would you do this?

[nappyaddict]

if you worked nights and your child was always in bed and asleep before you went out and never wakes up, would you give your neighbour who was wellknown to your child the baby monitor to keep an ear out on the offchance that they do wake up and a key to get in on that offchance rather than giving up work? (a babysitter costs more than i earn an hour)

i had to pay for a block of lessons so even though we only went once and i think my mum took him once we have already paid for the whole block.

mum and tots groups in church halls etc will cost a couple of quid,if that

i don;t mean to bang on about this, but you have a small income, you need to prioritise, and get yourself sorted with WTC etc...

you are young, you have the rest of your life to go to the gym or whatever, right now, as long as your DS has you, he is fine!

right to them, or call them and ask for the money back or at least a proportion , a professional company does not want to piss people off and get bad publicity.

but I am not fine. yes the toddler group is £2 but bus fare is £3. we do toddlers one day, swimming one day, gym class one day and story time one day (that ones free).

So if you got benefits you would get -

Child benefit £17

Child tax credits about £42

Income support - £59

= £118 - £45 for your mum would be £73

Working you get £50 -£100

• £30 from your mum from left over benefits

= anywhere from £80 - £130

So yes i can see your better off what your doing than being on benefits BUT the reality is if you were on income support you would have to pay no rent as if your mum rents then the council would pay your rent.

i will do that lulumama do you think they will give me the 4 weeks i havent paid for back then.

haven't been to i meant.

On another note, goodness me NA youve a lot of pics on your profile.

mum doesn't rent.

Do you have a local council run leisure centre NA ??

also they said i couldn't get HB to pay my mum. only if i rented my own house.

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Or a Sure Start Children's Centre nearby?

yes .. that is where ds has one of his classes.

you can only ask

it is hard to constantly make sacrifices, but it won;t be for ever

Have you checked to see if they offer a reduction that you'd be entitled to if you were claiming for ds ??

Here, if you are on certain benefits you can get a passport to leisure which entitles you to roughly 50% off classes, swimming etc.

don't even get me started on sure start. apparently only those in certain areas are on low income why it is based on your blardy postcode and not your income is beyond me

i've got one of those already. had it when i was a student and its not expired yet

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Yeah I agree about Sure Start, they really should sort that out. They wouldn't let me go to their group because I was from an affluent area.

Every Community will have a SS centre in the next few years- they are designed to offer integrated services to everyone- which should mean you can see a Lone parent adviser there too.

Nutty that's dreadful I've been very involved in the management of children's centres since the outset, and that attitude is meant to be completely contrary to their ethos

BLimey, you would be better off on JSA. it's so hard once childcare comes into it. As someone suggested could you go down the CSA route re: T's dad? Even £5-£10 a week would give a real boost. Ideally you need a morning job though if your mum works from 12, or nights.

They aren't the only thing I have been excluded from because of my postcode snowflakes. I was also refused help from a back to work scheme because I lived in an area that wasn't considered to be poor.

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