Think this government really have gone mad now?

[keepingupwiththejoneses]

Just watched the news and saw the latest money making scheme from this government. To charge for the services of the CSA, they are planing to charge up to a third of the maintenance received for the service. This is just stupid, IMO. Anyone who has used them that, most of the time they are a load of rubbish anyway.
I thought the benefits cap was bad enough but hen they are going to penalise single parents even more by charging them to use a rubbish service.

The next story was about cuts in the military, they are cutting lots of military personnel, but in some areas they are desperate, such as bomb disposal etc. They have said they will not allow those who are to be given redundancy, to retrain in these specialist jobs. That to me is just plain stupid, if the really need these specialties why not allow them to train to do it if they prefer
I am not a single parent, but have been, and the only way I could get anything out of ex was to use the CSA, who put a charge on his wages. Have this government gone mad or are they just completely out of touch with real people lives?

AThingInYourLife I don't agree with you so i've missed the point?

Read that back to yourself and tell me what part of it wasn't misplaced arrogance?

IUseTooMuchKitchenRoll You debate with an extreme style using colourful language to generalise and poor scorn on men.

Your views are odd and your ideas even odder.

Extreme and colourful. I think I like that.

So, what would be your idea to encourage NRPs to provide for their children and prevent them having more when they can't afford the ones they already have?

Oh, and I can assure you I am not pouring scorn on men. I just know what men are capable of. Men like my ex who works a low paid job, but still manages to give me £200 in cash every month, and pay half towards school uniform, school dinners, extra curricular clubs etc. He has also had another child, whose mother is on full benefits and gets money from him too. He goes without to provide for his children.

That's the scary thing, its not mad, its all very calculating.

oooh, unreasonableannie, are you stalking me luv? and yes, i spotted my typo too - i wondered if anyone could be arsed to correct me on it - thanks for that.

Where did i say that Ed Milliband wasn't an overpriviliged twat and deserves to run the country any more than Cameron the cock?

Its a good point you make though - maybe it is the entire system that is wrong and the government need to be more representitive of the general populace, or do us poor illiterate workers not know wht is good for us?

IUse - going without to provide for your children is what most parents do, isn't it?

Well except the shit ones.

Prioritising your children when you allocate your time (limited) and money (limited to varying degrees).

Exactly Athing, that is what most parents do. Which is why I don't get it when someone says they shouldn't.

I was just pointing out that men, or people, can do it. In the vague hope that foglike would see that they can and should. And that I am not forming my opinions because I have a personal grudge against men or have some desire to 'punish' them for having children.

A nrp should pay for the child dependent on how often they stay with them etc, it should not matter what the nrp earns. The resident parent is not allowed to not feed the child because they do not earn a lot so why is the nrp allowed to do this. Disagree with the CSA taking a cut, as the money is for the child so in fact they are charging children.

therehastobemore,
I read somewhere it costs about £40K to become an MP. And if you want one of the main parties to let you stand for them you have to have contacts there or have worked for them (often for free in central London). DC, NC, and EM all got ahead through contacts. It makes it difficult for outsiders of any political standpoint to get in.

Oh yes, IUse, I got that. I was just reiterating it really.

Your posts on this thread have really made me think about this.

I previously would have accepted that it was fine for NRPs to pay what they can afford.

Thanks :)

I have some reservations about your suggestion of the government clawing back child maintenance payments from people who don't pay, and that debt not being erased when a child hits 18, but it has some merit.

The resident parent is not always the poor innocent deprived one

kelly2000 exactly, so you are not going to get in unless you are part of the old school tie brigade. The only thing these people know about poverty is what they read in books, they have no real idea of the devestaing impact of unemployment and poor living conditions. It is very hard to empathise with someone you have no experience of.

Thanks

The only reason the CSA was set up in the first place was to try and extract money off non resident parents to go into the governments funds anyway. If a single parent was on income support they went in guns blazing to get money off the other parent. iirc the resident parent got to keep £5. Once they realised that it was costing more to run the CSA than they were collecting for the state they scrapped the original concept and came up with this. It should never have been brought in in the first place (a tory decision) it was pure evil. Of course they lied and said the money was for the children when they set it up.

Cannot comment on the military but I don't think we should be spending so much money on going into illegal wars. Defense yes!

Hi there, we're going to move this into Politics.

'The thing that really gets me is that most military men with families live within the army bases.' Nope, an awful lot are Royal Navy or RAF, not Army.

If you have an MQ, you should also make sure that you have a toe hold somewhere in the housing market as a backstop. However, some LAs are now building social housing specifically aimed at ex-Forces.

There is a period of grace for remaining in the MQ and sorting yourself out, and there is time between being made redundant and leaving.

Yes, retraining should be offered if they want to stay in, but I wouldn't want dh to do bomb disposal, given how many we lose, and I think it takes a certain type of courage to do that job. It also depends on what numbers you have coming through training and is there the capacity to train more numbers? Would those retraining have to start at the bottom again, or would they retain their current rate/rank? It's bit much if you are senior to go back as a junior and retrain, and the better option might be to take the redundancy package and look elsewhere. You also have to factor in the current level of morale, and if people would sign up again. The Forces used to be about the people, as they were the greatest asset; it's now all about money and is driven by the bean counters.