to be annoyed by this or am I benefit bashing/

[Streakywindows]

DS was given a letter from school saying he could claim up to 250.00 for a number of things including a cineworld pass,ice skating,football,swimming and various other stuff. He could also get free equipment and uniform for his chosen activity.
I thought this was brilliant but then read he can only claim it if he is getting free school meals.
This seems really unfair but I think I might be a bit touchy today as I have told ds he can't go to the cinema with his friends this week as we are really struggling so this may be making me a bit bitter .
DD also can't attend after school dance unless we pay 30.00 each term yet again kids entitled to FSM get to go.
It just all seems very unfair especially as we are about as well off as the average family on benefits after paying rent,ct and travel to work.
I am not suggesting stopping FSM or anything like that just maybe a fairer system.

Yes Carocaro it does state that.
"Let us know if your child is having fun and enjoying their new activity".
I haven't bunched anyone together -it is the scheme I am annoyed with not the children who benefit from it.
If you got a letter from school excluding your dc from something because they claim FSM - you would be quite rightly upset by it.
With regards to free online courses you are right but it is a bit hard to pop to the library with a baby and my dp is at work every week day so I can't just ask him to take care of her. But don't worry I am going to get us out of this hole as soon as dd is a bit older.
I do think it is a little out of order to accuse someone of making something up then not even acknowledging it when you find out it isn't made up, But hey-ho I have way more important things to lose sleep over/

If you look at theywillgrowup's list of free things, and then times that by, say, four children, I'm afraid it does rather stick in your throat.

Four children paying for school meals = £40 a week. Let alone all the clubs etc.

This is not doable for those on modest incomes.

Now I am going to be asked why I don't study in the evenings.

DD has aspergers and her bedtime routine can take up to 3 hours she also wakes a lot through the night.

The LO is also waking a lot at night and I do like to spend a couple of hours with dp now and again.

theywillgrowup have just read your list and it does make me cross - esp the free dental work (am currently really suffering whilst we save up to get my teeth fixed :( )

CaroCaro -Can you please link me to the online courses? They do actually sound interesting and if they are free I will have a browse later :).

So you think ALL children should be included in the scheme op??? Why?

Because it is unfair just like it would be if only children who didn't claim FSM could go to the classes.

Now you tell me why they shouldn't all be included.

Or maybe the OP means that FSM should just mean FSM, not all these extras.

At a time when EMA is abolished, working poor spending more and more money on transport costs and seeing their money eroded, it does stick in the gullet to see children from families with possibly more income, gaining access to facilities that others can't.

FSM should be just that. FSM nothing more.

Also things vary across the country. Some local authorities give clothing grants, others don't. Some include receipt of housing or council tax benefit for FSM, most don't. The whole system needs an overhaul and that is what the OP was getting at.

I think the key often is that FSM = the very poorest. youc an;t be working poor and get FSM; we're working poor, but getting any tax credits for working AT ALL precludes FSM, it's in teh rules.

So those kids theya re targettinga re the very poorest: thsoe who won;t get any chances to get out of that lifestyle without a bit of help.

Cineworld am not sure about, sports / recreation etc I get absolutely: inactivity and obesity cost our NHS pots of cash.

On another aspect- I know becuase we are possibly worse off than someone on benefits that it is ahrd to work and see that (we're paying off an overpayment that was the fault of the benefits dept) BUT long term our prosppects are so much better. No income support of £60- odd a week for us when the kdis leave home thanks all the same. The 'few eyars with annincome that gives the kids a chance' rules make sense to me, at least, especially when i look at people I know who didn;t choose the lifestyle- like the friend whose wanker H announced to them all on Boxing day that he ahd another family with kids, had done for eyars, was going to live with them and no he wouldn;t pay any mainternance*. Oh and the house is tied to his job so out by half term please (Mum works but is struggling to get childcare together by then as dd has ASD). I cannot see how Mum and the kids deserve to end up in a place where escape from poverty is hard and lifelong benefits dependency results.

