Gavin, Fiona and their joint family

[bonus2010]

Gavin, Fiona and their joint family






My mother got a calender from the council and along with that a leaflet containing advice about the changes in welfare....

I've gotta say I'm completely shocked about what is happening to this couple, with the example given:


How on earth will this unemployed couple manage on ?500 instead of ?516 per week, I don't know?

I'm so glad they have a 'case worker' to help them manage... maybe a financial advisor would help as well?


I hope at least they are getting their full council tax paid as well..

[Shady]

gavin looks like a paedophile

[Shady]

and fiona looks scared of him.

[cgscott]

?16 quid a weeks a lot of money. Thats a slab of stella.

How many times a week can the working man afford slab of wb?

[Lainie]

God my heart bleeds for them.


Single mum on the phone this week. Not worked for 17 yrs. Was on income support as a single parent. Had 6 kids to 4 diff dads. Got ?369 a WEEK child tax credit, lived in a 4 bed detached private landlord house rent ? 750 a month, pays no council tax which would prob b around ? 150 per month. Nearly ?100 a week child benefit and her own benefit. No longer entitled to income support as lone parent as youngest child was 5 in november so had to go on jsa. She now claiming esa as she said she was depressed as was having to look for work!!! Jsa and esa.both ?71 per week. One dad pays ?20 per week for his child


So lets add that up per year

Housing benefit ? 8400
Council tax benefit ?1800
Child benefit ?5200
Child tax credit ?19188
Esa/jsa ?3692
Maintenance money ? 1040

Total tax free per year ?39320 (i think)


Now tell me thats right. Believe me heres thousands like her.

[bonus2010]

God my heart bleeds for them..[......] Now tell me thats right. Believe me heres thousands like her.

You see, successive governments haven't built any council houses for way over thirty years... so this explains how families have often been forced to rent privately. The New Labour have supported this because they're actually a bunch of Tories wanting to support private sector landlords through abusing the welfare state in this way. The lone parent you mention is not to blame for this policy.

We can't have children living on the streets with their parents. The alternative is removing children from their parents who can't afford accommodation and put them into care. I guess this would be a breach of the families human rights, apart from being a very horrible thing to do.

I'm glad you've mentioned that the lone parent only receives ?71 per week... that's not much money for an adult to live on. In fact, I'd say it's rather impossible.

Both the child tax credit and child benefit is money to be spent on the children. It is the children's money. Former PM Gordon Brown raised these amounts year after year because he wanted to eradicate 'child poverty' in the UK. I don't know, but it wouldn't surprise me if the maintenance money does not affect these means tested benefits such as the rules were written to help children.

BTW your HB calculation is wrong

[GastonJ]

God my heart bleeds for them.


So lets add that up per year

Housing benefit ? 8400
Council tax benefit ?1800
Child benefit ?5200
Child tax credit ?19188
Esa/jsa ?3692
Maintenance money ? 1040

Total tax free per year ?39320 (i think)


Now tell me thats right. Believe me heres thousands like her.

Child benefit ?5200
Child tax credit ?19188
Maintenance money ? 1040

People who work can get those as well as money to pay childminders. Take those out of the equation and it would be ?25k less. If he went out and got a job on minimum wage he'd probably end up claiming more. Not that it's any excuse for him not to work, or her for that matter.

Do you have a comparison for anyone in the same circumstances working for minimum wage by any chance? The benefits system also happens to benefit companies who know they can pay teh minimum wage and the state makes up teh rest to something whereby people can live.

[gmb45]

this is the problem in this country minimum wage, increase it by say 3 tokens an hour then we wouldnt need the migrant workers to fill the pish poorly paid jobs, peeps would be fighting for them, the gov wouldnt have to pay so much out to top up peeps income, win win, minimum wage is a disgrace talk about slave labour, even if the the gov funded this 3 tokens ish increase they would be paying less oot in top up benefits so wouldnt cost owt, it would give back a lot of people self respect and the incentive to work hard, ?6 odd ish an hour who want to work their nads off for that pish eh ? them who are working for it prob have no choice and prob really dont want to be doing it. minimum wage is an excuse to keep wages low that with they know the migrant workers will do the jobs. what the gov also should consider doing is stopping paying full wages for public sector workers who are off on the sick, it dont happen in the private sector, and its the private sector who bring the money into the country. And dont forget if a public sector worker gets made redundant big redundancy pay off as well, dont get me wrong we need public sector workers as much as the private sector they go hand in hand like, but come on being paid full wages for 6 months then half wages for another 6 months, stop all this crap and the gov could more than afford to subsidise low payed workers wages, or cut the tax from companies so they would pay em a decent living wage. but nothing will change because them who make all the laws up are public sector workers,

[thered]

You see, successive governments haven't built any council houses for way over thirty years... so this explains how families have often been forced to rent privately. The New Labour have supported this because they're actually a bunch of Tories wanting to support private sector landlords through abusing the welfare state in this way. The lone parent you mention is not to blame for this policy.

