How will this new government effect single parents?

[want2sleep]

I didn't read their policies as I didnt vote them so dont know what their plans are for single parents? They are going to make huge cuts it said on the news.

Anyone know?

niceguy, 'get rid of child trust funds' - what exactly does that mean? what about those who have already paid into one? is this cyncial ploy by a government that doesn't want the masses to accrue trust funds by other means than being one fo those families able to afford trust funds for their dahlings?

i don't wish to offend anyone, this was the only way i could provide for dd's possible future university education

blinder....i think thas as a starting point...then it goes from there if contested. its what they have in australia....obviously,family courts can still operate to reduce or change this.

I'd love to see the look on XH's face if he was told he had to have the boys three and a half days a week. He struggles with every other weekend and while I work. Now he has told me that he wants me to put them in nursery while I am at work instead.

mrsmharket - the tories have said that they won't be giving child trust funds to any new babies. They haven't given a date for when this will happen though, so babies born today, next week, next month, will probably still get them.

I heard Cameron on the radio talking about them, and he said that they are a nice idea when the country can afford them, but when we are facing a record debt, they shouldn't be prioritised so have to go.

I think that is pretty sensible really.

i do too sparechange.....2 of my 5 have them,but have never paid into them

would willingly donate them back

Exactly Kayzr. Most parents wouldn't be able to work with a 3,5 day split, so they would then have to agree between them.

And if you weren't prepared to give your children the time then you would instead pay the other parent (via maintenance) for having them when you weren't instead. Doing it that way would hopefully lead to less complaints from the parent who was paying the maintenace.
And if you weren't prepared to vary the you would have to take the responsibility for them that some (a lot) of parents now don't have to be concerned about as they leave it to the other parent to hadle. So both parent would have to find the child care, change their hours at work etc.

I think as a starting place it is much fairer and gives both parents a better idea of what the other goes through (In terms of dealing with responsibilty AND of missing out on time by having to share your children)

thanks sparechange

I'd happily work for ds dad to have ds half the week as I would earn more than Maintenance...thing is where is he?

If the tories made the responisble parents whom have fled paid for their children then we wouldnt need help off the state! That would save the contry a few billion possibly!

I think this might be of interest. The Coalistion Agreement has just been published. No mention of Single Parents being tarred & feathered and selling our children to china. Have a read and then hopefully people will stop panicing

www.conservatives.com/News/News_stories/2010/05/Coalition_Agreement_published.asp x

Yes I think in general the starting point of joint custody and 50-50 split is fair. Just in the same way that in principle when you divorce, the starting point is 50-50 for all assets. After that you look at the situation specific to that family and decide.

As a principle its fine....as long as the application uses common sense.

Nixnjj - good link. Lets hope it stops all the worry that the Tories will tie LP's to a stake and burn them like witches.

I might tell XH about the 50-50 custody just to see the look on his face. Could do with a laugh!!!

your naughty Kayzr

ds dad would keel over if he was told that
...sorry the thought is so funny!

So anyone know about CTC yet? I will not stop panicking until I know!

nixjj sorry couldnt paste it wont work...can anyone thread it here please?

Don't panic about it yet. They won't change anything right away and there will have to be a budget first before they can change anything as parliment has to vote it in.

They will no doubt start by making no increase, and then using the 'pay no tax on the first £10K you earn' to reduce what they pay out. Ther question is by how much. However as I only pay £36.40 a month PAYE tax currently and yet get over ten times that in WTC & CTC I really don't see how it's meant to cover it...

Did laugh (inside and very hollowly) to one of the girls at work who was reeling off the cost of her car repayments, council tax and mortgage costs and announced she had to pay all that before she even included any bills. Didn't like to tell her that those 3 payments alone came to more than my entire monthly salary! And she shares all her bills with her husband, whereas I have to pay it all on my own and pay for my ds too.

I doubt this Government will introduce a presumption of 50:50 shared residence.

"In our view, whereas various consultees made suggestions for different
presumptions to be enshrined in law (which would be rebuttable where there
were domestic violence or ?safety of the child? considerations), this would
introduce inflexibility into the system and hamper judges? discretion in a way
that could conflict with the paramountcy principle."

"... looking at Australia, there has been concern voiced in the academic literature that the children who are most likely to be in a shared residence/equal time arrangement may actually be those where parents are most conflicted, are most tenaciously holding onto a sense of their rights and are not holding the child?s interests as the paramount consideration."

See Chapter 5 (in particular section 5.1), in the think tank review of family law, Every Family Matters, compiled by Ian Duncan who is the new Work and Pensions Secretary. The report is available to download from the website of the Centre For Social Justice.

Riven, your friend's story sounds so familiar!

EX-DP (DS's Dad) was made redundant from his job in Feb, 2 months before his 60th birthday. He'd been in the same job for 29 years. He had to sign on for 2 months , go to courses about retraining, writing CV's and how to Twitter for jobs, and was then told after 1 month to sign off because he could get Pension Credit. Except once he signed off, he was told he wouldn't get Pension Credit through for 8 weeks. And his Housing Benefits (to pay his rent) would be also be suspended for 8 weeks.

there is no way i could trust my ex dh (without the d) to have the kids 50/50. i can even trust him to be ontime at the weekends let alone for school etc everyday. what a crock of shite. he neglects to collect my dd from school on time on a friday which the teacher are finding increasingly annoying let alone a possible 3 days a week!
lol
i get no child support from him and i currently pay the 10,000 a year nursery bill for 3 kids out of my uni bursary and loan etc.
this is rubbish.

Am I missing something here? How can the governnment possibly legislate on shared residence?

hopefully it will improve educational standards so that everyone and not just single mothers will know the difference between affect and effect

backtotalkaboutthis, that is outrageously rude!

Gosh, backtotalkaboutthis...your harsh words sure did effect me!

tosh

the difference isn't difficult to understand and for 99pc of people who don't know it, it's because they won't have been taught it

her education is hardly the op's fault

hopefully state education will improve for her children

a good education means everything, personally, for society, for the economy

backtotalkaboutthis....where is your punctuation??? full stops and capital letters?

LOL agreed ILoveTiff....

People in glass houses, should not throw stones!