The Universal Credit

[Xenia]

Well done Iain Duncan-Smith.

1. Anyone in work will be better off than anyone not.
2. More benefits can be retained despite starting work
3. Housing benefit, income support incapacity benefit of dozens of other payments all scrapped and replaced with one simple universal credit.

This is reported in the Times. No treasury comment.

Very good news.

This is great for business people and corporations...lots of minimum wage jobs[here we go]I can see Tories licking their chops.
How the heck will people afford child care in the school hols? ...I wonder.

Dooby - they'd shack up with their family and friends and share the care, or find an out of work boyfriend to look after the kids

Doh...silly me

but abr1de - problem is tha those with disabilities won't get more help. They'll get the same (or less - but that's ok because we don't want them dependent on benefits long term )) as they do now.

think the obvious here is in the wording.

i mean, 'being better off working' actually means being a whole lot worse off if you have to rely on benefits doesn't it?

Summer au pair if you are prepared to cramp up a bit or two of them or summer play schemes. Huge numbers of working couples both work all summer. I've never taken a half term off in 26 years of being a mother. It's complicatedf and expensive but we have to do it as we dont' have the state to help us.

"expensive" - well yes - and how would you do that on £5,70 an hour????

Can someone pinch me, has Xenia honestly suggested hiring an au pair as a solution for childcare while someone works a min wage job? Really?

yes she has Kaloki

You see some people are lucky and they've never had to live in the real world

Actually (and I fear I will regret saying this) I agree with Xenia on some of this. I think the decline of local community networks has stopped people looking after the children of other families. Where I live it still goes on, people do look after village kids if a mum has to do a shift and can't pick up from school etc.

And it does work. It rarely involves money and payment tends to be in kind (you look after my kid, I'll look after yours etc, or I will do X for you - I know someone who looks after two babies in return for her house being cleaned by the mum once a week).

I'm not saying it's a total solution - of course it's not. But what if the government made it easier and financially viable to for example organise a group of three mothers with a child or two each to work together in the same type of work - for example, let's imagine three mothers who had office experience who wanted to work offering temp services - and the care of the children was recognised as requiring at least two of the parents to be available to the children, and so it was recognised that each parent could only work 16 hours a week. Yes it'd be a lower income than you could get full time and yes you'd had your kids and X others too but it'd get you a chance at getting back to work.

I can give you an example of how this works btw, I know two flight attendants with BA. They have agreed with the company rotating shift patterns so childcare can be shared between them. They've been doing this for four years now with no problems. Obviously flight attendants don't work 'normal' hours and it's probably not full time when you consider time on standby etc. But the point is, it can and is done in some places and can be made to work if the motivation is there.

Right now I think parents who want to return to work feel paralysed by the inability to earn enough to make it worthwhile and torn by the need to be near their children, and the ambition to earn and financially support those children. And that's not a comfortable place to be. :(

xenia, I earn £5.80 an hour, minimum wage.

to pay for childcare for my 2 kids is £6.

can you tell me of any summer childcare that pays me money to have my kids so I can break even?

I can't believe a proffessional person such as yourself believes your own posts

whomovedmychocolate, the thing is we all know someone who gets a little help when they're running late from another mum, most mums have friends we can turn to when we are stuck.

BUT for most of us with no family childcare on tap, we can't take on a job and rely solely on friends helping out, there's no one to turn to when your friends kids are unwell, have an appointment or paydate and your friend is busy

thats the problem, when you have to have reliable childcare and you haven't a mum or MIL or sister close by who helps, you have to pay for this in the long term and when you earn a pittance you can't afford to pay for it.

sorry to rant at you, you probably know this

for them to be able to work offering temp services (ie temporary work) there'll have to be some radical shift in the way the benefits are dealt with.

Right now you'd be pretty stupid to take on a temporary job - unless it was very well paid - as if you didn't find something else at the end of the temp work you'd find yourselve up shit creek with no money while they do all their paperwork because you're not working anymore.......

Any how - i doubt think anyone is doubting that it can be done - for some people. I think it would be totally impractical and impossible for others though.

There does seem to be an attitude from some people that because a,b and c worked for x,y,z it's going to work for 1,2 and 3 as well. And it's just not the case.

Once I return to work next year after getting another part of my degree under my belt I've already (kind of [hmm)) figured out some of my childcare for the holidays

DS1 will be at home on his own ) not really happy about it but needs must and all that, then it'll just be DS2 and 3 to sort holiday schemes out for.

Sadly all my friends are already working (in totally different jobs) so using friends isn't an option.

The woman on the news at 10 sat and looked into the camera and said she'd only be £40 a week better off.
ONLY FFS you'd be supporting yourself and that is the mindset that needs to change. I thought they'd found somebody who'd be worse off in which case fair enough but to be £160 a month up on the deal and still moaning

ssd - I do know this - but I'm saying why can't we create an environment conducive to this. Have you ever, for example, canvassed your friends/neighbours and said 'look I'm in this situation, are you?'

It's not about the 'running late to pick up' bit, of course it's not. It's about parents being honest and saying 'I need some help here - you seem to be in the same position, can we figure it out together?'

