'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

And Daily Mail aside (which I agree peddles shite) that is the real issue isnt it Joash? You are being penalised for living with your partner. It's a fecking joke this country.

or maybe us single mums are being compensated for not having one, alfiesbabe?

Not having a partner do you mean? Irrelevant. Every baby has two parents. They should both take responsibility for bringing up their family. It's an absolute disgrace that people like Joash, who are with their partner are financially worse off than if they decide to split and live separately.

and I didn't mention or include things like free prescriptions ( i have at least 36 items a year - just for my asthma stuff, not metioning any illness (recently had 9 items on prescription), dental care, school meals, eye tests, etc - all available when we were seperated - nothing available now.

single parents ooooooohhhhh you bad people, draining our society leeches on the system, doncha know that my and my dh work hard to support yout trisha lovin arse?

3 times more...at that

unfortunately my ex doesn't take responsibility for bringing up his family, alfiesbabe.

that's why he's my ex...

lol custy. But seriously, when you look at someone like joash, you can understand why some people say 'sod it, you get feck all trying to support yourself and be independent'.

LOL at trisha-loving-arse

and DH's wages just went up by a total of £520 for the year, which means we now lose working tax credits which gave us £1596 a year, so he gets a bloody payrise but it makes us worse off by £1076 a year - something is seriously wrong somewhere.

it's not single parents, it's the bloody system

Yeah, well he damn well should do harpo. It isnt my responsibility to pay for your family either! The hard working tax payer as per usual has no choice.

I am with you Alfiesbabe

Surely absent fathers can/should be made to support their children financially can't they?

when can i expect my next cheque, alfiesbabe.

thank you joash for recognizing we are not directly taking money from everyone else! fed up with being a scapegoat

anyway, i have promised myself not to get involved in these arguments on here, goodnight all!

I don't know harpo, when can I expect mine??!! Bizarre question!!

Lewisfan takes position as sitting duck for the monthly single-parent-bashing-event as spurred on by the Daily Turd ...

Next shooting available at the beginning of next month... give or take a few days

God, being a scapegoat is SO BORING!!! Why can't the media actually report on the real issues ffs.

quite scapegoat is getting a little too much now - it's not just single parents who 'drain' the system - immigration anyone???? shall we go there as well?

oh and before anyone moans my XH supports his DS, and has just increased his maintenance payments so we're no longer entitled to the £10 we were having for IS - hope that will go a long way into putting taxes back which I have taken out over the last 7 months.

tbh I do have issues with girls at 16 making it a career choice (is benefits single mum etc etc not knowing the father) but I feel that's a small minority of lone family's and certainly isn't a good example of us - and to be quite frank i'm getting pissed off at being tarred with their brush.

No interest in reading the article

But my sister who has been a single parent for years has now a new DP. She says she would be so financially worse off if he were to move in it is not an option.

To me that is absurd - punishing people for stable relationships.

At first glance I think the 'three times as much' is a slight of hand - a trick.

Of course if one person of a couple works they must support 2 adults whereas the single mum only need support one adult therefore the amount of money she needs to have coming in to escape poverty is less. The mail just phrased it carefully to make it sound like it meant something else to stir up trouble.

Plus of course no one would deny that being a single parent is harder in a thousand other ways.

You know a good way to raise morale in this country would be to put the entire staff of the mail in the stocks for people to throw things at.

I agree with vvvq

lots of families do struggle. Its not fair to compare them to single parent families but often financially it can be hard especially if you are a second family

We dont get any help with childcare either and have to work around each other in order to well, work really

Havent read the article

yesterday I noticed the front page was encouraging a rise in population (anti abortion stance pose) after moaning for years we are going to sink due to immigration

well we work bloody hard and still lost our home and became bankrupt. we struggle like f**king hell.

we are not entitled to any working tax creds or help with childcare.

i get the child tax creds and child benefit thats all.

this month we have £20 until my maternity pay comes in, thats it.

what a load wank.

lets all decide who works harder than who..

in fact I'm so sick of hearing bollocks like this. it seems to be everywhere at the minute. must be something to do with all the local elections happening

i think that this country is full of people that struggle. why start causing more upset by comparing