To be seriously worried the new govt are looking at cutting child benefit...

[cherrymama]

to 'middle class' families?What does that mean?We both work but have four kids and losing that income will seriously affect us...so please tell me IABU and that it won't happen!

I agree MrsSchadenfreude. I would love to work school hours and no hols but the mean old nhs won't let me. Therefore I have to pay for childcare like most other working mums I know.

'mrsS how did you pay the bills and pay for food out of £28?

OUr bills come to hundreds each month'

Debt, probably.

If you choose to become a SAHM/D, and rely on CB as "your" income, you really need to sort out your family finances and make them "joint".

And what if your job doesn't pay enough to cover the childcare?

Not everyone can waltz into an upper £20s job. Many people can only waltz into a £11K job. Childcare = £14-15K

Are people really saying that that makes sense?

PLus childcare = more if you have more kids, obviously.

ISNT - I didn't - virtually all of DH's money went on bills and food (he was earning less than me). We were very good at budgeting - shopped only at Lidl, and in the market and in local shops. I don't think either of us had any new clothes during that period, and all of the DDs' clothes were either hand me downs or from charity shops. Bills were paid first, then food/nappies and clothes.

I also worked shifts (4 pm till midnight) for a while, which worked quite well.

The Guardian article just says that this is one of the proposal drawn up by the civil servants in the Treasury department. These proposals would be presented to whichever Government was in power today, Labour, Tory, Rainbow, minority, majority or coalition. Thats is the role of the civil service - to ensure that there is someone who is keeping any eye of the overall picture and can present a range of options to the Government - thankfully, as I suspect that the newly appointed Libdem ministers never really thought that they would be in that position. Phasing out or means testing child benefit is always on the list. This is not a Tory policy, just one of the options that the supposedly non-political civil servants are presenting to the newly appointed Government.

I think child benefit should be mean tested. The wealthy don't need it, do they?

Though I do wonder how many in top tax bracket claim it? I don't tbh, I don't need it - after ds1 was born, we did need it and I claimed it then. Now, I don't.

So if they think they are going to get money from this - I worry that they aren't going for top tax earners, but for those in the middle where it WILL make a huge difference.

We need to find out what 'middle class' means, joint income of 50 doesn't sound like a decent mean to me

We have a combined income of £43K. We manage ok on that, it's tight sometimes but we're not poverty stricken by any means. We don't claim TC's - the hassle/paperwork isn't worth it for the £30 a month or so we'd get and we could probably cope without CB. I really can't understand why anyone earning in the region of £50K should be relying on state handouts.

We have a huge budget deficit (thanks Gordon). this needs sorting. We also need to keep our hospitals and schools open. I'd rather see TC's and CB being capped at 40K than nurses losing their jobs.

In that article it actually says that the treasury had been investigating cuts including looking at eligibility for benefits for months.

So not the cuts aren't just because the Tories are in.

They are cuts borne out of necessity. And they have ringfenced the NHS budget.

We have to accept that as a nation we are currently financially fucked. If we are going to have a stable economy for our children to grow and prosper in we need to start considering parsimony.

How many of you complaining about the cuts are actually living in poverty?
I know there are a couple on this thread who are in a difficult financial situation but for the most part people can afford the cuts if they lessen their expactations.

We are not entitled to foreign holidays, games consoles, a mortgage on a home in what we perceive to be a decent area as a matter of course,they are all things that most of us have come to expect.

Perhaps it would be good for more of us to holidy at home (more money for the economy), to accept that it is ok to rent (if rentals increase it could bring about far more long term lets)and to accept that we don't need to buy new all the time. (better for the environment if we used more second-hand goods, mended rather than replaced etc).

I think that a different way of life is on the horizon and I don't think it is all bad. Not easy, painful in fact at times but not all bad in the long run.

'And what if your job doesn't pay enough to cover the childcare?

Not everyone can waltz into an upper £20s job. Many people can only waltz into a £11K job. Childcare = £14-15K

Are people really saying that that makes sense? '

Then you may have to do with DH and I had to do a few years back and will have to do here soon: one of you works a day job and the other has to get a job in an industry like hotel/tourism, restaurant, retail or care where you can work evenings, weekends and nights.

