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 4 when the 80’s started! I remember my mum and dad talking about family allowance. I was suddenly eligible for free school meals when my parents divorced as I was from a single parent family, even though we were better off by then! I never saw or heard of any corporal punishment happening in school but one particularly nasty teacher tied a boy to a chair with skipping ropes and put a sign on his back saying “I am a donkey, kick me” because the boy kicked another child. Looking back I think he had some learning difficulties she would be sacked now if that happened!

You couldn’t get in work benefits. You couldn’t get help with mortgage interest. The only time DH was out of work we got £27 in six weeks.

My mum used to get called single family allowance. I used to collect it for her from the post office with the child benefit both were vouchers in a book that I had to exchange for cash. Then I had to go pay the rent and do some shopping for her. She worked full time and didnt get home till after the shops shut. That was 80-85. - No childcare money used to go to Aunties after school until I was in High School. She got no Housing benefit but 4 weeks free rent a year. 2 Weeks in the beginning of the summer holidays and at christmas

At college all she got for me was CB. .

When I signed on I had to do at the dole office once a fortnight and used to get a giro 2 days later which I cashed at the post office. (late 80's)

my wages were always cash in a envelope with a payslip included weekly paid. minus any subs you had had as well.

We had the cane at school and the blackboard duster thrown at you.

Shoes were wide ugly looking leather strapped shoes. And all home made clothes because me mam was a sewing machinest so made ALL our clothes and her own. We used to go the Market every week and she looked in the remnant bins at the fabric stalls (there were lots).

We used to HAVE to back our books for High School and it was done with leftover rolls of wallpaper.

My dad was taken to court for maintenance but never paid it as claimed redundancy not long afterwards and it was never disputed.

We used to get Free School Dinners because she was a single parent. We were given a pass at school which we had to show the dinner lady (I hated that)

Rarely had spending money. I used to spend my Saturdays walking round shops and markets looking for saturday work occasionally I managed to get the odd weekends. Work was scarce for a 13-14 year old. All paper jobs went to brothers and sisters,

Jam Butties or bowl of Cornflakes was the snack to eat whilst waiting for your tea after school.

I vaguely remember the little milk bottles we used to get in Primary that I hated also as it was always warm milk having had been left out.

Spag Bol was a treat so was Artic Roll ha ha. Mum baked every sunday.

Whilst we were at High School she started making cakes for people and that paid for any extra's me and my sister needed

We used to sit at the Radio on a sunday for 2 hours having to be very quiet with a microphone aimed at the radio to tape the Top 40

A stacked sterio - Record player, double deck cassette recorder and built in Radio was the BEST THING EVER ha ha (no more microphone)

I got a grant twice a year at college minimal amount for Unifrorms and books

Christmas was the only time of year I actually had spare cash. Off my Dad which I used to use for Christmas Presents.

I could go on but to much to list

I started school in 1985 and I am sorry but there was absolutely no corporal punishment! That was long gone. Where did some of you live?!

Corporal punishment was banned in the U.K. in 1986. Not until 1998 in some private schools.

When I was in P5 at school a teacher in our school belted a younger child so hard she broke his wrist. It just made us more afraid of her - that was 1979. Corporal punishment stopped during my secondary days. For a while it was up to the parents - we all had to take a letter home and our parents could choose belting or detention. My dad chose the belt, even though he never laid a finger on us himself.

In one of my university holidays, I think 1989, I got a job in the local benefit office (my dad worked there). I spent the summer printing order books, it's amazing really that the job was always done by the most junior staff, but that's because it was a really dirty job and you got covered in ink. It was for invalidity benefit and income support, there was a separate wee stamp in red for milk tokens.

I remember my mum's Family Allowance book and her going to the post office to sign (I think) and hand in that week's page and get given cash back. Free school meals, made very obvious who got them- in primary school they had a specific line in the dinner hall for fsm pupils, in secondary school if you got fsm you collected dinner tickets from the school office once a week to pay for your dinner in the canteen.

Corporal punishment was made illegal when I was in primary but older teachers in particular found it hard to break the habit of a lifetime and would whack you at will, or threaten to send you to the head for proper beating.

