Save the Children launches appeal for children in the UK

[Vagaceratops]

BBC link

And it will get worse :(

It is not for the state to cushion people into work particularly when there are hardly any jobs to be had and the nation has no money in the bank. Chilcare should not be subsidised and child tax credits and child benefit should be abolished and in return tax reduced overall.

Well, you said you'd read the 1000-a-day thread - what did you take from it?

The majority of women who are tossing around their ideas and they do not require physical work. I hope she won't mind me saying, but there's a lady there who's registered disabled yet she doesn't seem to be making this a barrier for herself.

I do understand about mental health issues, they can be a horror to overcome (I spent 5 years under a psychiatric team) - it would've been very easy for me to "take to my bed" and claim disability, but the best thing I could actually do was to carry on with life and not institutionalise myself.

It's such an enormous drain of energy to be carping on about how unfair things are, and why you're deserving of being given more - why not channel all that energy in to something positive?

I believe Xenia posted something the other day about changes coming which would mean a job seeker can claim the allowance for 12 months whilst setting up their own business.

I honestly hand-on-heart believe that the future of the UK economy will come from microbusinesses trading between themselves. It's time to put Tesco et al out of business (as much as we can!) and start taking control of our own lives and economy. The UK economy seems to be built on the back of buying plastic tat and expensive coffees - whilst the service industry will remain, we can do better for ourselves and create our own autonomy.

I don't remember a question, sorry. Please ask again of you would like to.

I did see your comment that people like me are the reason you are ashamed to be on benefits, which I think is ridiculous and inaccurate. You are the reason you feel shame, you cannot blame your own emotions on an Internet random that knows nothing about you.

I don't understand why you would feel shame anyway. If you are too disabled to work, then you are exactly the sort of person the benefits system should exist for.

If childcare would have cost 60% of your wage, then that still leaves you with 40% that you are earning for yourself instead of taking from other people who do go to work. Often leaving their own children behind. it's exactly that sort of 'poor me' attitude that I find irritating. So what if you would only have 40% of your wage left. Your children are your responsibility, and it woud only be temporary. You woudo be providing something for your family yourself instead of expecting others to do it for you, you would have been contributing to people that you believe deserve help.

There is no doubt in my mind that there is poverty in the UK.

But to my mind real poverty stems from being jobless/on low income for a long period of time. Currently being a bit short and having to make cut backs are not poverty.

How we deal with the exisiting real poverty is a conundrum. It can't make sense to just increase benefits. We have to look at the roots, not just water the stem.

Read the 1000 quid thread again, you don't need "special skills" - not everyone is a heart surgeon or a linguist or a lawyer. Most people are like you and I, with normal skills, normal backgrounds and normal educations.

Like I said on that thread, Michelle Mone came from a pretty shit area (same school as my husband) - she's made a fortune out of bras - don't tell me you don't know anything about boobs!

Others in the group are utilising knowledge they do have.

You don't need to work out of the home. I'm currently building something which will mean around 75% of my time working from home. Right now I'm working full-time in a salaried job, running one own business, starting another, 2 children under 2.2 and I only have childcare 3 days a week. You do what you want to do.

What a depressing thread. Applause to expat and Mme Lindor.

Also agree with Bone - not sure how we have got into a situation where public money is being used to subsidise private sector wages. Don't understand why there isn't more anger about this.

Outraged I think people like PuddleJumper feel shame is because if you're used to supporting yourself, it's a big blow to suddenly find yourself in the position of not being able to do that. And to make matters worse, certain papers are regularly printing about 'scroungers' stirring up a climate where fraud is seen as endemic. That kind of thing does hurt real people, even the genuine ones.

I was a single parent back in the 90s, we were the demonised group of that time. I did everything right, studied, worked, paid my way, but I still felt stigmatised by the negative reports of feckless single parents with a dope habit and 18 children by 24 different men.

Yes, we need to change the mind sets of people. Make them think they are responsible for themselves and indeed that they can getr out there and ultimately earn £1k a day not sit there depressed thinking I am useless at anything so I'll eat another donut. We want them hand making their donuts and selling them in richers areas.

Most people on here can write. Go on peopleperhour - there are writing jobs on there every day. Bid for the work,. Work right through the night when you have to. Put massive effort into it. Don't think the state is there to provide. think I have responsibilities to myself and my family and I going to fulfil them even if I need to go to work in London in the week or emigrate to Australia to do that.

i certanily agree I am against the subsidy of wages. I would far rather we abolished tax credits, childcare help, child benefit and many many other distortions in the economy and just made everyone pay less tax.

Xenia
I have to disagree. Subsidising childcare and enabling women to get back to work is vital at present. I had someone comment on my blog that she would be paying £2000 a month for childcare for her children when she went back to work after maternity leave.

Average wages in UK are quite simply crap. I have moved back to UK and DH is still in Germany because he is not willing to work the same amount of hours for less that an 1/4 pay.