*He will pay, but it takes time to force it doesn;t it? Wanker.

goingforit people on FSM don;t have working-comparable incomes

People on other benefit systems may well, but FSM really does exclude that

Because the government can't afford it?!

Free school meals are not just for people who do not work (either through choice or more usually because they cannot get a job). They are also available to those who work up to 15 hours a week. (And therefore cannot claim WTC or help with childcare)(usually through no fault of their own).

Yet again, people looking at other people and thinking others have it easier than them.

Yes the system should be changed so it is not just those on free school meals. But the usual benefit bashing is not helpful.

Why the school didn't target the notes and not give notes to people not on free meals I don't know. I hope it is not obvious when the children do the activities that they have got 'freebies'.

Maybe because they are giving kids on FSM 250.00?

reclaiming - yes he will pay - and if it takes a long time to force him to, he will pay arrears as well. Tell your friend to get the claim started with the csa. The arrears go back to the start of the claim.

It's not just the £250 streaky windows.......you had best get used to it now, because there is bikeability (free bike), and massive reductions on residential trips, i.e a trip costing £650 with the history sept being reduced down to £220

I hope it is not obvious when the children do the activities that they have got 'freebies'.

I hope my children are not excluded or feel isolated from their group of friends as they don't attend the after school football or dancing.

Works both ways TBH.

If school excluded your child due to the fact you claim FSM you would be angry so why can't I be angry that the school is excluding my children due to the fact we don't claim FSM?

Where does this idea of most people on low incomes choosing it originate I wonder? Jobs are being shed like nobody's business here; bil yesterday, 70 elsewhere today. Even for the most determiuned there is a crossover time surely?

A lot of people on FSMs will be in households affected by disability, sickness, whatever. Many more will ahve single parents (and I loathe single aprent bashing: most I know had their chidlren in a relationship as much as anyone)

But we know that if not tackled those same kids ARE likely to cost the state more in health, long term benefits etc

£250 if properly targeted ande saving far more money is good sense. There's a lack mof long term planning at Governmental level in ALL parties, and far too much cutting one benefit to cause more costs elsewhere. Really bad financial planning.

Mu DD does not get all these extras.
She doesn't have a free bike, or laptop or school trips or cinema trips.

I pay for those things, or don't if I can't.

Of course I have a free flatscreen TV but we all know that benefit claimants get one of those right?

But my children are on the same amount of money as the fsm children ...but the Government don't want to give my kids a free bike.

I love the idea of FSM I think it is a wonderful thing but schemes like this are not.

I am living on the poverty line and today it was made a little bit shitter.

When it comes down to it, none of us are excluded from claiming this.

Assuming eligibility we can all apck in opur jobs and claim FSMs. We make the choice not to do so. It is there for us if we need it though- in fact there was a great article in the papers the other day about a different benefit: dont see this as something not for you, just something you haven;t needed YET.

We've never claimed a FSM. If something terrible happened (eg DH died) and we needed to then I would be glad a thousand times over for what's there, and the extra bits my kdis might get that I coudl no longer provide.

It's insurance. And often the extras are think-tank fodder designed to target the kid's ambtions and make them less suceptible to long term dependency. I don;t know much about thi scheme (not heard of it in Wales) but it soudns like one of thsoe tbh.

After today I am seriously considering telling dp to ask to be laid off.

The grass looks a lot greener from where I'm sitting.

It wa samde shitter really?

We're below the poverty line (we were being voerpaid student loan AND HB and didn;t relaise, and both being claimed back simultaneously- just shit luck no more) and yet I don;t begrudge other kids a hand.

My kids see us fighting, they have NT aprents and two of the four are NT themselves and able to learn from us how to fight, and that working has benefits far above actual £. In that alone they are priveledged. They see Dh study and work, they see me study and care, they know that there is value in trying and being able to do that makes you lucky (the last bit from the mroes everely disabled child).

That's worth far more than a new bike tbh.