to be getting a bit fed up with squeezed middle bashing.

[rosieposey78]

Ie those single income families with an income of 50 to 60k who are apparently moaning about the loss of £20 per week. If that is a problem they have made wrong financial choices or are bad with money etc etc.
Well we are almost a single income family who has lost child benefit. Some £50 per week. No proble with that. We just have to be a bit careful but we can cope. We do however pay loads on fuel. Dh has long commute and live in fairly expensive area so no we are not rich and do not avoid paying our dues. We opted out of child benefit.

poverty must be all relative

my friend whose dh earns 70k plus claims they don't have a good income, claims its average

I told her she's living in cloud cuckoo land

we are on 25k joint, to me anything over 30k is a lot and moaning about losing cb is precious....I know its fundamentally unfair the way its worked out, but to say you cant live without it just sounds daft.

And yet you can't manage to fund a sahp without a state benefit?

Retropear makes a good point. These threads always have someone stating that two working parents 'need' the CB more as they have childcare costs. All parents have costs! Either childcare or sacrificing a salary. Either people should have to plan in advance for both situations or they shouldn't. Why is one always seen as 'better' than the other? Surely different arrangements suit different families.

Would you say that in real life thecatfromjapan?

Nobody likes to lose money - no matter what they earn. Many people pay a LOT in taxes and for most, child benefit was the only thing they got back - even though they were paying for it anyway and more besides.

Frankly if you are on 50/60k and are struggling to afford school meals for your children, then you need to look at your budget. Really.

Seriously, how much of a muppet must you be to sit there and take disabled people being completely shafted, the working poor being screwed and pretty much everyone being completely fucked by the "new tithing" of the masses by the very rich - through property [rents and mortgages] and energy - just because the "middle classes" are also taking a bit of a kicking?

That's what it is - a divide and rule, a smoke-screen.

Spend your energy being a twat on the internet, and resenting anyone you think is slightly less fucked-over than you. But don't try building solidarity and an anger that is directed somewhere more legitimate.

I think the thing that bugs me most is that cb was a payment that went to women-with-children.

I'm not an idiot. I'm cold because of modern capitalism, which siphons all that money away from me and my husband through insane and inflated property prices. And energy bills. And the decrease in public goods. CB is relatively small compared to the fucking fortune that we seem to willingly hand over. And is essentially a kind of crazy tithe that we pay to the rich. I can't think of another way to conceptualise it.

But it totally pisses me off that - with one piece of shitty, disingenuous footwork - a female benefit was just disappeared.

And - what a surprise - you tolerate that and your NHS will be next ...

You can't generalise like that ubik - it isn't a huge amount of money

Well said thecatfromjapan.

The problem is that people are so apathetic these days. Everybody complains, everybody blames someone else and nobody does anything about it. Nobody writes to their MP, nobody demonstrates, the people who get exasperated and try to stand for politics get made into a joke by the media and the powers that be get away with whatever they want.

Nothing will change as long as people think a post on Facebook is a political protest

ubik that's a crap statement.

carolmillien Yes. I would. To be absolutely honest, if someone said that to me in RL, I would almost certainly say a great deal more than that.

But it wouldn't happen.

Because people don't say that sort of thing in RL.

They don's say stuff like that in RL because a. You would have to be seriously off-kilter in your social interactions to say such a thing b. You know that the reaction you will get will range from (i) being completely socially frozen-out by the person you have said that to, to (ii) violence - seriously: people hit people for rudeness of that magnitude.

It is rude/malicious/inane/goady/stupid: any or all of these.

Why's it crap? Our income is much less than that and we afford 2 school meals +childcare for the third child.

Mind you our energy costs have just gone up 8 per cent so no central heating for us this winter.

Round of applause ubik really wish matters could see out

We can manage bu feel it,who wouldn't?

Good post cat

comewithwine = i think you may have had too much...

Struggling to pay school meals for your children is a terrible state of affairs - but with a good income like that, there must be some room for manoeuvre.

Don't kid yourself, thecatfromjapan - you haven't even got the balls to actually address me on here, never mind in real life. Btw, if losing £20 a week off your £50k+ income really means that you don't have enough money to turn the heating on, then I suggest that you do as I do and have a little wank (crying is optional) each time you post - not only will it warm you up, but you get that lasting afterglow as well.

ubik, its already been said up thread its all dependent on where you live, mortgage, rent etc.. In some areas in will be seen as a lot, in others its just not, so many different reasons, scenarios etc

It cant be generalised.

It's the unfairness of it and stupidity that gets my goat.

It is unfair that couples with double income are still given CB but single income families are not.

But - is this really causing hardship for people in that income bracket? Really? Even in oh-so-dreadful London? I'm sceptical.

£20 a week is £20 a week - it pays for stuff and you get used to it. Some miss it more than others and some people might still need it - even if under the rules they are no longer entitled to it.

If 50 is wealthy well um so is 80k.Sooooooo either get rid of it for both(and help with childcare) or give it back.The unfairness and stupidity of it is just mind boggling.

I've read the mn guidelines Wallison.

That last post was a personal attack, however.

And what Cat said.