We can't have children living on the streets with their parents. The alternative is removing children from their parents who can't afford accommodation and put them into care. I guess this would be a breach of the families human rights, apart from being a very horrible thing to do.

I'm glad you've mentioned that the lone parent only receives ?71 per week... that's not much money for an adult to live on. In fact, I'd say it's rather impossible.

Both the child tax credit and child benefit is money to be spent on the children. It is the children's money. Former PM Gordon Brown raised these amounts year after year because he wanted to eradicate 'child poverty' in the UK. I don't know, but it wouldn't surprise me if the maintenance money does not affect these means tested benefits such as the rules were written to help children.

BTW your HB calculation is wrong

Once she has been assessed for sick benefit it will rise to ?100 a week if she gets worse she may also be able to get a free car an extra ?75 a week and a carer to look after her too if she plays her cards right


and yes jsa is pitiful money in fact i dont think there is many that actually really do survive on it alone, a lot do fiddle work or claim they live apart when really they live together to get an extra few quid you cant blame them for that

But when you factor up the rent and free council tax most people are not far short off ?200 a week


You then look at work 40 hour week minumum wage take tax an national insurance off and you are roughly in the same boat only the tax credit really that makes you better off at work


It amounts to a forty hour working week for very little money which is why many dont want to work

[Meat-Head]

It amounts to a forty hour working week for very little money which is why many dont want to work

unsure if on or off-topic:-

So why do we seem that EVERY shop here in M/C has a Polish worker in it then?

I went to a cell phone shop the other week, first shop said no, second shop said yes, but they were all Polish, so i didn't bother, still got a knackered cell phone that rejects 8/10 calls - face bothered.

[Lainie]

People working 30 hours a week or more get their salary upped to ?13500 with working tax credit.

And no gaston people who work get nowhere near those amounts of ctc. Thats part of the prob stop giving as much to those that dont work and giv more to those that do.

Dla is very difficult to get now red and will b even worse under pip. How on earth we giv ?57 a week mobility to housebound people is beyond me. Everyone will b reassessed for pip.

A lot of benefits r also moving to online and that spells another disaster.

[thered]

unsure if on or off-topic:-

So why do we seem that EVERY shop here in M/C has a Polish worker in it then?

I went to a cell phone shop the other week, first shop said no, second shop said yes, but they were all Polish, so i didn't bother, still got a knackered cell phone that rejects 8/10 calls - face bothered.

Thats where a lot of problems lie m8


People say there is no jobs i think there is plenty

Problem is for a lot of people especially on minumum wage they do not get much more actually going to work after rent and council tax paid for them

so they stay at home


Shop though stiil need staff tho only pay minimum wage Polish man says yes i move to britain its great

Thats why there are so many immigrants they take up lots of houses too, you go to london every shop worker restraunt worker are all more or less foreign


Wage needs to rise dramatically to solve welfare, immigrants and housing to make a working life worthwhile

[bonus2010]

People working 30 hours a week or more get their salary upped to ?13500 with working tax credit.

Lainie,
I don't know what exactly minimum hourly rate is... but if a single person without children like were to work 30 hours @ minimum hourly rate do they get their income topped up to ?13,500? (I don't think tax credits is available to childless people or couples.)

[Lainie]

Working tax credit is avail to anyone working 30 hrs a week and earning under?13500 (i think thats correct figure),, my other halfs brother gets it working in tesco.

Soz think u need to b over 25 as well

[bonus2010]

Thanks Lainie.. I remember when WTC was first was introduced, and I was on pretty low wages at the time and enquired in person at the local tax office... the guy said that I would be lucky to get ?10/week and it would be negated if I had any OT. Surely been a lot of changes since then. The tax guy said that his circumstances were similar to my own and he thought it was awful that women were working at the tax office having as much income as him working only 20 hours when he done full-time (I didn't bother with a claim... forms too long cant be assed)