Women in UK have to work because the average wage of £20k is not enough to raise a family on.

Now you can bang on about getting out there and opening your own company, and I think it is great the advice that women on the entrepreneur thread are getting, but we don't just need top managers, industry leaders and entrepreneurs.

We need nurses, teachers, cleaners, chefs and bin men.

Why is Germany weathering the economic storms better than the rest of the UK? Because they have the Mittelstand - the medium sized companies. They support small and medium sized businesses.

I read about a programme to give ££££ to towns to promote the city centres, to stop the shutting of shops. Why not give that money directly to small and medium sized businesses in form of tax rebates?

Joyful
it is subsidised by the taxpayers, via income tax (I think).

Basically it comes down to what you subsidise.

I think that if we subsidise childcare, and small business owners then we stimulate the economy. Make it easier for people to work in small jobs - the Germans also have a mini-job system where you can work for up to about £400/month without paying tax or national insurance.

Do away with complicated benefit systems and get back to a simple system, but without cutting from those who really need it.

Puddle, personally I don't agree with abortion but I have had debates on the subject on here where I have been told its all about choice and women should have the right to choose what happens to their own bodies. Which is fine, but with that comes the responsibilty of any children you choose to abort, or keep. If you choose to keep a child you cannot provide for you are still very much responsible for it, whether or not it was planned. You cannot absolve yourself of financial responsibilty for a child because contraception failed you. You can rightly expect financial support of you are genuinely unable to work, and people in this catergory should be given more in my opinion, but not because of an unplanned pregnancy.

Fwiw, both of my children were unplanned, and conceived when I was on long term antibiotics for acne as well as the pill. It was only when I went to a different pharmacy to my usual one to pick up the same prescription I had always had with both pills on it together that I found out that antibiotics would cancel out the pill. I had known it could be a risk, but I wrongly assumed that these particular prescriptions would be ok because a doctor prescribed them. I was able to go back to work part time when both my dc were 5 months old.

Saskia, that isn't what Puddle said, she said people like me are what makes her feel ashamed.

"I do understand about mental health issues, they can be a horror to overcome (I spent 5 years under a psychiatric team) - it would've been very easy for me to "take to my bed" and claim disability, but the best thing I could actually do was to carry on with life and not institutionalise myself. "

No you don't. If you have had an illness that means you can't concentrate on the plot of Eastenders, for example, then you would understand why people are incapacitated by MH probs. Especially when drugs don't always control it and it relapses on a regular basis. It does prevent some of the worst affected from working - and long term at that.

Outraged Yes I know, I was referring to the bit of your earlier post where you said she was the reason she felt ashamed. Reading the rest I'm guessing you meant she didn't need to feel ashamed because she was genuinely disabled, so I was trying to explain why she felt ashamed even though she didn't need to. Obviously, I failed somewhat. Hope that's clearer :)

Oh, and I am also outraged about the price of Freddos - I bought one last week and gasped. 20p and it was gone in two bites

I think it is dangerous to lump people together into 'disabled' or 'suffering from mental illness' because the range is so huge.

I certainly cannot compare the slight PND that I had after my DS was born to the illness that my SIL has (bipolar disorder) even though they are both on the MH scale.

Mental illness is not something that you can cure by pulling yourself together. Just as overcoming a physical disability is not being 'superhuman'.

Frothy I do understand. I was on zyprexa and then risperdal amongst other things - if you know your psychiatric meds, you'll know those - they're anti-psychotics - not St. John's Wort and Cadburys. I wasn't "great" for years, but nearly every day I got up and attempted to function. I wasn't "feeling a little bit blue" - I had a serious psychiatric diagnosis which I've written about extensively on these boards before. It's horribly cliche, but it does help to do "something" and exercise helps - although it's very chicken and egg. :(

It's shocking but not surprising, things are going to get a lot tougher with this sick government. Relative poverty still affects children very severely. Physically and mentally. Children shouldn't be punished even when their parents are in the wrong. There will always be a need for some people to claim benefits. Not everyone can do paid work; ill, disabled, carers, parents-in some cases etc.

I took the 'take to my bed' comment as a judgement on those who can't work through mentall illness.

I'm glad you recovered/are in remission.

Not everyone will be so lucky. Effort isn't enough for some.

Im formerly Carernotasaint. (i name changed recently)
Havent had time to catch up on whole thread but i took part in a radio phone in about this very subject on BBC Essex this afternoon between 1.30 and 2pm. Loads of elderly people were ringing in basically saying that children today dont have it as hard as they did back in the mists of time.
Having listened to one tale to many about tin baths i rang in and pointed out that people working 18 hr a week jobs who cant even get their hours up high enough to claim tax credits anymore. And i also pointed out how workfare is affecting this.

How do the foreigners who come here on limited visa and barely speak english manage

quote from complexo. (bear with me i am going somewhere with this)