I'm hoping there's already a thread on the SAHM writing about CB cuts in Saturday's Grauniad (money section), but in case there isn't...

[kveta]

please someone come and talk about it here! this one

DH and I were both spluttering all the way through this, and found our hearts didn't bleed too much.

Did anyone else read it and weep?

tb perfectly honest I tink the ire needs to be focused on the Guardian, not the woman (apart from any residual ire for stiching up MI). Apart from the despair comment at the beginning, I don't really read it as her whinging. It's just a rather boring and probably very typical list of cuts (that I'm sure many mners have been making these last couple of years anyway). What's ridiculous is not that she is doing any of this, nor really, the way she feels about it all (though it would have gone down a lot better, if she had wrapped it up with "At the end of the day my cuts are treats and it's right that the tax payer shouldn't be funding them"), but that the Guardian thinks it's worthy of print. (esp in Money).

A rather fine example of the Guardian's ridiculousness was a recent article by Will Hutton that included "eight steps to a fairer Britain". on the opposite page was a fashion piece which included, among other stuff, a pair of shoes for £460. Did no-one at the Guardian office not think "FFS this is taking the piss....?"

actually - I just re-read her first para. changed my mind. she is whinging. ignore me.

I preferred the Rachel Cusk editorial piece and frankly I normally disagree with her about everything.

DH read it too and said it helped him to understand why I was quite aggrieved about it even though it was the right thing to be doing (removing the benefit). It was because I saw that money as justifying what I did during the day and it was going to be removed from me and not him iyswim. So I would then have to ask him for more money etc - we dont run a joint household account etc.

Have now read the whole thing, and she does seem to be whining for no reason. Seriously woman - if things are that difficult, get a job. Or move nearer to where your husband works and rent if the mortgage is too high.

FFS

Hmm, is this going to unleash a bout of competitive thriftiness?

I am going to defend her. What you are ignoring is the fact that her family already took an income cut of £12k, when her husband's salary was lowered. Could you honestly say you would find it that easy to adjust to new circumstances so quickly? I don't get the sense that she's arguing that she's really needy, just that on that level of income, you aren't necessarily rolling in it.

And I don't know about you, but I want the man or woman who cuts me open to be dining on the finest Ocado deliveries and holidaying in the South of France.

It's a bit "guess what - if you cook yourself - you save money!! Who ever would have guessed?". I think the sacked cleaner's story would have been more appropriate - she may keep CB, but lose much of her income.

I have zero sympathy because her surgeon husband's income is going to go up and up and up and he will have a fabulous pension. She has nothing to worry about at all. And bang out a few more self-pitying features like this and she can easily replace her child benefit and still have plenty of time to Marie Antoinette on her allotment.

The difference between this family and many that are truly going to suffer is, as CCF says that they have the prospect of much larger earnings to come in the future.

Only paying the interest of the mortgage is daft, though, isn't it? I would rather live in a smaller house, or rent for a couple of years.

CCF, I'm not sure that it is the case her husband's income will "go up and up and he will have a fabulous pension". Of the three (fairly senior) doctors I know, two are on short-term contracts and have no job security and one is facing having his hospital closed by the PCT. All work for the NHS. Medicine really doesn't seem to be a job for life - despite it costing tens of thousands to train doctors and there being a shortage of qualified medics.

Every coalition spokesperson who ventures onto a news programme is warning of big cuts in the public sector and in public sector pensions and that means teachers, doctors and policemen, not just the rubber-stampers and bureaucrats that they like to portray as the majority of public sector workers .

MBB - the two bits of your post are connected - the fact that they're going interest only indicates considerable confidence in being able to make it up in years to come.

Also, she does later admit that by 2013, chances are she'll be working, so they shouldn't be that badly affected.

I can sympathise with losing the £650 a month - that would be a shock. But then whinging about £33 a week you will lose in two years time, when your husband's salary will probably be up and you'll (probably) be working as well doesn't get much sympathy from me to be honest.

Hatwoman
True. And she has the opportunity of working to better their financial situation. Which is not the case for a single parent who will be losing CB.

We have been in the situation that we lost over 10% of DH's salary last year and we survived. And tried not to moan about it too much, since we know that we are fortunate in that he has a good job with many perks.