My auntie got one of those TVs you fed with coins and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. Mind you I remember the first time I used a remote control and I felt like I was living in the future.

To get in contact with my paternal granddad you'd have to phone the social club he drank in and leave a message for him there, I always wanted to be one of the people who worked there because you'd know everyone's business.

Secondary school in the 1980s:

An ice cream van would come to the playground at every break time. They sold single cigarettes to pupils (rather than them buying a pack of ten or twenty). There were recognised "smoking sheds" in the playground (undercover areas that the smokers used). Any non - smokers, like myself, were terrified of going near that area as you could expect to be beaten up.

In primary school in the 70s, after taking register the teacher should also deal with school dinner admin. We all knew who paid, and who got theirs free. In secondary school it was still obvious as anyone who got free dinners had to spend morning break queueing at the school office for their free dinner ticket, rather than buying it at lunchtime. There was a black market between morning break and lunchtime where free dinner tickets would be sold to other pupils at a low rate (if the free dinner ticket holder hated school food, or preferred the money and went hungry).

As well as the physical violence from teachers, there was a lot of cruel behaviour. One boy in primary school was bullied by the teacher. He lived in a children's home so was an easy target, although even the kids with loving parents at home wouldn't really expect their parents to question anything the teacher did.

At secondary it was well known which teachers were having sex with which underage girls. Child protection policies hadn't been invented.

Teachers were dictators, they ruled their classrooms however they saw fit.

I started primary school in 1978. Think the headmaster would smack but not use a cane or slipper. Certainly in secondary school, when my brother started (1983) the head used a cane.

One of my earliest TV memories I have is of Cathy Hargreaves being caned in Grange Hill, by Mrs McCluskey. Looked it up and that was Feb 1981 so I was 7. It gave me nightmares, for years... just looked it up and YouTube and it wasn't explicit but even so.

I did a 'TOPS'(Training Opportunities Scheme) government sponsored 9 months full time course - Secretarial Studies Certificate - Shorthand/Typing, 5 o'level subjects and was paid £38 per week - this was September 1979 - June 1980...by Giro cheque cashed at the Post office.
I was 23years old divorced with 2 under school age children.
As a result of the Work Experience placement(as part of the scheme) I was offered a full time job and started work the following Monday as I finished the course on the previous Friday.
The wage was low so I was told I was entitled to...
receive reduced nursery costs which you had to apply for direct to the Council run nursery.
I received reduced rent for council property I lived in which again you applied direct to the Council...today it's known as Housing Benefit.
I also received Family Allowance which was in the form of a book you took to the Post Office.
I also applied to the Education Office for School Uniform Grant once DCs went to school.
Within 3years I got a job that paid a lot more money and was no longer eligible for benefits.

I bought my first house in 1983 for £6500(this is in the North West of England)!

Tax credits wasn't Blair. In their first form they were brought in by Cons John Major. We had a letter from HMRC telling us to apply.

I 're!ember them taking about banning corporal punishment on news round I think they did a feature ?

The little pages in benefit books were called dockets, they would have that week's date on each one, the post office clerk would stamp a docket, rip it out and keep it, and stamp the counterfoil in the book.

Child benefit books had the mother's name printed at the top, then the address, then the father's name at the bottom. Inside it would list the children and their date of births.
It was primarily paid to the mother because it was meant to be enough to feed the children if they had a layabout dad who spent his wages in the pub or bookies.

Widowed mothers could claim a separate allowance but widowed fathers got nothing. That was why it was common for widowed men to re-marry again quickly.

Unemployment benefit was paid by 'Giro' there was a public sector bank called Girobank run by the Post Office. You would sign on in a job centre and given a time slot once a fortnight, the time slot depended on your surname. If you couldn't sign on in that time slot you had to have a good reason why because you were basically signing to say you were "available for work, fit for work, and actively seeking work".

We often had chalk or the heavy wooden blackboard wiper thrown at us One teacher would throw our excersise books at us frisbee style- just because he could
The rumour was that the deputy head had pornograghic pictures up in his office - certain children had seen them while getting caned!
There wasn’t any child protection at all. Teachers would openly flirt with girls in the classroom- no one batted an eyelid
And yes you could work and claim benefits apparently Ex mil did it for years
Benefits were cash in hand as was her job - no one questioned it

I went to school in 1968 and left in 1982 - there was no corporal punishment in my school or anyone I knew that went to neighbouring boys/ girls or mixed schools . No idea about benefits .

