only grandfathers wage and any money from her private music tuition. 


It appears that decade after decade we want more and more benefit:  Are we now expecting too much from the state?  where will it stop?

[Ian]

I don't know enough to put forward an informed view but from what you have said about the two young women trying genuinely to get back to work - I have no problem with that as it is a sort of investment in the future but maybe like student loans there should be some small repayments if people receiving that type of support were to earn a salary of say 3 x minimum wage?

However, an observation of abuse - my mother is in her late 80's and is now on her own - dad worked hard all his life and they have a modest but lovely home worth circa £190,000 and she has her state pension plus a small (50% of my dad's pension from Kelloggs) plus the top up modest benefit of the interest on £40,000 in savings.

Now she has friend(s) who live in similar properties and have "salted" their "savings" into their children's names to ensure that they receive pension credit - albeit relatively small amounts. But these same people continually mention:

I am eligible for a new central heating boiler
I can get the council to do my garden
I can get help with......
I can get.............

Because the key criteria for most of the support schemes is "are you on any type of benefits" and if you are - the doors open for you!

My mother says "I couldn't do that unless I needed to" and good on her.

These same people spend lots of time shopping in upmarket stores - pay £100 a night for weekend breaks but need to "fiddle" help off the state?

So it is not just the young, the single parents or the residents of benefits street that are draining the system as this type of abuse that should also be looked at more closely!

Rant over.........

[Colwyn]

It is a great pity that in a society where, over the last 30 years, we have seen a massive shift of wealth from the poor to the rich people want to spend their time attacking those who are no better off, or worse off, than themselves. Of course it is our willingness to attack ourselves that allows this rich/poor divide to grow so great in the first place. Did you hear the news from Davros this week that 85 super-rich individuals own the same amount of wealth as the poorest HALF of the world's population? And how do they use the power that comes from this unbelievable wealth? They lean on governments and charm their political friends to let them get away without paying tax. These are really serious, super-hog bloodsuckers.