Anyone not using their child benefit yet?

[arabicabean]

Hi,

I'am a first time mum and have recently started receiving child benefit. I was interested in whether others were using theirs? Mine is paid into a new account I opened and its kind of exciting getting the monthly statements. Are you using yours yet or just watching it accumulate?

yes expat, well aware of my legal status, we're outside EU, been here 4.5 years, only just got permanent residency and will be British by April 2009. Only just got a form to apply to receive Child benefit, they offered to back pay by 3 months, so no, I've not claimed one penny, neither has my husband and we've been royally paying our way around the UK like legal-aliens should!

This thread shows MN at its best or rather worse !

Op posted a genuine question - as a first time Mum - how do you use your child benefit ?

Alot of pople are saying that OP should get to know the real world ? well the real world is made up of lots of differnt types of pople who have lots of wealth or not . So if some are saving their CB well good luck to them and if some are using it to live off well - even more luck to them !

From day one we have had ours paid into a bulding society childrens saving account by DD. Yes it is allowed - to whoever said that it wasn't allowed to be paid into a childs account.

We had hoped that it would go towards university fees ( if they decided to go ) or help them twords property ladder .

We have only on a hand ful of occassions tapped into it e.g- to pay for private speech thearpy for DS2, to pay for private ENT consultant fees for DS2 and school dinners at begining of term when pay day is still a long way off !

I see nothing troll like in the OP posting - just a genuine question -.

Not everyone will use it in daily living expenses - that is also the real world - so get off the OPs back !

I agree captainunderpants. I am fairly new to mumsnet myself and have often wanted to start my own thread asking an innocent question and wanting genuine advice. I dont think i have the nerves to now though as i am scared of being attacked if i dont live my life in a particular way.

mine just sort of disapears into the daily espenditue. hwever, depending on what else is happening financially, i put between 5 and 35 poiunds a month into each of the kids accounts. and this money then accumulates, until i need to use it to pay off overdrafts overdraft. or on one occasion when i used it to fund family stuff,(i.e my parents and sibling who were in need, and that was th eonly money i had.)

donate it to charity dear,

canary wharf ffs

I dont think it was the question that was the problem, it was the way she feels that "its only £18" that got some peoples backs up.

£18 is a lot of money to some (even a lot) of us right now and to have it shrugged off as "only £18" was quite insensitive I feel.

only £18 p/w but it's 1/4 of my weekly budget!

mine goes on food, fuel, rent and more recntly to pay for 2 hours in the creche for DS, a week - but it all goes on him - one pot, hardly anything for me as long as he's fed clothed n warm, I don't care.

to an extent I agree with the underpants thou.

hi djarm.

It's crass and insensitive to start a thread called 'anyone not using their child benefit yet'? I can't believe that's difficult to understand.

Would you walk into a room of women you didn't know and ask if they all had the latest Mulberry bag? Or would you wait to find out if that was a month's income for some of them before opening your mouth?

It may be insensitve to some but not all !

Some of you have to accept that some pople dont use it in everyday expendture - just like the Op is learning that some people do !

You may aswell say that it is insensitve to post a thread ' I am pregnant !' when we know so may women find it hard to conceive !

Get a grip ladies - the real world means that people have differnt lifestyles and life experinces - we shouldn't pounce down her throat like some of you have !

'been here 4.5 years, only just got permanent residency and will be British by April 2009. '

must be some grandfather clause! it used to be 5 years to apply for ILR - the most recent change was to 6 years - and then the rules are the same as always - you wait 11 months past the day of your ILR to apply for naturalisation.

If you're eligible for benefits, then why complain that you are not?

There were a few even before ' only £18 a week ' came in to it .

You don't even have to apply for it. It's voluntary to apply. If it's 'only £18/week' and it really doesn't mean much why bother?

I think most of the OP's posts are a bit sneery but I'm clearly a more cynical person than you CU

Ours goes on daily living expenses, if only we had the luxury of saving it!
i know if i did i wouldn't start an op boasting about it

What the Op spends her CB on is her business .

In this day we are all feeling the credit crunch but how many still manage to find the money for drink or a packet of fags, or a sneeky coffee with our mates ? whilst still using CB in daily expenses ? There's my cynicism coming out !

I thought the first responses to the op were unfair but then she went and made a few glaringly knobbish and insensitive comments. So from "you don't have to be rich not to use it" onwards she pretty much became fair game for a mn flaming.

Mine goes into my bank account along with other income and I'd miss £80 a month if it didn't go in. Especially as costs are going up.

I have heard that CB is paid to foreign workers for their children still residing overseas.

Well, the OP doesn't sound trolly to me, but it DOES sound rather survey-like, like someone out for information.