'Couples with children 'have to work THREE TIMES as hard as single mothers to stay above the poverty line'

[littlelamb]

Its the Mail, sorry
Reporting like this makes me so mad, even though to an extent it is true. I am a single parent, a 'feckless girl' as one of the comments puts it and I do not sit on my backside, I have a full time job that is bloody hard work. Because I work, I recieve tax credits, without which I could not work. They pay for my childcare. I have a friend who married last year, having been a single parent for 3 years previously, who now cannot afford to work as she would get no help with childcare costs. So in this respect, yes I suppose they are worse off financially as a couple tan they would be as two single people. But to say her husband works 3 times as hard as me to cope financially ??? I hate hate hate the bloody daily mail, and its constant suggestions that single mothers are all undeserving scroungers

The Mail is shit, take no notice

Don't read it. Don't read it. Don't read it.

It's the Daily Mail. You can safely ignore it and none of us will think the worse of you.

How can a couple work three times as hard as me when I work full time and then look after my child all by myself? It's literally not possible to work three times harder than me.

Do they have more hours in the day than me?

I suppose it is possible for the Daily Mail to be three times stupider than me

only three times stupider margo ?

The daily mail is only good for people who like looking at pictures but can't actually read

im not a single parent (yet -possibly soon but thats another thread lol) and single mums and dads really do have a hard time,its very isolating and you have to make all the decisions .....its not something to take on lightly.

married parents do get help with childcare costs though, as long as they earmn less than I think 40k between them? most couples earn less (esp if one is part time), and I can't believe someone whose family income is above 34k "can't afford" to work. it's also hardly the poverty line.

I'm not clicking the link, btw. I have stress levels to think of.

I meant 34k, not 40.

LOL at littlelamb - I am quite stupid you know

Depends where you live SP. Depends on when you got on the housing ladder - if you got on the housing ladder.

I don't mind the DM articles too much. Easily dismissed. Its the comments from their readers which makes you realise how many morons there are in this country.

I fucking hate this kind of thing.

no apologies for swearing.

these people have NO IDEA what it is like being a single parent. No one to share any chores, responsibilities, cooking, putting to bed, getting ready for school etc etc. A logistical nightmare trying to work out how to have a job AND pay the bills AND be there for our kids etc etc

we are better off????

Exactly Fairymum. 'And why have we got so many single mothers in the UK? Easy answer generous benefits' O yes Kevin Quilter, United Kingdom, that's it

no, sorry, 34k is never the poverty line (especially since you get help with childcare), unless you live in monaco. in which case, I would suggest you move. if you overstretched yourself on buying a house, that's another thing

'No wonder so many young women choose to become single mothers. It's easier and more lucrative than working or studying. In addition to benefits, they are allocated housing, jumping ahead of working couples who can't afford to start a family and can't get decent housing.' Right you are, Max Davies. Fgs, some people

The single mums I know have all been left by the fathers either because they did not feel ready for fatherhood or because they shagged the secretary. I wish the DM could focus more on runaway dads and the great jobs the mums left behind do. I rather read hardcore porn on the tube than be seen with a copy of the DM.

fgs

they've i'm assuming those who have 'chose' to be in those circs and not the majority who have ended up in a position they didn't want or asked for. more ot the point there's plenty of single mothers who work hard or are studying hard to better their selves.

maybe they should walk a mile in our shoes to see how it feels.

(I like the way a lot of the nasty comments were by men thou )

not sure if any of you other single mums feel the same but I'm always concious of the fact i'm expected to fail & also expected to have DS poorly turned out, or ill manned because he's from a lone family. i'll be damned if he's any of those things thou (well he's as well mannered as a 2 year old can be - says please and thank you but not normally the right way around! lol)

I'm SO much better off as I don't have to deal with the verbal abuse and lack of self-esteem bestowed upon me by soon to be Ex .

It must be lovely for some people to look at the world and just see exactly how it all works.

Oh no, hang on. They'll all be seething at all those people sponging off them, and get ulcers, and probably die of something.

oh and if we're gonna talk about jumping ahead as a single family - my council wouldn't house me till I had a court eviction notice (so put that in your pipe mr DM man) we've had to struggle to get a pte rent house.

Davidtennantsmistress, the worst people are the ones who say how 'brave' I am to work. Fgs, there's nothing brave about having to put food on the table, just like everyone else.

They are talking about staying above the poverty line.

But, I'm not defending the Daily Mail, because it really is shite.

I dont think it's as straightforward and putting a monetary limit on what people should be able to cope with/live on.

Various jobs require differing types of childcare. We dont get help with childcare (due to fuck up by CTC that we are still 'paying off'). We'd be paying the same for rent as we would for mortgage for property. WE are low priority for housing. If we move further away, we lose our 'free childcare' which we rely on family for, because we cant afford to pay for childcare (due to CTC fuck up). Our council tax (which includes a couple of hundred pounds a year for the pleasure of having now, Boris Johnson, but previously Ken Livingstone as mayor) has just gone up by another £110 this year. We've been stiffed by the banishing of the 10p rate.

There are lots of us who are damned if we do, and damned if we dont. I wouldnt like to compare our situation with single parents because to be honest - they really are two entirely different kettles of fish. I certainly wouldnt be better off on benefits because I wouldnt be entitled to them and living on DH's salary just wouldnt cut it. Its so much more complicated than having someone to share your life with.

I'm not in council housing either and bloody struggle to pay my rent, but people do assume that you have it easy in a nice little house that you don't have to pay for. Maybe if people stopped believing every piece of shit reporting they read in this rag they wouldn't be so prejudiced.

I agree that the Mail pedals some absolute crap, however, having just read the article and done some working out - I must admit that I was much better off financially as a single parent than we are now that DH and I are back together. For a start, my income was £9,500 a year (student loan, grant and bursary) then I got all my rent paid (£7500 per year); no council tax bill (£920), plus full child tax credits bringing my overall income to the equivalent of £23,492.

With DH here, we live on just over £14600 a year total income and over half of that goes on rent before we even start with other bills.

We have actually considered splitting up permenantly just to be able to live.