Please let me know if this would actually help parents?

[ordinaryhousewife]

We are always hearing about the BLACK HOLE in public funding but not often hearing about radical solutions If I am mad please feel free to let me know but picture this ( All of it please ) The Government stops Child benefit altogether, along with the supporting admin system. Remember I am talking only of the CHILD BENIFIT SYSTEM. They then make every Primary School in the UK open from 7 am to 7 pm 360 days per year. For families, the facilities would include, a FREE breakfast club before 9 am Free lunch cooked on the premises, and free after-school activities. With free tea club between 5 pm and 6.30 pm again cooked on the premises with parents welcome to eat with their children and siblings talking about their day etc. All remaining children are being collected by a designated responsible adult or parent by 7 pm having completed any homework. For the local community, it would mean jobs all at the living wage or more. All jobs would be permanent contracts ranging from PT to full-time. All Head Teachers would become the only ones responsible for overseeing Education matters between 9 am and 3 pm. With the Coordination Manager overseeing everything else the vast amount of New staff would coordinate 7 Days a week. Not, all parents may wish to take up everything on offer, and the holiday clubs would have to be booked in advance it would take a great shift in thinking from a Headteacher and their staff but primary schools could be a big part of ceasing child poverty improving the mental wellbeing of whole communities and integration would be greatly improved. Any parents not wanting to have their children take part in any out of Education activities at all would not be able to claim Child benefit from a system that no longer exists. There are many other benefits in place to financially help parents.

I would totally go for that.

This sounds awful. It would certainly not benefit children.

Do parents of under 5s get CB still?

You think the solution is for children to be in a school setting from 7am-7pm? That is not even remotely child centred and completely overlooks the fact that schools are educational institutions not child care solutions.

The idea of any child being in a school from 7am until 7pm is utterly horrific IMO

I agree.

Childcare is not parenting. Families need support to parent. Affordable childcare is only part of this. Focusing everything around school is really missing the point.

Childcare solutions for people who work more unusual hours like weekends or at night would be innovative but no idea if it would be financially viable.

I’d imagine that the kids who did 7 days a week, 12 hours a day are unlikely to have good mental health as they basically go home to sleep (many younger kids are asleep by 7pm ish) and would grow up not knowing their siblings. It sounds like a foster care lite - parents take their child home to shower and sleep every day.

Child benefit is the link to NI credits for parents who aren't in work. How would you ensure that parents who chose not to work for whatever reason still have their link to NI credits?

Great idea, they could also sew mail bags and make wooden toys during the long days.

Older childen could break rocks for road repairs.

What about the NI aspect of CB? What about the fact that for some DA victims, this is the only money they get?

And what about those over primary school age? Or those under primary age.

I am a single mum with a teen DS, who is eating for England at the moment. He easily eats twice what I do. He needs man size clothes and shoes (hello VAT).

I've only just got child benefit back after the 'earn £50k and you lose it' fiasco.

Please - Stop interfering !

Kids need more quality time with their parents, not less.

Urgh sounds horrendous

Big bag of 🌰

I wholeheartedly support state funded childcare. It would benefit both families and the economy.

However:

• would axing child benefit actually cover the cost of what you propose? I don't think it would touch the sides.

• not everyone needs or wants childcare. Child benefit for many families pays for food, shoes, swimming lessons etc. They would see no benefit to your proposed system.

• one of the aims of child benefit is to give abused women an income.

What happens to the children in secondary schools , CB is paid right through not just for primary aged children and I can’t see older children playing along with this suggestion .

God, this sounds horrendous, like some kind of communist dystopia.

No. The costs would be astronomical. I suggest child benefit for first two children only. Maintenance taken at source from partners wages and counted towards a benefit claim. So if not paid the entitlement to benefit would still apply. Prescription charges paid for only pensioners on pension credit. Pensioners to pay NI.

To control spending by cap child benefit will deter people who can’t afford to continue to hVe too much children. It is not fair to continue to have children, when they can’t afford to raise them and want other tax payers to pick up the slack.

Agree that children generally need more time at home, chilling with parents, not 12 hours in school!
funding for a parent to stay home for longer/work part time would be great.

How does it benefit extra curricular providers like dance schools, karate etc? And what a horribly long day for dc.

My neighbours would love it. More time free of their children to argue, throw things about and smoke their weed. On the plus side the kids would spend less time in the horrific toxic home.

Umm no, definitely not. I think what would benefit parents and children is allowing them to spend more time together, not less.

Not very good for teachers, either, having even longer days.

Workplaces and employers need to allow more flexibility for family time, rather than society turn into a giant factory and put children in full time care.

OP, you seem unaware of the history of child benefit, previously called family allowance.

It was the one benefit paid directly to the mum, if she was the stay at home parent, because it ensured it was spent feeding children, not the man spending it in the pub or bookie on the Friday night. It is a key part of welfare support for women and children. It helps counter coercive control.

It ensures women keep signed up for their NI payments, and therefore their independent pension entitlement.

And do you really think children raised in school batteries are a good idea? It sounds more like communist China than the UK.

So yes, you are mad! And wrong!

Yes, except that it's a capitalist dystopia: they both lead to quite similar horrors of taken to extremes!