A Universal Credit

[Xenia]

As I had suggested, so now treads Iain Duncan Smith - merger of benefits and tax credits so you genuinely gain if you take a job. It also helps him with his sexist view women should be home with babies.
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Housing benefit, income support, council tax benefit, working tax credit and child tax credit would be replaced by one single benefit. This could then "taper off" at a uniform rate providing a simple and transparent path back into the workforce for those currently caught in the benefits trap."

It's not quite a universal payment to all adults whether in work or not or whatever their income but it would be a welcome simplification and could help ensure people did work.

Any universal tax credit would probably eliminate the need for students to have loans to get through university - another layer of bureaucrats gone!!

And all students could afford to go to University - regardless of family income.

The requirement to live with extended family whom youmight not particularly like has always been a necesssity in many cultures. You also reduce the need to provide old age accommodation if people for financial reasons have to live with relatives. I am not sying you have to live with a violent husband but you may need to find another man or woman to keep you if you can't earn much on your own or live with your cousins or siblings as plenty of cultures within the UK do quite happily. Needsmust when you earn a pittance or nothing and are a burden on the state.

Anyway that's a side issue. £200 a week for doing nothing for each adult is terribly generous to include your food and rent. I think some of the poor just don't know they're born and take their entitlements for granted.

Universal credits would be very fair and well regarded. IDS Is wise to have suggested them. His suggestion does not have the simplicity of mine as it's more pragmatic and I doubt his will be adopted anyway but we do need some radical ideas and they had been sadly lacking under the Labour Government.

Also if mothers who are singl cannot get by on £200 a week they could team up with another mother and live with her and her children. Might be a bit cramped but if my children can share rooms I don't see why the children of the poor can't. If they want bigger places to live in they could try to get jobs. One mother would do childcare and the other could go out to work. They would have £400 a week between them to cover food and rent. That's about the average wage £20k but without tax credits and then ifone worked after tax they would have her net pay too.

'Also if mothers who are singl cannot get by on £200 a week they could team up with another mother and live with her and her children.'

I'm sure their private landlord would allow this. Or even the council.

And to do childcare now you have to be vetted.

And I really and truly hope you are not talking about the working poor who are often enough working all the hourse they can and already have children sharing rooms.

'I am not sying you have to live with a violent husband but you may need to find another man or woman to keep you if you can't earn much on your own'

Great! I'll groom my daughters to latch themselves onto someone like your sons.

oh I'd live with extended family if I had any....well I do have some - but they're already living with their extended family

£200 a week for a lone adult is admittedly a fair amount unless you live somewhere expensive (and I'm not talking big flashy house - I'm just talking expensive areas - I know exH was at one point paying £100pw - excluding utilities) for a single bedroom in a shared house) , £200 for a lone parent with children isn't an awful lot.

and you fck right the fck off with your "some people just don't know they were born" and "sense of entitlement" - I've put in, I'm taking out now, and I'll put more back once DS1 is old enough to be left at home all day on his own in the school holidays (YR7).

I have to say I'm quite bemused by the idea that lone parents should just shack up with anyone if they can't earn much. Of course they'd better make sure that that person is fit for work, and be extra careful to ensure that neither of them end up unable to work. And that's without even going into the lunacy of moving in with someone you barely know, with children, and quite possibly expecting them to look after your children during the day/night when you're at work.

expat - of course she's including the working poor........you lazy feckers

and what do you mean you're going to groom your daughters to latch onto Xenia's sons - I thought they were already betrothed to mine

BTW - I'm off to Auld Reekie on Monday >>

Looks like I should be selling the girls to highest bidder, tocc, in Xenia's world.

Don't have any extended family to live with, either.

Wow! I joined mumsnet after 'lurking' for some time to ask which planet exactly Xenia is from?

Prole, I think IDS's proposals have no numbers in - the word is the Treasury is very unlikely to give him the money to fund the universal credit idea (which will actually cost more than the current benefits system, at least in the short term), and lots of money is going on him to be the first minister to resign as a consequence.

Why is the right supporting it? I'm not sure that the right is. IDS is, but he's not very 'right' as far as these things go.

Will be interesting to see what happens.

Xenia - I am a rabid Tory who spends all day and every day thnking about money and nothing else you still leave me gobsmacked at times.

What about tweaking this, so that when you have a baby, the parents are declared, and then money is taken from the parent without custody (in the case of single parents) and this is added to the the custody parents income - say at a rate of £30pw per child.

We are cutting back in the UK and that will affect most people. My suggestion that if you cannot afford tolie on what the state and tax payers can afford to pay you you might have to live communally isn't particularly novel. It's how most of the planet operates. I am on planet normal. Those reling on benefits have been on planet fairyland and the chickens are now coming home to roost.

But yes as said above IDS is not likely to get even his version of a universal credit through. I do like it though. There are 8500 pages of guidance to job centres on which benefits are which and if there were just one universal credit we would save so much waste and complication and those on benefits would find things simpler too.

planet fairly land - oh fuck of Xenia - I'm not living in fairland - YOU are living in fairyland with your wild expectations of how people should be able to live an afford.

You're right with a universal credit of £200 a week it would be simpler for those on benefits......they wouldn't have to worry about their household bills as they'd be living on the street.

£200 a week sounds quite a lot. I am not sure the country can afford what it currently provides. If people made sure they lived with two adults and perhaps their parents they could manage. Anyway we'll see what happens.

admittedly £200 a week is slightly more than a single adult on benefits gets round here, £96 a week HB (and that's for a shared house) , £64.50 JSA and bottom band council tax benefit works out at around £16pw for a single person household.

But it's a fairly cheap area to live in here, and that (for example) a lone parent, or a carer just isn't going to be able to survive on that.

Well the idea is that's your subsistence level and you try to get work too and you keep what you earn on top of that after tax and I'm saying each adult would get it so if you keep 4 wives say you have rather a lot or if youlive with both sets of grandparents and a wife/husband then you've £1200 a week plus whatever wages those 6 adults earn.

and where will the childcare magically appear from?

Surely you're not suggesting that people leave their children with total strangers in their shared house while they go off to work??

with their best friend like those many many mumsnetters who nanny share or use their mother to do childcare.

Any simplicity of benefits down to one benefit is a good thing and IDS should be applauded for suggesting it. The aim is that people are not going to lose a lot of money by working and most people would think that is a good idea too.

I have not found the full details of his various options yet on line so it's a bit early to comment on the exact proposals. Also if we emerge from recession and have more spare cash things may be different but as they stand now the nation is pretty badly off so cuts all round are in order.

Xenia - can I ask you how long it is since you last lived in the real world?