To be very scared at the details of the Universal tax credit?

[Feminine]

I had no idea.

I've been away from the UK, and just saw the actual proposals/rules on another thread.

Its bad right?

I imagine there is another thread on this so if there is, sorry ...I can't find it! :)

EDLP, I am currently out of work and desperately trying to find a job, I am a single parent. Childcare is a huge issue for me. Every day I search for all jobs within a five mile radius of my home. This is my limit really as I have to use public transport. Bus routes as they are, to get to my last workplace for instance three miles away took around 50 minutes on two buses. To get to the nearest train station would take around 45 minutes (bus or walk), then about 25 minutes to the nearest city, then more buses and walking. I think taking into account being at bus stops well in time, changovers etc I'd be looking at a two hour journey if I went any further than five miles.

Most office jobs these days (I've always done admin) require 8am starts. So I'd want to be in for 7.45 at the latest. This means I need to have dd in childcare near to her school for around 6.45. First obstacle, none of the childminders on my list start until 7am. (Dd is too old for private nursery, school breakfast club doesn't start until 8am). If I happened to find one we'd have to be out of the house for about 6am. This would mean getting up at 5am.

Then there's 14 year old ds to consider. He's Dyspraxic, has little short term memory and gets confused easily. Could I leave the house at 6am and trust him to lock up properly, set the alarm and get himself to school? Absolutely not. He's not bad enough to qualify for DLA apparently, but certainly not capable of sorting himself out, making the house secure etc.

Now if I could be allowed a 9am start that would be great, just that one hour would make such a huge difference to me in terms of available childcare. It could be done. My parents could collect the kids at 8am when I went out, I wouldn't need a childminder or breakfast club..but if I did, they would be open.

I dont only look at Admin jobs, cleaning jobs have early starts too, retail jobs have early shifts, late shifts. Factory jobs have night shifts. It isn't that I'm being fussy and only want to work within school hours, not at all. It's because there is NO childcare available.

Once again, I had both of my children when I was working full time and could support them. My pets too . I didn't ask to be made redundant. I didn't expect to be a lone parent. No, I dont want to train as a childminder either, I am not a kiddie person.

I don't expect to need doctors and nurses because I lead a healthy, stress-free lifestyle. But if I do get to the stage where I am so ill I need them, I will off myself.
So no thanks, I'd rather live the bulk of my life on a planet with fewer people, than have you all keep churning out babies just so that I can have some nurse keep me alive.

"Once again, I had both of my children when I was working full time and could support them. My pets too grin. I didn't ask to be made redundant. I didn't expect to be a lone parent. No, I dont want to train as a childminder either, I am not a kiddie person."

Didn't you know you are supposed to shoot your pets the MINUTE you go on benefit? Think of the poor taxpayers!

baypolar, can I come to your beatification?

Sure.

Odd.

Only if I can do the dog first opinionated, he chewed the corner of the sofa again.

I don't expect to need doctors and nurses because I lead a healthy, stress-free lifestyle. But if I do get to the stage where I am so ill I need them, I will off myself.
So no thanks, I'd rather live the bulk of my life on a planet with fewer people, than have you all keep churning out babies just so that I can have some nurse keep me alive.

So I should top myself then BayPolar?

baypolar, you're a right rib-tickler. Full of light, song, dance and good cheer.

Bloody good thing you didn't have any children. You would have 'offed' them first. They can be quite irritating.

Might be difficult to do this if you're ever fully paralysed, BayPolar, but yeah whatevs.

"happymumofone, um...er...I do"

If you are already supporting yourself and child rather than the state then why so against UC as its obviously not going to affect you?

For sure, I know that I would have resented my children for the hardship they would have brought my life. I'm not a professional, I would have had to rely upon the state, to have worked in a crappy job, to have had little time to myself, be short of money, few and far between 'vacations'. Yes, it is for the best that I didn't have kids, which is why I chose not to, and after reading MN, I can see that I made the right decision.

ffs, can nobody read? happy, can you not read either??

Nah, coalition apologists tend to have a filter, UA

Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi in The Thick Of It) would have suggested an appropriate course of action for you, "Baypolar". As you are not in the UK, not a parent, and clearly haven't the slightest idea about our life over here, you may need to look this reference up. I hope this gives you something to do.

Kthxbai

'I just thought it interesting to show that those of us who don't have kids - in the US, at least - still wind up paying huge amounts of money for those who do.
In an idea world, we should be able to choose where our tax money gets spent, and spending it on the children of others, well, I'd rather have my taxes used for better things, like green energy, education people to use less, and so on.'

You were a child once. Taxpayers paid for your education, vaccinations, streets, roads etc. And for your parents same needs.
Now you're paying back in for 18 years of using rerources

"unless you need them to work on a farm or something"

Yeah because everyone has lots of dc to do just that.......

are you from about 1840 or something?

'*I don't expect to need doctors and nurses because I lead a healthy, stress-free lifestyle. But if I do get to the stage where I am so ill I need them, I will off myself.'

Unless you know some magic the rest of us dont you are as liely to get hit by a car/get a disease as anyone else. No amount of organic rice cakes can stop that.

I don't expect to need doctors and nurses because I lead a healthy, stress-free lifestyle

This statement alone is enough to reassure me I can ignore you BayPolar safe in the knowledge you are talking a load of tripe.

Do you think people who live healthy, stress-free lifestyle lives don't get hit by buses or diagnosed with cancer?

Even if you are not religious the saying 'There but for the grace of God, go I' is one you should learn the meaning of.

And tbh, I for one am glad you up and left to the US. I am proud of the principles that lead to the development of the welfare state. It might be in a mess atm, but the moral framework that decrees we work together as a society to make sure no one falls between the cracks, lives in poverty or cannot access free healthcare, is one I am proud of.

You obv don't believe that, and as a result I think you are better suited to a life in the US

You call what I had an 'education'?
They owe me!

The first few posts of this thread are incredibly worrying... I will now go and read the whole thing.

I wonder where Xenia is - hasn't she always been a big advocate of the UC.

I don't live in the US.

Great minds Kalskirata

I want a healthy stress free life too! Where can I get one? Does it come with a guarantee that i'll never have a piano dropped on me whilst i'm out pounding the pavement? Can I also get an app that can scan potential partners/bosses for arseholery? How much is a crystal ball that can warn me about that drunk driver mounting the pavement i'm pounding? It sounds great!