if you voted for the Tories, you should feel personally responsible when you see homeless people on the streets ...

[aufaniae]

...once their policies start to bite.

They want to removing housing benefit for under 25s, many of whom have children. Just one of their policies which will drive people into homelessness.

I thought this was meant to be a civilised country. If the safety net is removed, many people including children will fall through it, some of them ending up on the streets.

How can anyone support that?

Pumpkin - no your kids shouldn't have to suffer but if they do it is YOUR fault, not he fault of society. YOU are the one who should have thought about things before having yet more children.

I was thinking the same londonone, I'd like a bit of a refund myself, then I could have 4 dcs (which I'd actually quite like) instead of just sticking at the two I know I can subsidise until they're also on the straight and narrow.

london-say you were made redundant Tomorrow and you also found out the same day you were 24weeks pregnant (can happen) would you claim benefits or let your kids starve ?

Aufanie - what is our solution. Higher taxes all round?

Your not our

But my dh earned a decent salary when we had them so what do you mean couldn't afford them and should have stuck at two?
In that case why did you have TWO if you feel that way ?

Lol pumpkin, is tha really he best you can come up with, that people in his situation are there because none of them realised they were pregnant until they were 24 weeks!

Thing is they have already been born and my dh has been made redundant, so your saying i shouldn't accept any benefits and my children should all starve?

No, I think london, and I, for that matter, would say that it's your (and your dh's) job to get youselves out of any tricky situation you and therefore you children may be in, instead of relying on the governement to bail you out.

As someone somewhere said, life's just not like that. . . .

If your DH was on a decent enough salary to support his kids, you wouldn't have been claiming tax credits. Or did you not need them?

London-why are you not picking on long term out of work ? They are the true problem as they don't want to work.
My dh and i have applied for 30 jobs so its not as if we are not trying but of course its all my fault bla bla

Like I said I have no issue with unemployment benefit as a temporary measure. Do you not think your DH willnind work again?

Nobody is saying a person shouldn't claim benefits they are entitled to. But shouldn't expect more benefits if they carry on having more children. An employed person doesn't get a rise every time they have a child. No matter if they are employed 1 hour a week or 60 hours a week. If one person does the same job as another they don't get more money because they have more children. They have to budget with what they have.

auf I think londonone summed it up pretty well. It would be the parents fault if kids were made homeless. I don't understand why you are struggling with this to be honest

No long term out of work shouldn't be having additional kids either

Pumpkin, would you be financially better off now if ou had fewer children?

Im hoping so london and im hoping its soon

When you say homeless do you actually mean on the streets in doorways? I am not being flippant but am interested if you think there are degrees of homelessness. Even under Thatcher (where it all started apparently) I don't remember seeing families living out on the streets begging for food. I do remember several of my friends having to live in a B and B when I was a kid because their homes had been repossessed. Roof over heads or no roof over heads?

I voted conservative. I do think that something needed to be done about the welfare system.

In answer to that yes because i would be able to work fulltime

Well then pumpkin you have just handed yourself on a platter to london you should have stopped at two!

Why the hell should Tory voters feel personally responsible? There are loads of things the labour gov did that i found quite reprehensible, i dont hold the voters personally responsible. Some of these threads leave me

"....are there no workhouses"?

theodorakis under Thatcher I do remember families in the streets.

One of the saddest things I've ever seen was a mother and two children sitting on a bench in Dalston. They looked really scruffy, as if they'd been sleeping in the same clothes for weeks or months. The mother was holding her head in her hands apparently in despair. The daughter (about 12 I'd say) was rooting through the bin, and found a half-eaten hamburger which she offered to her mum to cheer her up. It was obvious she was used to doing this.

It was absolutely heartbreaking.

In that case why did you have TWO if you feel that way ?

If that was aimed at me, because I know I could cover two (or dh and I could between us) for almost anything life throws at them.

Food, housing, holidays, clothes, toys, if necessary school fees and private healthcare, university, gap years etc.

If my boys are offered the chances I was when I was younger I want them to be able to take them without quite as much of the hard graft. For example, I had to work really hard (more 4ams) to save up enough to fly out to New York to do my industrial placement whilst at university. I want to be able to get my cheque book out like the parents of the other kids I went with, and them not to have to worry about where every cent was going like me.

I had to give up the chance to do a ski season as a chalet girl because I was worried about money. Now, by now I'm sure you're all frothing and about to tell me that not everyone has to make decisions like that they're more worried about eating. But, why should kids be denied opportunities that broaden horizons? if they came my way as the poorest of the poor anyone could be in the position I was.

Life is for LIVING, not eeking out some sad existence wearing a hair shirt. My sons will hopefully see that.

Yes of course fairy, because i really knew he was going to be made redundant many years ago....