Or you have to work your shifts round each other if you're both in industries like this.

And then go to OU or distance learning to get skills to get a better paying job.

Joy!

Am not looking forward to this.

But that's just too bad, sadly.

expat that is a ridiculous lifestyle, paying all of your outgoings from credit.

Surely there must have been the option of moving to a cheaper/smaller house or something

Why work if it means racking up £1000s of debt when you could look after the kids yourself and be debt free?

I mean there comes a point where you have to make sacrifices, and putting your career on the backburner in order not to get into mind-blowing debt would be one of them for me.

Our household income is comfortably over £50k with 2 dc. We could survive without CB without having to make lifestyle changes so I wouldn't kick up a fuss if it was taken from me.

Thanks MrsS I was wondering about that too.

Shift work does seem to be the thing, and it simply isn't an option for most lone parents.

Well, lucky for you, MrsS with your subsidised childcare. I will get zero help with childcare so if I go back to work full-time, I will be expected to pay, out of my own pocket, for childcare for the million weeks of school holiday and the hours after school. Whatever I earn in salary will go straight back out again in childcare

So really, I'll be working to pay for someone else to look after my child and not seeing any financial benefit for it. Sounds like a fair deal.

Oh right mrsS

Your post seemed to be saying something different. You mean you had £28 spending money left over, all food and bills were taken care of.

EIS - I've never been in debt. We were lucky in that we had enough to pay the bills, but no more.

ISNT - I didn't "walk into" a high earning job (think I was on about 23K then) - it was my career, so I had worked my way up to that.

'expat that is a ridiculous lifestyle, paying all of your outgoings from credit.'

I was talking about MrsShaden. Someone asked how she paid food and bills out of £28, so I responded that maybe she got into debt.

Cupcakes it's so that you and your childcare provider are both paying taxes which wouldn't come in otherwise...

As an aside, for all of you worried about making ends meet on maternity leave, if you're paying a mortgage have you asked your mortgage lender if you can have a payment holiday? Lots of them do this but don't really advertise it.

My mortgage lender (Halifax) lets you have up to six months as a mortgage holiday (i.e. you don't pay) for particular things - including maternity.

Just thought I'd mention it as I only found out by accident and I don't know how we would have coped otherwise.

itsmeolord - I think you'll find that the NHS budget will not be ring-fenced. 'Efficiency savings' are going to come in many guises. Oh yes.

I never said you did walk into a high paying job.

That was in response to all the people saying "go out and get a job then"

That if the job is paying £11K and childcare is at least £13K then it's just not on the cards.

Expat it turns out mrsS's post didn't mean what it seemed to be saying after all.

The answer is obviously, as expat says, for one partner to work days and the other to work nights. There are hospital cleaning jobs, jobs in hotels, that sort of thing. office cleaning as well. Loads when you think about it.

Personally I think it's bad they we should be creating a society where people in relationships have to work like that, but there you have it.

You would get zero help because your household income is above the threshold to receive help.
Therefore you don't actually need it.

Children grow up by the way and the need for childcare becomes less.

My dd has been looked after by childminders since she was 5 months old. She is will be ten this summer. At present I only have three days a week before and after school care, I have flexible working which allows me to do the school run the other two days and with the savings I make from that I will use a local holiday club for the extra two days a week in the holidays.

From next summer I won't need a childminder at all and we will use holiday camps for half-terms and summer holidays as she will be at secondary school

The first few years were pretty dire but that's part of having young children. They cost money.

I had subsidised childcare for two years (I think). It was still costing me over £1000 a month. I've had no help since the smallest was about 2. But as I progressed in my career, it was easier to afford. Easier, but not easy. And I do think the cost of childcare in this country is insane.

Expat - We did similar at one point. When DS1 was small I worked 8.30am-4.30pm and DH worked 5.30pm - 1.30am. It was tough but after 2 years my career had moved forward enough to allow DH to reduce his hours (I am the bigger earner). A couple of years on DH does the bulk of the childcare for DS2 and I work slightly longer hours than I did before.