Benefit Busters

[BertieBotts]

I have a feeling this is going to be awful actually, they are focusing on lone parents

Just starting on C4 now.

partner loses their job I mean

Thatbis crap Nutty,as I said in prev post,it is very easy for the woman on the prog to make all these suggestions but if you are a lp and have no childcare options and have to factor in summer hols,school run times and child illness it is well nigh impossible.

Even with an incapacitated dp at least I can get kids to bed and then work nights so he only has to go to them if they cry which is rare.

Yes, when I was with xp I worked evenings in a retail store, but had to give that up when we split as I had no childcare.

I am lucky though in that my mum retires in April next year and so I will then be able to be more or less 100% flexible, as she has already said she will have the dc as often as I need her too.

Everyone has childcare options - if they want to look for them. I live in Doncaster and there are loads of summer clubs for all age groups; sports, art etc. Otherwise, do what many other mums do - ask friends, take turns looking after others' kids, beg relatives, take unpaid leave when they're sick - not to mention great childminders, playgroups and so on. That's the real world, not living off benefits with the top Virgin TV package, a massive plasma screen, broadband internet access and professional portraits of your kids on the walls! I'd love that too, but would feel sick to think that others had paid for it!

Huge generalisation there thousandsplendidsuns.

I don't know any genuine (ie not working on the side) claiments that have those things, myself included.

yes very nice generalisation there

such sweeping statements from people who really have no clue whatsover what its truly like to live on benefits and the difficulty finding childcare when you are amongst the poorest in society.

And as for begging relatives What if you have no relatives or neighbours you can trust. Would you leave your children with someone you barely know or don't trust?

Remember tax credits only pay 70% of your chilcare costs. The rest you have to fund yourself, and thats after you have taken into consideration your rent increase (if you rent that is), council tax increase, no free school meals If you claim working tax credit, bus fares, taxi fares,petrol (if you drive).

dp and I have faced all these difficulties, I dread to think how hard itmust be for a lone parent...

Some schools don't have breakfast clubs, after school clubs, what the hell are you supposed to do then?

oh and I certainly don't have a plasma tv, huge portraits of my kids, the latest virgin or sky deal, I don't know anybody in rl on benefits who does tbh (Ok maybe the broadband

I have been limited by the lack of childcare where I live, up until a year ago there were no childminders in the village. No after school club either. Yes there are summer clubs I could have used but it was the school hours I found hard to work around.

I have worked part time since my first child was 6mths, but only becouse I am very very very lucky to get an extremlly flexible job that I can pick and choose my hours and a very understanding MIL.

Unfortunatly MIL didn't want to have the kids 5 nights a week and most jobs include weekends too.

I recently managed to get a full time job as I felt kids were old enough to cope with coming home to and empty house and as MIL was on holiday that was going to be the reality. lost job anyway as I wasn't good enough . Contract so they gave no notice. So back to square one. More confident about getting a full time job now as MIl did have them after school Ok buthas to be nearby or travel will push it.

Its not easy my single dad brother had similar problems and everyone expected him to get a job when his daughter started school. He took the decision to wait as he didn't want her going to an after school club at age 5 as he felt it was far to long a day for her. He waited until she was older and is now a manager.

Anyway back to the programme.

A lot of what she said was true. Didn't like her manner though, imagine having to sit in a class with her for weeks.

They did skirt around childcare issues, which is often the major issue for lone parents.

Next programme is focusing on other benifit claiments not all about lone parents.

i thought nasty bitch was gonna disapear up her bosses arse when she went round to her house!! i also wouldve slapped the over made up bitch round the face!

I will be interested to see next week, I think that for SOME people working life is so far removed from their minds that perhaps a course like this can help them see that earning your money (if you are able!) is a good thing.

I did feel for the lady who had £75k in debt. That must just feel like an insurmountable weight on her shoulders.

"That's the real world, not living off benefits with the top Virgin TV package, a massive plasma screen, broadband internet access and professional portraits of your kids on the walls"

The lady in the programme you are referring to had £75,000 of debt and that wasn't including catalogues. She does not represent the average benefit claimant.

I have to say I didn't warm to the course leader but the programme was edited. She was right about the lady with the drink problem. At the end of the course all the participants did seem more confident and some did manage to get back into work. It wasn't a complete waste of time.

They don't have to go about it that way though do they?

Where I live we have an adult learning centre where you can do courses free if you are on benefits, or very cheaply otherwise and I've done 4.

