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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be hacked off that well off families are now getting CB,help with childcare and now free school meals when those on a lot less are losing CB?

236 replies

Retropear · 17/09/2013 19:49

I thought it was necessary to take CB off those on 50k so why are those on a lot more getting yet more money given to them?

It's not fair.

OP posts:
maddymoo25 · 17/09/2013 21:50

I don't really understand people who say a stahp with oh working earning 50 k doesn't get help with childcare , why should they lol

ReallyTired · 17/09/2013 22:01

"I don't really understand people who say a stahp with oh working earning 50 k doesn't get help with childcare , why should they lol"

I think that its important to differentiate between childcare and pre school education. The 15 hours a week that a 3 year old gets is not childcare if you have to use over 5 days.

A high quality nursery education really improves a child's life chances. Surely all children should have a right to a pre school education whether their parents work or not. It is nothing to do with giving SAHMs a break, but giving the child the best start in life.

I feel there is a case for universal pre school education, but not universal free childcare. There is a huge difference. If there is evidence that 2 year olds significantly benefit from pre school education then it may make financial sense to have 15 hours a week for more two year olds. (My children are too old to benefit from such a proposal!)

maddymoo25 · 17/09/2013 22:07

I understànd the need for the 15 hrs and people who get that are lucky , coz I wish I gt 15 hrs free lol but surely if all children were in pre school then a parent should work anyway x

ihategeorgeosborne · 17/09/2013 22:10

I just don't understand why we were told that CB had to be cut for single income families on 50k to help with the deficit. It is meant to produce a saving of 2billion. I suspect the reality of this will be much lower though when you factor in the people who won't self-assess, the amount of money used to trace these people and the people who will pay extra into pensions to not lose CB. Now we have this FSM policy costing £500,000 and the marriage tax break costing the same. Would it have not been more economically viable to have kept CB universal? I speak as someone who has lost 2.5k in CB for 3dc. I will however benefit from the marriage tax break and FSM for dc3. I would much rather have kept my CB though Hmm

ReallyTired · 17/09/2013 22:13

"I understànd the need for the 15 hrs and people who get that are lucky , coz I wish I gt 15 hrs free lol but surely if all children were in pre school then a parent should work anyway x!"

A pre school session is only 3 hours long. There aren't many jobs that can be done in such a short period of time when you include commuting costs.

Anyway its not about the parents. It is about the kids!

maddymoo25 · 17/09/2013 22:16

Really I'm not talking about thge 15 free hours I agree with them , I'm talking about giving more help like they do to working parents for childcare is not fair . Which people feel they should be entitled to.

eretrew · 17/09/2013 22:20

YANBU its a ridiculous policy which we can ill-afford.

Nerfmother · 17/09/2013 22:31

Hmm glad I'm not alone in fuming over the CB. But I do think free school meals for all is fab. Sadly mine are ks2 so we've lost 4 kids ' worth of CB and won't benefit from this. And ds is disabled so god help him if the Tories stay in charge.
vote labour

williaminajetfighter · 17/09/2013 22:39

It's probably not fair but CB is a pretty archaic idea that was originally set up to encourage/reward child rearing at a time when the population needed it.

I don't believe in it in principle. I think tax credits or free child care are more helpful. The govt taxing people then giving them lumps of money is just odd. I just think that the money could be better spent in other ways.

And it's meant to support children not to be a 'lifeline' for women in bad domestic situations as others have intimated above. £81/month won't solve those kind of problems.

Scaredycat3000 · 17/09/2013 23:04

Honestly this is bollocks. When the 50k thing came in in January it didn't even regester with me, it wasn't relivent for us. Things surprisingly changed for the better, quite alot. It has also cost us quite alot of money to get here. DP got a letter this week. We no longer should be reciving CB, infact we must now owe them. I hope they don't want the money back to quickly. DS1 started school this September, I decided on packed lunches, then I saw the menu. It's arwful, it's far from balanced, I would never feed a child like that. This week was three roast dinners, fish and chips and I forget the fifth. Puddings were mostly sponge based with custard.
And nice to know that a poster thinks you only work hard if you go out to work. I do the hard work, DP sits on his bum all day getting paid.

Scaredycat3000 · 17/09/2013 23:06

Oh forgot, this 3 years of free meals will set them up for life. How exactly? Why not put the money into educating children, they could call it home economics! Give a man a fish..................

ReallyTired · 17/09/2013 23:16

"Really I'm not talking about thge 15 free hours I agree with them , I'm talking about giving more help like they do to working parents for childcare is not fair . Which people feel they should be entitled to."

I agree with you. However I feel that the state shouldn't be paying for anyone's childcare beyond the basic 15 hours of pre school eduation. Either you look after your own kids or you work and pay someone else to do it. I don't see why the tax payer should pick up the tab except in exceptional circumstances.

