What ideas and suggestions would you like us to pass on to the new government?

[Carriemumsnet]

We are meeting with government in the next few weeks and we'd like to pick your brains. Obviously times are tight and most government departments will be anxious to find ways to increase efficiency. Do you have any thoughts about how things could be made simpler and easier, perhaps by using Mumsnet to implement services or offer support currently offered in other ways? Are there particular services that you think warrant special protection and should be ring-fenced? Or any particular ones that you feel are badly implemented/ wasteful? How could Mumsnet work with government to make life easier for parents? For example should Mumsnet be promoted by Midwives and Health Visitors to parents when they leave hospital or have their final visit? Could Mumsnet be used as a job-share hub? We know you'll have lots of ideas and suggestions, so please post them here and we'll try and pass on as many of them as we can.

Thanks, MNHQ

Most of mine were about simplifying tax but 11 was different - "11. Change the law to force both parents to have the children 50% of the time on divorce"

What's wrong with that one? At a stroke you ensure fathers who loe their chidlren aren't unfairly deprived of contact and you make it much easier for full time working mothers. if 50% were the default as it is in a good few countries now and you had to make a case to alter it I think it would help both women and men and indeed many children who want to see more of a parent after a divorce but we have yet to see Cameron's feminist credentials so I am waiting to be convinced.

I have recently been involved in a similar campaign where mums took their
messages to Samantha Cameron - I went direct to number 10 with my twins,
Megan & Ava.

Really great to see this is being replicated elsewhere - this way us mums
will really be able to make an impact. We were supported by yoomi, the self
warming baby bottle.

My message was to ask that mothers of twins or other multiples get the same child benefit. At the moment I get 20 for first born and 13 for second born but in theory i should get 20 for each as they were born together, its not my choice to have twins but it is your choice to have a second baby so I why should we be punished

I'm not sure most children are conceived by choice actually and plenty of the newer twins are IVFs (although mine were natural)

Only just come to this thread

I'm concerned about the government's attitude towards disability - particularly the idea that cutting the disability living allowance claimants will somehow promote work. DLA is not a means tested benefit; it's given for good reasons to disabled people regardless of income. A disabled person holding down a good job in an office is still going to find their life brings extra costs than their non-disabled colleague sitting alongside them.

I'd like to be confident - for several things have stopped me being so, so far - that the government understand and use the social model of disability - it's here if they don't - and understand that disabled people don't need charity, they need an assurance at a national level that work is continuing to deal with the barriers that society puts in their way.

As Scope says "DLA is not a benefit, but a basic recognition that it is more expensive to live as a disabled person in our society."

"Registering the birth of my children always seemed like an unnecessary palava - could it not be done online?" Whaaat? Imagine the bogus identities that could be set up that way?

What exactly is mumsnet after here - who is approaching who - mn to govt or govt to mn?

"How could Mumsnet work with government to make life easier for parents? For example should Mumsnet be promoted by Midwives and Health Visitors to parents when they leave hospital or have their final visit? Could Mumsnet be used as a job-share hub?" No. No it shouldn't. You're private company. No different from Nestle in this repsect. Bog off

Good post on the Guardian today :

"There is one small problem with these cut backs.

Up until now, everyone has been prepared to pay taxes because they have assumed that there will be at least some return on their investment in one form or another eg pensions, welfare, NHS etc.

However, millions of people are now being asked to pay even higher taxes, with very little, and possibly, no return in sight for their money.

The question that they must be asking themselves now is : " Why bother ? "

This may seem a trivial issue. However, like all major laws, taxation depends upon general acceptance from a compliant population. Should a substantial proportion of the people decide that this government can go whistle up their arse, there is, in practical terms, very little the Government could do about it.

I'm not suggesting that this will happen on a large scale - but on a large enough scale to weaken the accepted bonds between Government and the governed.

Sound to me like the black economy is about to explode. And with it a general disengagement of a substantial number of people from the State and the role it fulfills."

Housing.

We need more social housing - desperately.

At the moment the waiting lists are huge with many, many people living in bad or unsuitable housing.

The cost of renting privately often traps people on benefits. They cannot afford to work and lose their housing benefit.

The answer to this is not to cut housing benefit. This will push more people into eviction and make private landlords even less likely to take HB tenants. We already have so many landlords refusing to even consider HB tenants.

If more people are evicted more pressure will come to bear on councils and their already slim, emergency housing measures.

The costs of either renting or buying also causes suffering to the working poor. Many are forced to work long hours in order to pay mortages or rent. Long working hours damage family life. This stress can lead even to family breakdown with all of the fallout.

A program of social housing construction will also be a major stimulus to the construction industry which employs thousands of people across the country.

Please, we NEED more social housing. We have needed it for decades.