I have worked for 32 years and paid my tax and insurance in all that time.

Last year I was made reduntant and spent 5 months on job seekers allowance. I received £59 per week plus £12 housing benefit. That £71 per week was supposed to support me and pay my bills and mortgage.

My monthly outgoings for council tax, mortgage, utility bills etc total £640.

I doesn't take a genius to know that there was a huge shortfall of income versus outgoings. This left me in debt.

I am now working full time again but have had to relocate to secure a suitable position. I have been working since February of this year and am still in debt by over £3,000. I have no idea how I am supposed to pay this off. I am a single occupant so I cannot make a difference to my bills, and I get no help with them as I would if I had a working partner living with me.

I have never had children so don't cost the government anything in the way of family allowance, schools, hospital and child care.

I am sure that there are many people in my position out there and we never get mentioned by the governments. Only pensioners and family people.

Carol

Only in debt to the tune of £3,000?  I wish!!   I think those of us without kids should be the one getting tax rebates (not parents) - a little no claims bonus maybe?   To quote Del Boy - "the government don't give us nothing so we don't give the government nothing".  If only!!

I know exactly how you feel.  I am married but we have no children and both have worked and paid all our lives, yet when my husband was off work for several months prior to and following surgery we were unable to claim anything at all as DSS said I had to support both of us!  I had recently lost my job and was temping, earning peanuts and we too ended up in several thousand pounds worth of debt to keep up with the mortgage etc.

We have ended up selling our house last year to pay off our debts and are now renting privately but we're not sure if we will be able to buy a property again as it ate into our equity quite a bit.

It feels like we those of us who aren't pensionable age or have children are the forgotten voters who are clobbered again and again with every new tax they think up.  We have to pay for everyone else but no-one helps us when we need it. 

Roz

 

 

I was told tax credits were available for everyone on low pay - not just those with kids but it seems I was wrong.  Annoys me when I see people claiming child allowance, baby bonds, etc, etc, grumbling they don't get enough from the government and then flying off on holiday!!  Holidays are a luxury that went years ago but if you have kids it seems they're deprived if they don't get enough benefits to get them to Australia at least twice a year!!   It isn't just financial either it's the extra holidays they're entitled to for maternity (and now paternity) leave while the mugs without kids are left behind to do their work (and for no extra pay because they're already being paid to stay home and raise their sprogs).

It's easy to look around and see someone who seems to be getting more.  Children are a financial burden and tax credits, although not a fair distribution, do attempt to put the money where it is needed.  Before you say people choose to have children, I agree, but nobody can seriously predict the true cost of bringing up children and what sort of selfish society doesn't allow for children? 

I get about £40 a month in tax credits and £120 a month in family allowance. ( 2 children ).  This doesn't seem a huge amount when I look at what everything costs and when I see the tax my husband pays on his earnings.  But I would prefer to see it put directly into benefits such as free school dinners for all children and childcare for all parents.   Obviously everyone needs help at some time in their life; the best help would be no tax for low earners and I mean putting the threshold up to about £20,000.  By the way, I'm in my 40's and managed to afford 2 family holidays, so not everyone is living the high life.

Unemployment is obviously very hard financially and debt means paying for everything 10 times over.  However it's easy to look around and see someone who seems to be getting more.  Children are a financial burden and tax credits, although not a fair distribution, do attempt to put the money where it is needed.  Before you say people choose to have children, I agree, but nobody can seriously predict the true cost of bringing up children and what sort of selfish society doesn't allow for children? 

I get about £40 a month in tax credits and £120 a month in family allowance. ( 2 children ).  This doesn't seem a huge amount when I look at what everything costs and when I see the tax my husband pays on his earnings.  But I would prefer to see it put directly into benefits such as free school dinners for all children and childcare for all parents.   Obviously everyone needs help at some time in their life; the best help would be no tax for low earners and I mean putting the threshold up to about £20,000.  By the way, I'm in my 40's and managed to afford 2 family holidays, so not everyone is living the high life.

If you have managed to afford 2 family holidays you are indeed living the high life and I still don't see why couples should get handouts just because they have kids (particularly if they're on a good wage).  If they can afford holidays then there's no way they should be receiving any support whatsoever.  It's a form of taxation on people who don't have kids to expect us to give it all away to those who do (particularly when those who do earn up to 10 times more!!).  As for a "selfish society that doesn't allow for children",  many parents are the  most selfish people on the planet and they, in turn, raise selfish spoilt kids who have no respect for anyone or anything because they're handed it on a plate.  I was always under the impression the welfare state was set up for the less well off - now it seems everyone, particularly those with kids, are milking it for all it's worth.  Still what's the point in complaining - some things never change and preferential treatment for parents and their sprogs is one of them.  Hey ho!