MaMoTTaT - not on benefits so you'll have to indulge me here, I was under the impression that if you had a temporary position and that came to an end within a certain time, your benefits would be suspended and you would just (I will probably get this wrong sorry) sign back on?

Incidentally, have you considered going in as an unqualified social worker and doing your CQSW on day release. Some authorities are still funding and supporting this.

Also FYI I and my brothers were the archetypal latchkey kids because my mum went back to university while we were at school and we turned out fucked up to the normal level for English teenagers fine

"I was under the impression that if you had a temporary position and that came to an end within a certain time, your benefits would be suspended and you would just (I will probably get this wrong sorry) sign back on?"

No, you have to reapply. When I did that it took about 3 months each time.

mama - what they don't say about the £40 is that she'd probably have to pay for 20% of her childcare costs out of that (presuming they don't abolish the TC's), she'd lose her free school meals, her free prescriptions, would have to pay more towards her rent.

Whomoved - I know none of my neighbours are in my situation - neighbours on one side loathe me - I'm a single mum you see. Family on the other side married couple with one child - father works shifts, mum does some temp work on and off.

I also know none of my friends are as they all work already and have childcare in place where needed.

I don't know about JSA - maybe on that you do get to just sign back on (but they'd definitely stop your housing benefit and you'd have to reapply for that).

I know on IS as soon as you're working it stops.

I know he'll be fine - but he's only going to be 11 - I do already give him a little independence, but 11 feels so young to be at home 16+ hours a week on your own in the summer holidays when none of your school friends live really local (which is rather bizarre as we live quite close to the school)

Kaloki That surprises me beacuse when Dh signed off he got payments for an additional 4 weeks of JSA, mortgage payment and CT benefit and was told if the job didn't last to come back within 12 weeks and everything would just be reactivated immediately.
When he first signed on payments were made within days, so I can only suspect that people who experience delays don't have all their paperwork in order ?

just done a quick google and it would appear there is the rapid reclaim process available for up to 26 weeks if nothing has changed other than the reason you stopped claiming JSA.

Housing benefit and council tax benefit would have to be applied for.

But so what MaMoTTat I have to pay to feed my children and my rent and prescriptions. We've fallen on hard times as I'm sure many have but at what point does a safety net become a lifestyle choice.
And what if the £40 a week didn't exclude all those extra's is it then acceptable for her to work for a mere £160 a month, how many families have that much left after bills ?

all my paperwork was in order (I was getting rather old hat at it after having done an IS, a joint JSA, and a joint ESA claim in the space of 2yrs ) - it just took them ages to process it.

Our council is VERY quick at stopping your HB if your circumstances change. They also stopped the mortgage payment (DWP) pdq when exH missed 2 signings on (he was in hospital for one of them in between going from JSA to ESA at the next one he "missed"

but the £40 a week has to cover the extra things such as school meals, prescriptions, rent, council tax, 20% of her childcare costs.

She might have £40 a month more going into the bank - but she may well have much more going out just with those few things added on.

The better off calculations they do are very misleading.

I had one done 2yrs ago that said (in my circumstances then) on paper I would be £100 a week better off it I worked 16hrs a week.

Wohoo - sounds great.........

except the Lone Parent advisor pointed out that all the things is didn't take into account - like the fact I was paying £400 a month towards the mortgage, and that I would also have to pay for childcare - suddenly I became about £80 a month worse off once she added in the stuff that I would then have to pay for once I was £100 better off".

She advised me to crack on with my degree I was about to start and concetrate on that while my youngest was still at home all day.

Wmomoved - I've just realised I missed you bit about the SW thing. I'm not actually doing Social Work degree, I'm doing Health and Social Care (but geering it towards the Social Care side of things) , I'm hoping to do Family Support Work, more hands on and less paperwork ). Or something along those lines. I'm still somewhat bitter at exH for becoming ill when he did - Women's Aid were looking for volunteers for a couple of hours a week to help women who were moving out of the refuge into homes to get set up, aiding them source furniture, sort out budgets, and all the rest of it.

By the time I was in a fit state to be going anywhere near someone else that had been through a violent incident they were no longer looking for volunteers for it

Once I get my 2nd course out of the way (start in Feb) I'll be in a better place to apply for arrange of jobs in "support" - as I'm doing Working with children, young people and families. And I know the head teacher of the SN school in town (she happens to be quite a good friend) has said that if she had someone working towards that degree who had that course under their belt (and blagged their way through the interview ) she'd certainly consider offering a job - so doors will be open

I must apologise for completely going off on a tangent, it's something that is frequently on my mind now my life is finally moving upwards.

One day I shall be a full paid up contributing member of society

besides it's all irrelevant as next Friday I'm going to win the Euromillions, buy the modest little house next to the school that's still on the market (see it's waiting for MEEEEEEE), come off the benefits and spend my days fannying around volunteering whereever I feel like it

The point is in the interview there and then they said you'll be £40 a week better off, no calculations, no but i'll be worse off really type moments she was told £40 a week better off and she still had a face like a slapped arse, the very thought that it would only be £40.