We are (or will be) just above the HRT threshold in 2013. I just did a calculation on the direct.gov.uk website, to see how much we'd get in benefits if we weren't working and lived in rented accommodation.

Guess what? We'd get more in benefits that we currently bring home now (excluding CB & CTC), because after we've paid income tax, NI, pension and childcare, we bring home less than 2/3rds of that 44k.

Oh, and we'd also get; free school meals for the kids, NHS healthy start vouchers for the under 4's, free prescriptions, free dental treatment, free sight tests, vouchers towards the cost of glasses or contact lenses etc. - This all adds up to quite a bit too, approx another £50 per week.

Yes, I know that eventually we'll own our own home and will have a (half decent) pension, but really in day to day terms, someone on benefits with the same number of kids as us has more disposable income that we do on 44k.

Makes you wonder why you bother, doesn't it?

AND (bitter Londoner who can't afford to buy) - a THREE bedroom house on a £230,000 mortgage!? Hahahahahaha

I just wanted to point out that on a day to day basis, we are not wealthy (even though we are perceived to be by some people). The Guardian is obviously not representative of people in our situation.

Obviously, we will continue to 'bother' and we are grateful for what we have, but it doesn't come easy.

I think everybody is perceived to be wealthy by someone!

I've been thinking about this article all afternoon - it's so close to the bone really because it's so totally easy to judge and I know in the past I've personally been judged on income (ffs dh's income, not even mine). I've found it really hurtful because obviously nobody has an intimate understanding of anyone's financial situation, they just judge on the things that get their particular goat.

But to lay it bare in a national newspaper - what sort of an idiot is this woman?!?!?!

I started to read it prepared to think she had a point, because I DO think many middle income or higher income families can find it a struggle- too well off for benefits, but having to move a lot for work etc

BUT any sympathy quickly evaporated when I realised she's a SAHM (with one child already in school!) and was bleating about not being able to afford a cleaner. Christ alive. I don't have a cleaner and I work f/t!! And as for having to choose between ballet and jazz classes for her dd...words fail me.

It would have been far more interesting to hear from a working couple tbh, as childcare costs are the real killer for couples who have to work but don't qualify for any benefits. Not from some whinging SAHM who cant spend a couple of hours out of her precious week putting the hoover around.

Again, in her defense (and my own first thoughts on reading the piece were 'I don't feel that sorry for them'), it's probably not that easy for her to work, because of her husband's hours.

Moreover, I don't share this collective assumption that if you write about your experiences, you are necessarily telling a sob story. She said the easy cuts, the ones you are all jumping on so gleefully, 'rightly shouldn't garner much sympathy'. She recognises that she is lucky.

And so what if they've kept the ballet classes - how come that is a by-word for middle class spoiltness? If she'd said she'd had to cut her son's Saturday football class, it wouldn't get people so wound up, would it? Could quite easily be cheap and cheerful ballet in a church hall, not some pink tutu-ed affair.

The piece wasn't in the news pages, it's just a bit of colour, essentially there to entertain and perhaps make you think about how their situation compares with your own. To that extent, it was entirely successful - you all read it after all.

Oh this article annoyed me so much on Saturday. When her husband is qualified he'll be earning bucket-loads, and she said herself that she could return to work. Her hand-wringing was pathetic.

Here's a case study for you: headteacher at DH's school earns just above the threshold (they get paid less than many people think). He has four kids and his wife doesn't work as she's been looking after the kids (still two at home). They will lose CB, his pay will be frozen and he'll have to pay more into his pension. So he worked out he'd be over £2000 quid worse off a year. Next door live two working parents, both of whom earn around 30K, two kids. As the Yanks would say, go figure.

Remember the working parents with two kids may have childcare costs of up to 2 thousand a month though! Child benefit doesn't touch the sides!

Also loved how she said that shopping at Tesco would save her even more money, but didn't admit to now shopping there! Even cash-strapped middle class mothers have limits it seems!

Well to be fair Violethill the ones I mention both have children at school, so their costs would be less than that. I'm not saying they shouldn't be getting CB, only that it makes no sense that they are, when the headteacher isn't.

loved this article

Guardian bingotastic!

particularly liked the bit about sacking the cleaner and the allotment reference... made my day