To be absolutely sick of hearing about the cost of living crisis

I don't know how much tbh. It's a long while since my kids were in childcare and there wasn't help for my eldest 2.

How much do you get? I imagine not enough to cover all the costs, unless you’re in a fairly high earning job and can make up the shortfall .

In the scenarios I outlined I’m not imagining the woman is leaving some high earning office job for TA work btw.

If they do get it all covered fab but either way the point was my fictional woman wasn’t leaving to get top ups as that post had suggested.

You get help towards childcare though if you earn under 100k

i disagree - surely fix the system - mandatory PAYE deductions etc - a separate coding so employers can see a mandatory payment is in force ? self employed have to provide bank statements if failing to pay etc -and in meantime claimant paid in full as not receiving any etc?

I wasn’t thinking about top ups when I mentioned the newly single mother getting a TA job.

I was talking about her having to get a job eg, TA work where the hours fit around her kids since now she is the sole parent looking after them and after school care for two kids can be very costly!

has two kids and he vanishes or dies or something when the kids are say 8 years old. She has to give up her office 9-5 job and maybe get a teaching assistant job so she can look after her kids now.

Here's an example of the changed attitude of today. In the past, mums would have said, oh no, I am the sole provider now, I need to make sure I earn enough to support my family. Today, it is how many hours must I work and how much can I get as a top up.

child maintanance - it is mad that single mums ( or dads) receiving this and claiming benefits get no deductions based on that -and there are no limited on amounts

It isn't mad. It's a very sensible acceptance that we would need a much more reliable child maintenance system than we've got in order for it to be taken into account for benefits.

Someone who is a citizen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Im similar too but working at a much higher level and longer hours are the norm no 9/5 since 2006

What a vile response. The first thing said I wasn’t minimising.

What is a citizen?

Nonsense - some people have lived here for years and contributed through doing valuable work and paying tax. Some British citizens including British born people haven’t paid a penny in tax. Why would you deprive a whole group of people from receiving benefits if they needed it?

Imagine a woman comes over from India, gets married to another Indian who happens to be an NHS workers , has two kids and he vanishes or dies or something when the kids are say 8 years old. She has to give up her office 9-5 job and maybe get a teaching assistant job so she can look after her kids now. Reduced or low income and private rent has been hiked.

Do you think it’s fair to deprive her and her kids of a house and benefits?

I think some people don’t understand human nature in this country - it’s always been a bit ‘ they get more than us’ and at the moment we have a bunch of people at the bottom end of the pay scale who rather than think ‘what can I do to upskill or make life a bit better to ‘get on’ rush to ‘entitled to’ to see how little they can work to maximise benefits - whilst I totally disagree with this attitude I have to be very honest and think if I was in that position , would I do the same? My 3 big bugbears are the following ( and I’m not in the position of them affecting me personally ) I’m a centre left voter, sometimes Labour, sometimes Lib Dem and am all for strong social underpinning - but I’m also for fairness.

1. Lack of NI paid by anyone taking early retirement 55-67 - currently if not working and living on private pensions/savings - they pay zilch -

2 child maintanance - it is mad that single mums ( or dads) receiving this and claiming benefits get no deductions based on that -and there are no limited on amounts - someone I know gets full UC, rent paid and almost £1000 a month on top in maintenance . No wonder she isn’t rushing to do much work and has far more disposable cash than those other single mums working their arses off but receiving little maintenance.

3 free childcare hours fall off level - it’s totally wrong that those contributing the most end up earning less with very young children due to not receiving this - when we lived in Denmark it was fixed ( and cheap) payment regardless of income.

Strict welfare checks, and no welfare or social housing for non-citizens at all

Foreign aid

EV subsidies and net zero obligations such as ZEV production mandates

Raise Immigration Health Surcharge and Skills Charge

Introduce zonal planning

Scrap the triple lock

Gosh, the bar is uber low. Yeah and my dad eat chickpeas every day for 12 years as a kid. He was one of the lucky ones. The queue of six people outside my grandmother´s house with a bowl in hand waiting to get some of the leftovers were less lucky and those who had an empty dusty bowl to look at every day where the least lucky of all. I hope n Western Europe we can aspire to more than that, don´t you think? While corporations declare their record sky high earnings.

Honestly, I'm tired of people going on about everything negative, anyway.

The UK seems to think that moaning is a charming part of our British culture but it's exhausting and soul destroying.

Everyone in the world has struggles but it's only here where it is a mainstay of conversation.

It's depressing and adds to the dire weather, present week excluded.

TF for social media. I like seeing the positivity from other countries.

I’m sorry but most of the examples you mention, don’t relate to a welfare state.

They relate to a state providing stimulus to emerging tech and / or home grown companies. Which I agree we should be doing more off.

That’s not the same as not recognising that we must still cut our cloth as fundamentally, we (not the government with some magic money tree) can’t afford to spend more than we generate. Simple.

So no real idea of what you'd do.

Sure you have the right to your money but i assume you had a state education or the teachers that taught you did, you use GP and other NHS health services and or your parents did, maybe you took Furlough? or had energy support? got a free vaccine?
Drive on the roads? sell goods to people who were educated in the state system and now have decent well paid jobs....

We are all interconnected, only fools think that they have the right to all their income.

Because it has been tried before, it achieved all i said but also never delivered growth.
Even you acknowledge that and i quote "...its not pleasant...."

But i agree, record numbers of children with SEND, double that of our European neighbours, free childcare provision given to people on up to 100k incomes...

We could start there....

If we want growth, then the state needs to kick start it, madness that under the Tories, a world leading Solar company, couldn't get Govt backing, moved to Germany, under Labour, a world leading Drone company cannot get Defence contracts, so is considering moving to the USA, where their Govt will invest...

In Cornwall, a dockyard didn't a re fit contract on the David Attenborough ship, that went to a Danish 'yard.

The idea cutting benefits to the disabled is some sort of solution, is just wrong headed and will lead to further stagnation.

No one is interested in other peoples woes and moaning
Particularly people who are silly with money and play the victim when they cant afford their bills
Generational trauma on a massive scale is completely different and denying that is ignoring history

We like to think we are all altruistic/ hail fellow well met but honestly I give zero shits about anyone elses finances
Cant pay your bills because you cant stop spending
Just bloody grow up

Seeing as it’s relative, a matter of perspective and context, you must be well aware that not everyone or their parents have had the experience you describe. Not denying that trauma, but you shouldn’t deny or dismiss the challenges facing some people today. What if people had said to your parents, “Mealy worms in your bread? At least you have bread. Stop complaining.” Would you be okay with that? A little grace wouldn’t kill you.

And? People had scurvy and pellagra and plague and polio and other ills. And they smoked and drank themselves to death. So fucking what? What does that have to do with the cost of living now? Exactly NOTHING.

OP, perhaps if other people’s financial struggles irk you so much, you should spend some of your apparently abundant free time curating your news feeds and social media to include only items that are more palatable to you. What a sparkly, oblivious life you must lead. Far be it from anyone else to take the shine off.

Which, while true, is irrelevant to now. Should everyone just shut up about economic struggles because people used to have plague and don’t now? I don’t think so.