2 family holidays over 10 years is not living the high life; a week in Brittanny costing about £600 in 2003 and a "cheap" caravan from a friend in Cornwall for £200 for a week in 2005 and no prospect of anything else as yet.  Last holiday was 3 years ago and the kids are growing up.  

 Bringing up kids to be resourceful and respectful is one of the hardest jobs around.  Just because some parents don't appear to be making much effort, there is no need to tar all parents and children with the same brush.  I too do not believe in handouts for parents, or OAP's either for that matter, or people on permanent sick leave.  All handouts should be based on need, not how old you are or how many children you have or how much you can't work.

Children's needs are a priority because they are not in a position to support themselves. Just remember that if there is no younger generation the whole country would come to a standstill and we would be crying out for foreigners to come and provide essential services, like we are beginning to do now.  There is already a skills shortage so guiding children to be responsible and able to learn skills is very important.  Probably this is not so obvious if you don't have much to do with bringing up children.  Parents are just normal people, who need support , not whinging at, and there are many influences to buy stuff - especially all the modern things like phones etc; but when parents are pressured into working I can see that it is easier to give in to all the peer pressure but this doesn't make parents "selfish "; they are just going along with the flow for a peaceful life.  You cannot do battle with social norms every day.

I just wanted to add that both me and my husband had job troubles in the late 80's, combined with a mortgage that was going up and up due to the high interest rates of that time.  I was unemployed and was being harrassed for poll tax even though I had no income.  It has taken 20 years of borrowing from Peter to pay Paul.  In that time my partner was made redundant but he had the drive to start his own business which is really the only thing that has helped us get out of debt, but we still have a mortgage for a higher value than we paid for our house because we are still carrying some of the debts of the past.  So there is no easy answer to getting out of debt.  My only real comment would be to be realistic with what your budget is and pay your debt off at a steady pace; too quickly doesn't work.  It is like methodically untangling knots.  

 

stonemill:

2 family holidays over 10 years is not living the high life; a week in Brittanny costing about £600 in 2003 and a "cheap" caravan from a friend in Cornwall for £200 for a week in 2005 and no prospect of anything else as yet.  Last holiday was 3 years ago and the kids are growing up.  

I know it's going to sound like Monty Python but that IS luxury!  Try no holiday since 1991!!  No hot running water and no central heating.  I would have thought with all the tax rebates given to people with kids there'd be no problem getting your annual jaunt!!

 

  All handouts should be based on need, not how old you are or how many children you have or how much you can't work.

Well that's something we agree on at least.

Children's needs are a priority because they are not in a position to support themselves. Just remember that if there is no younger generation the whole country would come to a standstill and we would be crying out for foreigners to come and provide essential services, like we are beginning to do now. 

Maybe so but people choose to have kids so they should not have them if they're not in a position to support them themselves.  Indeed there are many people claiming child allowance who don't really need it. 

 There is already a skills shortage so guiding children to be responsible and able to learn skills is very important.

Trouble is the government seems to be gearing them all up for academic life - what use is that if there's a shortage of plumbers???

Parents are just normal people, who need support , not whinging

There are many people who need support who don't get it.  And contrary to your belief that parents don't whinge, I've met many who are constantly moaning about how much it costs to raise kids and how they're not getting enough help from the government - yet they all have central heating, running hot water and jet off on holiday at least once a year.

So there is no easy answer to getting out of debt.

The answer seems to be don't work.  Those who spend their life on the dole never seem to have any worries - the taxpayer pays everything for them!!  

Incidentally foreigners aren't brought over because there's a shortage of new workers (i.e. kids) or a shortage of skills - it's because they're cheap.

foreigners - cheap

I disagree, foreigners are not all cheap labourers and there is a shortage of skills in work.

Many foreigners seem willing to work very hard, that is why they are wanted by employers.  I do not see them treating it as a holiday like many of the British semi retirees who've gone off to Spain to live.  All the dentists are Poles in my local dentist... and they are skilled and very business like.  We'd be lost without them.  There is a shortage of skilled workers in this country because we have not trained the younger generation towards needed jobs - training costs money and the government does nothing in practical financial incentives to encourage individual employers to sponsor people to learn the skills needed.  This may be another reason why many people cannot work - they do not have the right skills and are not adaptable enough.  There is definately too much emphasis on academic qualifications as a mantra to solve all problems - skills are learnt in jobs, and if people aren't able to find a job, they won't learn the skills.

 I only know about certain industries, building skills and autoelectrical, but certainly there will be real problems when the people who are 47+ now retire because their skills have not been passed on in a proper way to enough people.  I cannot understand why this post has created such resentment towards other people : ie parents and children.  Many people annoy me but I do not blame them for all the problems that I find in this country. 

There may be a skills shortage in some areas but in others, the indigenous population are being sidelined to make way for immigrants because immigrants are paid less and will accept less because they can then go home with what, in their country, is a small fortune.

 

Employers win, immigrants win, but the indigenous population lose out.