Do you mind the Government talking about "hard-working families"?

[UnquietDad]

It's a regular mantra from Gordon and was also from his predecessors - wanting to help "hard-working families".

Some of my more chippy single and/or gay friends and colleagues get a bit hot under the collar about this, saying it excludes them.

What do people think? Does it? Aren't we all part of a family of some sort? Does it necessarily imply "hard-working mother-father families with 2.5 children and a nice house in suburbia"?

I think it implies couples or single parents that work and 'juggle' that with all the other things that go with family life (childcare, homework, activities, housework, managing finances etc). To me it refers to the kinds of families I know I suppose.

to me it implies the type of people that gordon hopes will vote for him.

Ha ha! Yeah. And it won't be me!

To me it implies the type of people the Gordon screws over on a regular basis.

Or dh - so there's one 'hard working family' he can cross off his list

I do, because I think a lot more focus also needs to be put on an increasingly ageing population, of which we will soon be a part.

Also, many of these ageing people, still working!, have already brought up children.

Like you, I also think Gordon wouldn't know a real 'hard-working family' if he tripped over one.

Aren't most families hard-working? In which case, it's bit meaningless. I suppose one could argue that singles or childless couples don't have the same concerns or issues as parents because they only have to consider themselves, whereas parents have to cater for their children as well. But it's really become a meaningless soundbite these days.

a family is what you make it.

when DH and I first got married, pre-children, we were 'our family'.

and now, 15yrs later (, how the hell did that happen?), we are still a family, only now that family consists of mum/dad and 5 monsters children.

does it really matter on the dynamics, only that you are together and consider yourselves a family, be that one person, or 15!!

i think its a term that includes most people at some stage isn't it? Almost everyone who isn't pg at 15 will fall into the single camp too at one point- kind of a staged progression thing?

Gay people do ave famillies; it might take more planning and thinking but quite a few famillies I know have single sex parents.

It eans people who have extra costs that ultimately will be the future of us all (kids) and who will pay our pensions and who provide for them.

Only anoying thing I guess would be if I were a single mum on benefits- if you have kds you're doing something, paid or not, and being single does not mean you chose that life.

My assumption is that it includes all types of families - childless, extended families, same sex partnerships, 2.4 kids..any household where the adult(s) work their asses off to live independently and not rely on state handouts ....and get thoroughly screwed over in return. So, yes, probably most of us!

It's not to do with "families", it's about politicians trying to 'cross over'.

In the good old days we had working class (Labour) and middle class (Conservative). If NuLab want middle class votes then they need new labels: hence hard working families (aka People Like Us) as opposed to benefit cheating scroungers.

I cannot stand the phrase: it's so patronising!

It does seem a bit of a tautology - most families are hard-working, surely. It's probably a blatant attempt to appeal to the middle classes, but one can interpret it as findtheriver says above.

I find it a repugnant phrase and it is one of the many things about this Government which makes me shudder.

My mother, for example, is now a pensioner. She was a hard working single parent, paid her taxes all her life and now barely exists on a small NHS pension. But she's not part of a "hard working family" so screw her and millions like her, who cares about pensioners anyway .

And I've just read expat's post which I hadn't read when I started typing this, and that is what I meant, so I'll just say "what expat said".

I agree with Purit, it is so patronising. Most people with kids work their buts off, it goes with the territory.

The gov wind me up with loads of things, just think GB only means to include families with both parents working outside the home. May be wrong but that's how I picked it up.

And an awful lot of people without kids are working, or have worked, their butts off too. It's just so meaningless.

You know, in the olden days we used have 'means testing' it was treated as a stigma, everyone hated it and they scrapped it

.... didn't they?

I agree with Jellybeans. As a SAHM I don't think I count as part of GB's definition of a 'hard-working family'.

god better than David cameron and his 'married couple tax' guff (though I would benefit from it!)

I don't like it; think it is exclusive - it just sounds like people (of either gender, partnered or single) with dependent children. All politicians and government departments are focusing on "families" at the moment and we had a bit of an argument in my office yesterday because I objected to a colleague referring constantly to "routine and manual families" in a presentation he was rehearsing - but apparently it's what the Department of Health wants to hear. Repugnant, eh?
The word "households" can be used instead of "families" in a lot of circumstances and is far more inclusive.

UQD
are these the non driving gay men?

I don't think the government should talk about helping hard-working families.

When I was single and working extremely hard I used to feel very pissed off about paying quite so much tax when I didn't seem to get any benefits from it.

Low earners who are single or childless though can claim WTC can't they?

Funny0- I always thought we were included in the ahrd working famillies and I also am a SAHM / carer. Did when I was a student until Sept as well.

This has pissed me off for a long time.My sister is single & works 3 jobs,6 days a week & every evening but 2,but as she isn't a 'family' people like her aren't considered important.I suppose the phrase just confirms what I've always thought of NewLabour.They just suck up & patronise those whom they hope will vote for them.