IMPORTANT. To ask if MNers are aware of this re Universal credit&SAHP’s?

[UnsolicitedCockPics]

So up til now on tax credits one parent can stay home while the other parent works.
And for almost 20 years it’s been seen as completely acceptable

An example is a family with 3 dc
The FT working parent earns approx £26,000. The SAHP receives approx £100 a week in tax credits

Not only on Universal credit will that amount be much less (approx 30% iirc) but the previously SAHP will be made to attend the job centre and job search as a condition to receive Universal credit

The aim is so NOBODY is on “benefits”

There seems to be an assumption from the general public that this will only affect people not in work. THAT IS NOT THE CASE

[Rufusthebewilderedreindeer]

Thank you for replying unsolicited

I say if i am reporting as i like to be open about it, i know some people dont feel the same way

[Rufusthebewilderedreindeer]

Just thought id point that out in case any of your posts go and you think its me

[happinessiseggshaped]

Yep. All you tax payers are subsidising me by a shocking £10 a month in CTC. And the standard child benefit for 2 kids. I claim that too.

My last job, between DCs, was a part time school support post. I am a qualified teacher, the other two ladies had relevant professional qualifications and PhDs. Employers know they can pay peanuts for school hours jobs, which in turn means they don't cover the costs of childcare.

(I have a plan btw, I volunteer about 20 hours a week and I'm back to uni, incase anyone was worried about the tax payers continuing to have to pay me that £10 a month long term!)

[abacucat]

ferrier I agree. I fundamentally disagree with the idea that all parents should be forced to put tiny children in childcare, rather than raise them themselves.

[RomanyRoots]

Hey, what's the pick on xenia for.
I don't see eye to eye with many of her views, but you don't know her circumstance.
I know she's been in the position where she was there for her work and breast feeding twins from her office. The nanny brought them to her to feed.
She is an inspiration to career women everywhere.

I'm not a career woman and believed my role was with my children, claiming tax credits

[UnsolicitedCockPics]

Ferrier, yes good point, people should have the choice

[LakieLady]

So you are saying working tax payers should pay other people not to work?

Not necessarily. But the money paid out in subsidising childcare, and reimbursing low-paid parents for the money it costs them, isn't going to save a significant amount imo.

I also think there are benefits to children in having a parent at home at the end of the school day. I'm uncomfortable with the idea of children as young as 4 being away from home from 8-6.

Term-time, school-hours only work is in short supply in many areas.

[AuntBeastie]

I actually think this is reasonable. Not every family can afford for one parent to be a SAHP and the purpose of benefits isn’t to fund people who wish to do so. If you can work, you should - unless you have a partner who will support you in not doing so.

[UnsolicitedCockPics]

romany she is absolutely zero inspiration to me and I am a business woman. And imo not much about her is inspirational to anyone

[abacucat]

I have to admit I judge anyone who would leave their 2 week old baby with a nanny.

[UnsolicitedCockPics]

Me too abacucat 😔😔 poor little mite

[AuntBeastie]

I also think we should be focusing our efforts on asking why wages are so low that the Government has to subsidise people to live. If corporations had to pay an actual living wage that was enough to raise a family on, this wouldn’t be an issue.

[UnsolicitedCockPics]

No worries rufus

[RomanyRoots]

Well, there are plenty on here who she has inspired, there was a threadful once.
I don't agree with her views at all, always been a sahm, not favourable to her at all
However, I've read so many posts about her life with her children to know that she didn't leave them at a few weeks, they were with her at home and cared for by a nanny.
It's not fair or right to say she wasn't.
We can't all be top lawyers, or write a best seller as she advised a few posters.

[UnsolicitedCockPics]

auntbeastie you make a very good point there. Wages are low and living costs are high. Tax credits bridge that gap to a certain extent but yes I agree that employers should pay more

[Elementtree]

Yes, I do think Xenia is outrageously optimistic and niavr about the ability of anyone to become a gazillionaire off the back of hard work and uncompromising focus.

But, despite my own self interest and left leaning politics, I think she is interesting and I don't think she is mean to individual posters.

[ferrier]

it does feel shit that because my DH is on a crap income I won't get to spend as much time with my kids.

