Aibu to be shit scared of my own world being turned upside down

[FergusSingsTheBlues]

Just read this article in the guardian, www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/dec/16/educating-essex-school-kids-hungry

Left me v upset for everybody suffering and scared for the future of my family. I am about to go on maternity leave and dont intend to go back. This will be my second child snd i have a 100 mile commute a day so not possible although i earn a good salary. Our income will be halved, basically so it will he a big drop. We are stingy in some ways and wasteful in others but we try to be sensible.

Nobody forsees being unable to feed their own kids, im really worried in case my husband and i are being overly complacent in thinking we can afford for me not to work. We dont have any credit cards or personal debt, have a lowish mortgage and are still managing to save pension money. Am i right in thinking that loss of income, increase in rents, and reduction in benefits is the cause behind all this misery or is there something else we are not considering before i hand in my notice? If you are suddenly struggling, what changed? I'm feeling really insecure. Does anybody else feel like this?

I feel exactly like you, unfortunately neither me or DP are working at the moment however we are both desperately trying for one of us to find a full time job.

It's really tough, people go on about how living off benefits is easy and about all the feckless scrounges but it's so difficult in reality, we have to buy basic's in everything.

I think all we can do is work hard to make the future better rather than spend time worrying its going to get worse.

Is there anyway you could get a part time job after maternity leave? So that you still have a little extra income coming in.

Yea, ive decided to try and go back to work...i know it wont be easy getting another job though. I was on dole for a while about ten years ago and found the juggling exhausting not to mention being scared of missing appointments and having it taken off me. Maybe this is why im so sared.