Toddler's £2.5k Christmas

[ChangedOfNameYetAgain]

It's the woman who bought her baby a solid gold dummy - now buying him £2500 of Christmas presents including a trip to the Canaries!

I really couldn't care less what people spend their money on, but the article says she is on benefits. I'm not benefits bashing at all, just genuinely confused as to how this can be the case? It even says she is buying presents to donate to low income families... What on earth?

www.walesonline.co.uk/news/real-life/pampered-toddler-2500-christmas-presents-25669603?gaa_at=la&gaa_n=ATKjfPHobR58k8OvfM0kPE3bEpzsyraCeZhGyoPuNnkJt_vVbvsVkllTFEPRJCiS-Ew%3D&utm_source=newsshowcase&utm_medium=discover&utm_campaign=CCwqGQgwKhAIACoHCAowuKD9CjCCyvQCMIrDhwEw5-qXAQ&utm_content=bullets&gaa_ts=638d9fed&gaa_sig=0MJerSihwIj7IgjVo1oTFkq94V4P-Q_pAC3jr6Amg70got5Td2t6h8NWa12VEZOfxEVTndy8eylcdfogwcipgQ%3D%3D

What nonsense. The attention seeking nonsense aside, most of the spend is actually on a family holiday which isn’t a present for a toddler at all.

Why is this news?

Don't understand why you'd spend so much on a toddler who would just be happy with whatever currently toddlers are into.

If £2500 includes a family holiday to the canaries it surely isn't that much money to spend?!

If you don't care what people spend their money on, why start a thread about it?
It's a benefit bashing thread. Let's be honest.

If she is on benefits, how on earth can she afford all these things? The whole thing is bizarre.

I'm on benefits and my kids have never, ever been abroad. My eldest is 17.

And even if she managed to save for a holiday abroad what's that got to do with her toddlers Xmas. That's a family holiday not a Xmas gift

That’s a lot to have from benefits to spend out on non essentials. It’s not the experience of many who can’t afford the basics or are working and can’t afford the basics either.

Very insensitive of her to brag at a time where many family’s - working and not working - can’t afford basics.
I hope UC monitor these articles and do a fraud check as surely that’s impossible if it’s a legitimate claim. Unless it’s all going on the credit card.

"He can't be thinking you don't give back"
Well given that benefits are paying for it all, maybe best teaching him not to take but earn it himself in the first place?
I don't understand how some people on benefits cant afford to feed their kids and then you've got twats like this. How can both things be true?

I’m not defending it necessarily but reading the articles I’ve seen on this a lot of it is actually coming from the sons dad, who she’s not actually with, and she’s asked relatives to give money / presents to her son instead of her birthday presents etc. Less than half of the 2.5k is actually coming from her.

@ChangedOfNameYetAgain probably all nonsense but the Dad (who may not be on benefitd) is paying most. She has paid £1000 since May which will work out about £40 a week she has spent by the year end, so might be possible. She has also gone without presents for her own birthday. Sounds like she scrimps and saves and goes without while the article is trying to paint those on benefits as able to afford a lavish lifestyle.

If her kids dad can drop 1.5k on Christmas then maybe he should pay more child support or look after the child so she could work and she wouldn't need to claim benefits?

Yes and that’s a whole new thread isn’t it - whether child maintenance etc should be counted towards benefits etc.

The difficulty is ensuring it’s reliable and consistent. A lot of parents - like my own ex- pay very sporadically, claim to earn cash in hand and live abroad - he wasn’t always like this, it’s been a nightmare. He now lives in the USA and earns a huge amount (I’m talking lives in a £2.5m house and married to a buyer for a household name) and yet still pays £200 a month - the same he’s paid for the last 17 years. Anyway, that’s besides the point really but I’m just saying there’s all sorts of issues with this sort of thing.

@berksandbeyond im a single parent, work as a teacher and still get benefits (CB and CTC) to be fair I don't qualify for UC when they change over. Im not struggling, run a car etc largely because I was very fortunate and when my grandparents died my parents bought my flat for me from the inheritance and I pay a relatively small sum back to them. With housing costs effectively taken care of I have a livable amount of disposable income and am extremely careful with money.

Not everyone on benefits spends their money on the latest tech and wastes it and the vast majority of people in benefits are in work.

There is a lot of contradiction, first it says she spends £2500, then £1000 and the dad the rest, then the amount apparently includes a trip to the canaries for £1300 (in the summer, including the animal park with the dolphins, which unless they are just going for a few days seems hard to believe in itself), then it says 100 presents which doesn't sound likely for £1000 given what it lists has been bought.

This type of thing makes me despair because a toddler would be just as happy with a small number of toys and most of the money could be saved/invested for when they're older.

That sort of money could grow and pay for university, a car and driving lessons or a house deposit, rather than on a giant pile of stuff that they won't understand, remember or appreciate.

Suspect this woman has worked out that she can spend £2.5k on presents (including a holiday for herself) then sell the story to the press for more than £2.5k. Very enterprising.

My guess is lives apart from dad who is a high earner. He pays child maintenance which doesn't count towards her income for benefits.

I'm not benefits bashing at all, just genuinely confused as to how this can be the case? It even says she is buying presents to donate to low income families... What on earth?

The answer is in the article. The boys father spends £1500 so only £1000 is from her. She starts buying in May so that's £125 per month for 8 months.

The Dad sounds involved and not badly off so I imagine she gets child support on top of the benefits.

As PP have said: the majority of the spend is on a family holiday so when you break it down- it's lavish but not insane.

I don't know why people want to get themselves in the papers doing ordinary parenting but described salaciously to make them look like twats- but apparently they do. Perhaps they get paid for it.

The whole article is rubbish though. The Canary Islands trip isn't a Christmas present for her toddler, it's a family holiday.

(Mourns the glory days of actual journalism).

Benefits aside, this is ridiculous. No baby needs solid gold dummies and being bathed in milk and honey. The poor kid will end up being chased by a swarm of bees.
This woman needs some sort of therapy to cure her bellendedness, or at least stop attention seeking on social media!!

She must get tons in child support.
The only people I know well off on benefits claim have at least 2 disability claims coming in.
When we were on benefits (standard amount), we were scrimping and still ended up in debt each month. It would have been better but still in debt if I had stopped swimming lessons (their only club ) but I stubbornly wouldn't. They loved swimming, they had an insane waitlist and I knew we wouldn't be solely on benefits for more than 6 months. Life on benefits is hard. She must get a lot of child support. She'll get paid for articles like these which I suspect is why she does it.

I hate articles like that. The reality for the vast majority of people if benefits is very different.
id suggest the story is probably less than 100% truthful.

I don't know why people want to get themselves in the papers doing ordinary parenting but described salaciously to make them look like twats- but apparently they do. Perhaps they get paid for it.

Yes, they get paid for it and for all the spin-off interviews etc, plus raising their profile generally which means they're more likely to be able to sell a story in future, maybe TV etc etc. Being a twat is very saleable content, click click click.

The article says that she claims benefits, but doesn't say which ones - we claim child benefit, and could afford to spend the same as her on our child, as could many others who receive child benefit. The lack of clarity on exactly which benefits she receives may be deliberate....