But that's not an entitlement is it? We need to stop thinking this way and start thinking about the nuts and bolts of what we can afford and what we can't, or it just sounds like whinging

Maybe we should be thinking about what is best for the children. Is it really best that they see their parent(s) for so few hours on working days? Or that their parents see virtually nothing of each other as they juggle the childcare between them? It doesn't sit well with me.

[RomanyRoots]

We aren't going to get anywhere until people stop moaning about tax payers paying for people to stay at home.
It isn't a luxury to care for the children you have, it should be a luxury to be able to afford for somebody else to look after them.
If you work and can afford childcare then you are lucky and shouldn't complain about the poor people who wouldn't even break even or be out of pocket working.
Personally, I'm making use of any loopholes I find to enable me to sah for the next 4 or so years.
After that I wouldn't qualify anymore.
You make your choices from the situation you have, or you change your situation.

[Xenia]

It is an interesting issue, isn't it? In a free society women (and men but it is always women who get judged or blamed of course as it is a sexist society) have choices. Although they do say a woman's place is in the wrong...... since Eve was blamed in the garden of Eden.

Some women think it is morally wrong or damaging if you go back to work quickly (but not presumably their husband as he sports a penis and is a God who does not wrong). People can ask my adult children their views (in fact I think they were asked a few years ago in a newspaper article and were perfectly happy about it) as can people ask children of mothers and fathers who don't work.

The bottom line is if your baby is used to its father, mother and nanny or nursery worker or childminder or granny from 2 weeks that is hugely easier for it than a massive wrench at 1 year or at age 4 when it goes to school. If you are breastfeeding through the night and can express at work which I did with the older chidlren (younger 2 as correctly said above I was working for myself from home by then and our daily nanny brought them to me to feed as needed which is easier than expressing) that's a lot of contact and cuddling and bonding.

I am scanning my old diaries at the moment and am currently on 1987. Child 1 is 2 and child 2 is 6 months old and I have just stopped expressing a work although I am directly breastfeeding in the night and at weekends/holidays etc and it becomes easier as she is eating stuff like banana - sweet little thing. It's nice to have a daily record of those times. The diary doesn't feel unbonded with the baby at all as far as I can see.

Most of all small children like set routines and happy parents. If you can manage that whatever your set up you are half way there to a good set up whatever that might be. One thing is for sure - they don't remember later whether yuou changed 10 or 2 nappies a day but they certainly appreciate it if you can buy them an iphone and fund them at university which women who never work can find hard to do.

[abacucat]

Okay sorry you were working from home. Very different then.

[Conseulabananahammock]

Surely though if child is 4 you can go out to work? Instead of claiming benefits while your children are at school. Finally common sense prevails.

[elliejjtiny]

I think it's all very well saying that carers won't be affected but so many people who need carers are having their disability benefits taken away so now there are an awful lot of people who are Sahm's to school age children and also unofficially caring as well. I also think that if employers were made to pay their staff a living wage there would be a lot less people on tax credits and universal credit.

[hurricanefloss]

We don't claim any benefits at all. So am I allowed to bitch now?

You can bitch if you want to but why would you You were fortunate to have an employer that would facilitate part time work. Many don't. Your DH has the flexibility to do drop offs. Many don't. Don't get too smug about your own good fortune - it might run out and then you'd wish there was a safety net for children.

And I believe to be a net tax payer you need to earn £40k+ so a woman leaving her DC to be cared for by a NMW childcare worker whilst she herself works for a lowish wage isn't really contributing to the economy.

[BehemothPullsThePeasantsPlough]

I don’t think there’s ever been a time at which a single full time minimum wage/low skilled manual worker could comfortably support a family of two adults and two or more children. A family like that has almost always required either both adults to work or needed state/charitable help or really struggled to make ends meet. In crude supply and demand terms you’d say that’s because there are always so many workers who don’t need to support a family of four on that wage, so are reasonably happy with minimum wage rates.

[RomanyRoots]

But then somebody else is looking after your children, that's ridiculous.
Why pay somebody else when you can do it yourself for free.
Who was it who said we are becoming a nation of childcare workers?they were right.

Xenia.
Sorry love, but I don't agree it's about iphones and paying for uni, the latter isn't cost efficient anymore anyway.
It's about the times they remember, a parent being there for them, not both parents almost absent from their childhoods.
Not saying you were like that