Can I ask some stupid questions about life in the 80s?

[rainyeastcoast]

What benefits were available to single parents? Tax credits didn’t come in till Blair’s government, that is correct isn’t it?

How did people collect benefits before direct payments and how were people paid, did it go straight into the bank?

Was corporal punishment quite common in schools, not just caning but shoving and so on?

I was around in the 80s but was very very young so don’t know!

I was at school in the early 80s and one of our teachers used the slipper on kids. Outlawed in 1986.

I was a single parent from 1982. There was the usual child benefit payment collected weekly from the post office (about £11 per week) and I got milk tokens for a pint of milk every day. I was working full time and had a higher personal allowance, the same as a married man, so paid less tax than other single people. My mum looked after my son while I was at work and I gave her my child benefit money because there was no government money for child care or anything like that. It all seems lke a very long time ago.

Whilst I was in primary school in the 80's I recall the headmaster having a slipper and threatening to use it on anyone being naughty.

In secondary school late 80s to early 90s, regular chalkboard rubber throwing at pupils.

Income support and free milk vouchers aswell as child benefit.

The cane was for the boys and the girls got the slipper. It was outlawed in either 1983 or 86.

Corporal punishment was practiced when I was in school, early 80's.

Teachers would throw chalk or a blackboard rubber at noisy kids routinely

There was no corporeal punishment at my school in the 80s, or my sister's and I remember a teacher colleague of my dad getting into big trouble for hitting a child in the school they taught in.

I signed on at the end of the 80s, I'd go to the benefits office to sign and then pick my money up from the post office. At one point I did some work, which I declared, meaning some money was deducted from my benefits.

Lone parents were paid Supplementary benefit which was means tested until it was abolished and replaced by Income Support in 1988.
Before that it was know as support from the National Assistance Board which is why many jobcentres in Newcastle (haven’t heard it anywhere else) are still know as ‘the Nash’.

I did a secretarial course after A levels in 88 that was 16 hours a week so you coul sign on and get the dole. I had to travel by bus to a nearby town queue up and be asked if I was actively looking for work and sign to agree every fortnight. Collected the money at the post office. It was expected that once you left school you got a job, signed on or went to Uni. There was no expectation that parents would support you, I probably had to give my dole money to my Mum.

I think corporal punishment was banned in state schools while still being legal in private schools. Whacks with rulers on the hand were a minor feature of life at my mid 1980s boarding school - at least in the boarding house with the older house mistress - I don’t think the younger ones would have considered it an option.

It was paid by a long order book and fraud was rife with numbers on books being altered and order books stolen. Bank payments are a much better system.

I finished school in 79, even then corporal punishment was rarely used in my secondary school and was not used at my sister's primary school. I used to get paid weekly, in cash. Them was the days!

I’ve remembered now.
I had to sign on each week and then every other Thursday was giro day when the cheque (known as a giro) would come through the post and I’d go to the post office to cash it.

Corporal punishment was made illegal in state schools in 1987 in England, but later in private schools. I started primary mid 70s and remember children being smacked or given hidings in assembly. At Juniors there was the slipper. I started secondary in 82 and there waa no CP in my secondary school

I was a student in then the 80’s, we could claim supplementary benefit over the holidays and housing benefit. I can remember ny landlord threatening to put out rent up, fr9. £12pppw to £13pppw!😮😂

I worked at the DHSS (benefits office) in the early 1980's.
Benefits were paid either by book which you took to the post office each week, where they removed a slip and gave you the amount of cash printed on it, or by girocheque which was sent in the post. Again, you would take it to the post office to cash it, though it could be paid I to a bank account if you had one. Unemployment benefit was paid fortnightly by giro, most other benefits were paid by book.
Benefits available were child benefit, supplementary benefit and family income supplement. FIS was payable if you were in work, but you were only paid half the amount you were actually entitled to for some reason.
Supplementary benefit was an extra benefit intended to 'top up'other benefits to a basic level, but was only paid to people who were not working. A single parent would have claimed supplementary benefit to top up child benefit. If you were a single parent through divorce, or because you'd never been married, you would be interviewed by the Liable Relative Officer who would expect you to give information about your partner so that the legal team could take him to court to pay maintenance. If you had never been married , you would have been subjected to a very humiliating interview where you would have been asked to describe the circumstances of the child's conception and again, the legal team would have attempted to trace the father. Failure to give the information would have meant your benefit was not paid in full (sorry, can't remember the term we used for it).

This was all done with pen and paper - no computers in the office.

Oh, can also remember blackboard rubbers being liberally thrown around the classroom and cane carrying nuns.

I had unemployment benefit for a while inthe mid/late 80s ( Black Monday crash) A type of cheque called a Giro came a couple of days after a weekly sign in at the benefit office, which could be cashed at a Post Offuce or paid into a bank account.

There was a scheme called an Enterprise Allowance which continued to pay a fixed basic amount if you had an idea to start working for yourself. It included mentoring and training in basic accounts and forming a business plan. Brilliant scheme - I started a thriving little business off it.

If you worked and claimed benefits they took it all off you except £10 because that’s all you were allowed to earn. My mum got a job one day a week without realising, she earned £30 for the day but they docked her benefits so she only received an extra £10.

She wanted to quit because it was costing more than £10 for transport and childcare, but they told her she couldn’t quit because they’d class that as purposely quitting a job and would stop her benefits altogether. So she had to keep doing this job that left us out of pocket and it was ages before she managed to get herself made redundant.

My Mum and collected child benefit from the post office. They had my Dad's wages and that was it. I was in primary School in the 80s. No corporal punishment but they thought nothing of school dinner restriction and taking away lunch boxes for the day as punishment. Standing in the corner was usual for any infraction. If we were really naughty (cutting hair for example) we had to stand in the hallway for the rest of the day. Break time was ok if you could stay out of trouble. If you couldn't you would be enjoying a spell in the kit cupboard. The outdoor shed where the pe stuff was kept. It was fun

Hanging around outside the post office on pension day and then mugging old ladies on their way home for their pension cash was a thriving industry.

Did low income families not get supplementary benefit?, I was at primary school from 1978_1985 I remember getting slapped the legs for dropping a crisp packet also being threatened with the ruler was common, I think.corporal punishment was outlawed n the time I got to high school!but teachers still threw board dusters

The ultimate sanction at my primary school was a smack from the head teacher. He would pull down the boys ( never knowed it happen to a girl) trousers and whack them in front of their class. He retired in 1988 and I suppose the last time I saw it happen would have been 1985.

You signed on at the dole for unemployment benefit, you got your giro a few days later. You claimed HB along with it, (I worked HB in the early 90s, we'd get piles of applications direct from them) Long term benefits, like pensions, disability, CB, you got in a book. Computers were pretty rudimentary, so everything had to be transferred by post. IT could take ages. Cock ups, lost giros, fraud were rife.

I received housing benefit and that helped pay for my shared room when I was at college. I think it was paid straight to my bank account.

Pe teacher was brutal,used the climbing ropes as cane on your hand.