To think people who CHOOSE to be SAHPs should not claim income related benefits

[DixieWest]

I wholeheartedly support benefits for SAHPs and believe they should be able to live adequately without working if they can't work. When I say can't work I mean when one of their children is SEN, they'd have less money after childcare than they would claiming benefits, they are disabled etc.

What really annoys me is the following situation:

Husband earns 35k, wife earns 25k, they have a baby and wife decides to stay at home and therefore is able to claim 5k in tax credits.

They are just example figures as I don't know how much tax credits realistically are.

IMO if you choose to be a SAHP then you foot the bill.

I will repeat I have no issue with those who need to as they'd be worse off working. Do have an issue with those who'd be "slightly better off" working, don't and still claim. AIBU?

What about a thread like that? The poster will find out sharpish that the threshold for tax credits is lower tha £40k.

Tax credits cut-off is £26k, unless BOTH parents are working minimum 16 hours a week when they may get some help towards childcare costs.

Do some research before you make yourself sound like a twat!

I think people should make whatever choices make sense for them and make full use of our wonderful welfare state.

I think being a SAHP is a choice of occupation that is valuable for our society and if people are able to afford to use their time in this way because of tax credits, then that is fine.

I am getting a pain in my fucking face with the idea that we only support people when things BEFALL.

Should we reserve Child Benefit for children who can be proven to have been born of a contraceptive failure?

Lets spell things out sahp with a working partner do not qualify for income support. Sahp with a working partner do not qqualify for help with child care costs. Sahp with a working partner may get tax credits but only if the partner is on a very low wage. A sahp with a working partner may not even receive cb.

Sahp with a working partner get a lot less help than you think. Single parents are a completely different ball game entirely and you can't compare the two.

I think YABU. I chose to be a SAHM for 2.5 years after having DD and we were eligible for a small amount of child tax credit, so we claimed it. DH's wage at that time was between 18 and 23K, so hardly a fortune.

The tax credits enabled me to look after her whilst she was little, what on earth is wrong with that? I'm glad to live in a country which does put some importance on family, and as a taxpayer (again) I am happy to pay into that system and enable others to do the same if they so wish.

this

(That was for jacks post)

Middle earners can get TC but not much unless they have zillions of DC. YABU.

Why is it OK to get money for childcare etc but only if it isn't the parent doing it? Not all workers pay tax. Maybe families with a SAHP wouldn't need to claim if the cost of living hadn't gone up so much more than the paultry minimum wage.

Staying at home until your DC is 12 and can be left alone in the Holidays, should be a right!

(Wether it's Mum, Dad or a combination of both parents flexible child friendly jobs, all DCs should have a parent there when they want as well as need one)

That's what all children deserve!

Not just my DCs because they are lucky enough to have a Father who can make computers do back flips on a tight rope, but all DCs!

As well as your figures being completely out.

I know people who declare (to less close friends), that they are choosing to stay at home, whereas I know that would of liked to have gone back to work, but the cost of child are means one of them has to stay home.

As a society we should be supporting people to parent well, so if there are two people out if work and one doesn't jab young children, but the other does, surely you see that it makes sense to support the young parent to not be employed?

I can remember when the Tories was at the height of their campaign against Single Mums, yet every Single Mum I knew was getting up every day, caring for their children, attending education/training, looking after older relatives as well. We, as a society could not afford for every person to work, we couldn't afford the bill for social care, or provide employment for all.

Yet every Pub and Betting shop I walked past during the day, had the same unemployed able bodied men rolling in them at dinner time. Twenty years on, life hasn't changed for most if them.

It makes sense to support some groups of people to not be employed, it builds a better society, seeming as the wage levels and coat of housing are never going to be addressed.

Take a good look at what tax money is spent on, spending our tax money, in our own country on the people paying it in (we all pay tax), is a non issue, or problem.

YABU

^^what she said

If you chose to work then you should foot the bill for child care costs. Ie no child care element of tax credits.
Now of course I do not belive that but that is what you are saying right?

YABU to start a thread without basing your claims on facts...

"But then again I'm in the "don't have children you can't afford" camp."

For the majority of people living in the SE and other areas of high housing costs, that would mean not having children at all. Because most families in London claim some sort of benefit.

Would you be happy if only middle-class professional people on good incomes had children?

Maybe we could ensure this happens by organising mass sterilisations?

I guess your friend would have to pay out childcare if she went back. If 'd gone back to work, childcare would have cost more than my monthly salary.

Did she say that benefits would make up almost as much as her slalary or does she mean, childcare + commuting costs + CB= almost what she earns?

Star ball you are very lucky indeed. Your husband beinga high earner has enabled you to securely live as a sahm and provide a home for your family.

I'dlove to do similar but my husband has been made redundant and is unlikely now to earn above 22. Its just not possible. Life is so stressful.

THere's lots and lots of families without a high earning partner to support the choices of the mother (or the other way around).

I def don't agree that staying at home til your DC are 12 should be a right! You seriously thing someone that chooses to have say 3 kids, 3 years apart should be supported by the state for 20 years to stay at home? Obviously there are benefits to staying at home, but children of working parents aren't all deranged either. If you can afford to stay home great, if not, go to work. I'm not sure why everyone seems to think they are owed or entitled to everything. You're not.

you cant get benefits on 35k apart from child benefit your friend is chosing to give up work that isnt the same as what you initally asked, TBH i dont care if a parents choses to stay at home to look after their children and get some top up benefit

Child tax credits should be completely scrapped and childcare should be heavily subsidised through childcare providers.

That way everyone that contributes to the system benefits when they have children, and people won't choose to not bother working on the basis of their tax credits.

Working would pay.

Woowoo but why should my tax subsidise your childcare costs.

Yeah. Some people only spend all day running themselves ragged after little children and babies because they're so terribly terribly lazy...

To enable people to pay their own tax at a particularly expensive time of their lives.

I'd much rather my tax enabled people to work and pay their own tax than have it enable people to have children they can't feed, clothe and house without claiming benefits.

OH earns 27K; we get no tax credits at all as his income is deemed too high. I'm a SAHM and the only thing we qualify for is child benefit. I don't think someone in the situation you describe would be entitled to anything other than child benefit in that scenario OP.

OP, you have started a thread with bugger all knowledge and righteous indignation.

Husband on 35k means no income based tax credit top up. If your 'friend' wishes to leave work and be a sahp then that is her business and not yours.

Woowoo that is a very idiotic idea and doesn't take into account those who might well work fulltime but don't earn a living wage because the minimum wage is a crock of shite. Or do you believe that everyone earns £30k?