'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

I dont think you can compare if a married person works harder than a single person if they BOTH work. Obviously if the single parent doesnt work then obviously the married person works harder.

As a single parent, you can be far better off than a married person - eg say £500 a month housing benefit, £100 month council tax benefit, £240 IS, £240 CTC, £70 a month FA (more if more than one child) and say £40 free school meals, £10 free prescription/dental costs - thats the equivalent of an income of £1200 a month. Not bad for a non working person. If they choose to work they lose the IS and free dinners but usually still get HB/CTax benefit but gain WTC and childcare assistance.

Most married/co-habiting couples cant claim HB as there income is over the threashold and therefore they have to meet all of their living expenses themselves. WTC is a joke when part of a couple as the cut off point for help with chidlcare is around £25k and WTC around £16k so if they both work then they get no help.

Therefore single people can be far better off than couples yet also have the option not to work and have their life funded for them.

Excellent post HappyMummy. Sums up how the system is totally open to abuse, and how damn hard it can be financially when you remain with your partner to bring up your children.

'yet also have the option not to work and have their life funded for them'

What an absolute pile of shite that part of your sentance was Happymummyofone.

Would you want a life funded for you?

It's a life of endless poverty and the longer you live it, the harder it is to escape.

No Quattro, I wouldnt want a life funded for me because I believe there is so much more to working than just getting the pay cheque each month. Work can be a source of self esteem, fulfilment; it can enrich your life and enable you to use your skills and talents to make your own and others lives more interesting. I would feel I'd failed as a parent if I brought my kids up thinking it's ok to just not contribute to society. There are very few people who genuinely cannot work - eg serious disability. There are a lot more who just don't want to.
But whether we would choose a life like this isnt really the point. The system is crap and unfair, and does little to encourage parents to stay together.

Alfiesbabe, you can't really think that someone would choose to become a single parent and go onto benefits because they think 'might' be better off ??

It took me years to pluck up the courage to end my relationship with my ex, and what money I might or might not have got never even came into it, because believe be, by the end I couldn't have cared less if i'd had to live on 10p a week.

I appreciate that alot of people don't work when they could, but i'd like to bet that a higher proportion of those people are single childless men and women, and people falsely claiming disability, not single parents.

'I believe there is so much more to working than just getting the pay cheque each month. Work can be a source of self esteem, fulfilment; it can enrich your life and enable you to use your skills and talents to make your own and others lives more interesting. '

If there is, I certainly haven't found it.

Dead-end job after dead-end crap job. Oh, yes, it's oh-so-fulfilling.

It can be a source of all those things, but it can also be its own poverty trap.

It is for millions of working poor people.

The system is fucked up for ALL lone parents, working poor and low income couples.

Expat, I'm sorry about that. Work can be stimulating and fulfilling but it's not for many people the world over.

It's a living, but let's remember that for billions in the world, that's all it is.

We're lucky here in the UK.

Well I've done my fair share of jobs that are just a living. Yeap,it's hard slog, not intellectually fulfilling but it serves a purpose - paying your own way. And when I decided I'd had enough of dead end jobs, I took on a second dead end job to pay my way through training. CrackerofNuts - I havent said that I think single parents choose to go it alone simply for financial reasons. The point I am making is that the system discriminates against couples who stay together. I have several colleagues who are in a relationship where both partners have to work full time - they cannot afford not to. And I have a colleague who is a lone parent who works three days a week and won't work more because she would be no better off financially....... crap system.

I'm glad you were able to do that, alfie.

Not everyone is.

The system DOES oftentimes make it more financially feasible for people to parent on their own.

Yet still keeps them down, too.

It's crap all around.

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