I worked in the benefits office in the 80s. Lone parents got Income Support ( which was previously called Supplementary Benefit) and could work part time up to 24 hours a week IIRC. The earnings were partially deducted from the benefit though.
Child Benefit was paid to everyone and most benefits were paid at the Post Office but in the late 80s straight into the bank.

I was at school until 1974 and caning was still common then.

Oh yes and students, not only did they get a grant not a loan, but they all signed on for unemployment benefit in the summer holidays.

I remember both formal corporal punishment and the more casual type, which was pushing, dragging, throwing objects at pupils and that kind of thing. Quick slaps weren't at all uncommon, and you could get those for the smallest misdemeanour if you happened to irritate the teacher. Canings were quite rare at my school and widely talked about when they happened. The threat of a caning was commonly applied, though. I was a deeply compliant child and was still threatened with the cane twice. I didn't really think it would happen, but found the threat highly intimidating all the same.

Thank goodness they didn't use capital punishment steppemum

Ha ha , yes I mean CORPORAL punishment!

I left school in 1982. Boys were caned often as my form teacher was also a ‘Discipline Teacher’; head of year. It was a catholic state comprehensive.

Speaking of corporal punishment in schools:
I wasn’t around in the 80’s, but there was this one teacher at my school, absolute mountain of a man, and everyone was terrified of him. I couldn’t really understand why - he taught me maths for a while and was pretty easy going as long as you got your work done and didn’t talk over him. Then my dad told me one day about this particular teacher’s reputation: back in 1980, my dad was 15, and this teacher taught religious education back then. My dad and his mates were goofing about, and the teacher came up behind my dad with two of those enormous, leather bound church bibles, and bashed his head between them
He also caught my friend’s mum smoking in the toilets at the same school, and apparently dangled her from the first floor window by her ankles - not sure how true that one is though

My mum was a lp.
She went to queue at the post office weekly to collect the family allowance.
She got no help towards childcare for 3 kids
She needed legal aid...but free assistance was abolished around that time
She had a mortgage but no help towards that.
No maintenance from our Dad.
Her pay was low and she worked f.t.
No tax credit
I do not know how she kept our home tbh.

@rainyeastcoast , am interested to know why asking, do you not believe a story you've been told or can you not remember?

Started school in 1984 (Scotland). Certainly during the first three years, children would have their bottoms smacked by the teacher. We were very aware that the Headteacher had a belt but by then it was only used on very unique occasions and I was certainly never aware of anyone getting it while I was at school although my friend's older brother had been belted a few years beforehand. Smackings stopped from P4 onwards - I genuinely don't know if this coincided with the law or just because we were older. It wasn't just smacking though - there would be lots of ear pulling, pushing and general roughness. I was lucky to never be smacked but I remember once being too slow to pack away some books so the teacher grabbed me by the arm and dragged/flung me out into the corridor - I had marks on my arm for ages. Mind you, this same teacher actually kept her belt in her desk drawer and would often slap it down on desks telling us she regretted not being able to use it on children anymore. Horrible woman, scared the living daylights out of me.

I worked in a newsagent/post office in the mid 90s and the queue for giros on a thursday morning was right out the door and down the street. Most of the customers would then come straight to my counter and spend the lot on cigarettes.

State Secondary school 1980-1986.

I remember a kid getting his mouth washed out with soap.
Kids heads getting flushed 'down' loo's.
Teachers havings sex with pupils - the ICT teachers wife with a 5th form boy but mostly underage girls. It was NOT unusual. I myself was attacked by a teacher.
The heavy wooden blackboard wiper chucking stopped after the Maths teacher narrowly missed one kids eye and he needed stitches but books and chalk/pens continued.
Yes to the cane too. Standing on chairs / holding tennis racket about your head for the whole lesson.
I remember the communal showers (grim) and the stained teatowel sized 'towels' we had to use. Yes to teachers coming in during it too.