Nerfmother I would like to see universal free school meals extended to older children, but this is a start.

Nerfmother · 17/09/2013 23:20

Really,me too. I argued for this on a similar thread. I think in a recession, age of food banks, job losses etc you can't guess who can afford something and who cant.

maddymoo25 · 17/09/2013 23:23

Really, I get help with childcare lol but I have a morgage etc and recently a lone parent . So I have to work but if I didn't get help I couldn't survive. I believe that everyone is entitled to make a choice but some not all but some stahm who have chosen that as s path believe they are entitled and working people not. Its not going to hzrm my child if some rich kid get a free meal lol

ReallyTired · 17/09/2013 23:36

"Really, I get help with childcare lol but I have a morgage etc and recently a lone parent ."

I would classify that as exceptional circumstances, but not every working family needs support. It is cheaper to keep you in work than to have you on income support.

Infact childcare support is spread so thinly it doesn't help those who need it most. There is zero reason for subsidizing childcare of a two parent family who both earn 30K as the present voucher system does.

sashh · 18/09/2013 05:46

Free school dinners for all has been proved to

Increase attainment
Increase ability to concentrate
Children entitled to free school meals take them up when they were too embarrassed to before
improve behaviour

CB has not been proved to do any of these things, and I do agree it is unfair the way it has been axed on one income.

I don't have children, but due to quite a few medical issues I am and will rely on there being well qualified health care professionals.

Just one child benefiting from this and becoming a nurse/doctor/physio/tech/pharmacist - delete or add your own, is worth anything I have to pay in extra taxes.

KatyPutTheCuttleOn · 18/09/2013 05:59

I agree with some of the comments about the middle being squeezed, but consider the situation of the families with one parent working as many hours as they can, on minimum wage and struggling to bring up a child/children alone? What they are getting is being squeezed by proposed reductions in tax credits, reduced hours of work due to the economy and no access to FSM because of WFTC. For those families, being on 40k-60k would be a massive improvement on their lives and probably one they could never dream of - they would find it hard to stomach the complaints of financial struggles for those fortunate families.

TiredFeet · 18/09/2013 06:23

I agree it is a weird initiative and the money could be better spent

However it is entitled to whinge about loss of benefits if you are earning over 50k. My sil is always whinging about how unfair it is and how she is 'worse off' than me because her dh earns 60k and she doesn't work. Ffs my dh earns 40k and I earn 20k but after childcare (x2 soon) what I actually take home is only a few hundred pounds a month (much needed, and the only reason I take home anything is because dh works at least one day at the weekend so he can do some of the childcare). So what we have in our pockets is a lot less and we rarely even get a day at the weekend together. Plus and this is the point she (and many) is missing, she could choose to work too!!! So of course she is better off, she has options to earn more but she chooses to stay at home. I don't have a choice, we both have to work (although I am more fortunate than some as we can afford for me to go part time).

Morloth · 18/09/2013 06:41

I think universal FSM is a good idea (wish we had it here).

Just because a family has money doesn't mean they are spending it on feeding their kids.

Dunno enough about CB to comment.

CreatureRetorts · 18/09/2013 06:44

I think we can afford it.

We can afford to throw billions at high speed railway lines, at universal credit and potential wars. There is money there.

This is about priorities. If we truely had no money which is a fucking lie then why did David Cameron try and get military action in Syria?

If there's no money, why did the Tories decide to spend, yes spend billions on the NHS reorganisation?

If you really have no money, then you cannot afford to do these things.

There is money. It's just about prioritising what is important. The Tories like wars, big white elephants and destroying the NHS. Instead then could invest in our future population ie children but they choose not to.

BikeRunSki · 18/09/2013 07:06

A well off family does not necessarily spend it' s income on pre- school education or a decent meal. Universal, free, pre- school education and school meals address this. Every child matters, regardless of their parents' income.

FWIW, dh and I both work, neither us earn anything near £40k. We get cb, and ds got his 15 hrs preschool, has just started Reception. DdIi too young. FSM next year will make a massive difference to us.

Gracie990 · 18/09/2013 07:17

I would much rarther have my cb back. ( it was a universal CREDIT, not a benefit)

School meals are awful, not balanced and use cheap ingredients. Stodgy puddings, chips etc.

I want to see what is eaten and know what goes into a lunch.

Bunch of idiots, I will vote with my feet.

sydlexic · 18/09/2013 07:23

If CB is paid it can be spent on anything. This way they have decided it will be spent on food and they have decided what food. Help control obeisity which is costing the NHS millions. Ensure every child gets fed. Not the worst idea they ever had but does seem a waste to those that don't need it.

Gracie990 · 18/09/2013 07:26

^^ it could be spent on quality food. Sponge puddings, cheap meat, pies.

The teacher commented to my son that his lunches are better than hers.

Gracie990 · 18/09/2013 07:27

:-) obviously I ment not on..

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