The first was called Options and Choices, and was designed to help you think about what you want to do next, and that didn't have to be going back to work, though was why I did it.

It counted for half a credit to be used to apply for proper college courses should you wish and was taught by a Psychology lecturer from the nearest college.

I loved it. It got me back into the adult world and the tutor was lovely.

I went on to do 3 Computer course, two of which I got credits for, and though I didn't really learn anything new it gave me something to put on my CV to prove I am computer literate and gave me confidence.

The woman who runs the centre did my CV for me, and has offered me interview coaching and a reference should I want them.

No making anyone feel small, or being horrid.

They pay for childcare if you need it too.

how old were the kids of the women in the programme?

Haven't read the whole thread, but I wanted to say I was appalled at that programme. I would have walked out because that woman was so patronising. I use the A4E service, and IME it doesn't do much, but there is no way now that I will go on one of their courses. I get much better help from a mental health-centred service.

I thought hayley was horribly patronising. I can only hope that it was badly edited and she wasn't that bad. I sensed that she was loving the limelight and playing up to the camera thinking she could be the next big reality star.

How is marching women to the Job Centre to look at pissed up hoodies and then saying 'whatever people think about them they think about you' helpful?

That woman, Dawn, DID have a plasma screen and portaits of her daughter on the wall, and she was the one who had that Virgin deal, so I dont think the previous poster was being general--I think they were referring to Dawn which is fair enough.

It said at the end of the program that apart from Yvette they were all still employed. I didnt see anything about them having been let go after the 2 week trial.

They did mention childcare; she said it would all be paid for by the government, along with £40 taxfree per week and a back to work grant of £250.

I quite enjoyed the show; I do think those women who stuck with the course gained new confidence and experiences so good for them! I wasnt thrilled with ALL of Hayleys methods, but at the end of the day she got the job done and those women seemed happier in themselves.

A couple of questions:

1. How did it come to pass that Yvette was worse off working than on benefits?

1. Why wasn't that worked out before sending her out to work.

1. Did you not think most of them wanted to go back to work?

1. Was it really a 6 week course or was it one day a week for 6 weeks.

She was in £75,000 worth of debt though.
I thought the PP seemed to be implying that benefits had bought all of that stuff which was not the case.

Yes, you do get £250, and then £40 a week. I had it when I went back to work.
It's a one off though, the £250.

When I start my new job, all of my money will stop while they reassess my claim, and as I'll be paid monthly I'll be fucked for a few weeks.

Childcare is paid at up to 80% too, it's not true that all of it is paid.

You also lose your free school meals straight away.

SO muggle will you be better off financially if you work? If you are will it be significant?

The one woman, was it Donna or Dawn?, she said she had to have the full package for SKY because she needed the cartoons for her kids and that was one rwason why she would be worse off if she had a job. She really annoyed me because she didn't seem to want to go back to work, preferring to be on benefits and pay the minimum back on her loans. I don't want to sound judgy (Though I know I will) but many working people don't have the best SKY package because they just can't oon the wages they earn.

*NB - I'd rather the Daily Mail not take what I have said in here and print it in their paper thanks**

Yes I will, but I only have one child.

It was about £40 a week better off but some of that was tips as I was a waitress.

My new job won't have those as I'll be cleaning in a care home.
I've also finally got maintenance from my ex (DD is 8 next week) so once it's paid I'll have that too, though I don't know how much of that I'll get to keep.
It doesn't affect tax credits but it does affect housing benefit.

It really depends on your circumstances. Two days a week of before and after school care at 20% isn't much, but 20% of fulltime Nursery Care is. It also depends on things like travel costs, and hidden costs such as having to dress for office work, say, whereas I've had a uniform.

It's not as straightforward as it may seem.

Exactly, mugggle! That's why a one-size-fits all approach wouldn't be good for the children these changes to policy will affect.

Coming from the US myself, I'm extremely cautious of 'welfare-to-work' schemes, especially private ones.

It's impossible to qualify the negative impact they've had on children there.

But I can tell you it ain't good.

Not at all.

Believe you me, you don't want to go down that road as a nation.

It's downright inhumane and shameful. It embarrasses me, tbh.

I was quite horrified at the show, and I think it's a shame that some people will have watched and seen it as a good thing.

You can't just bunch all lone parents together like that.
It's not that simple.

I think it's awful that they had to work for two weeks with no payment too.
Shop work is not that hard, they could have done the training in a day or two.
Making them do it for two weeks is a scam if I ever saw one.

I have it easier than many as in having just one child and her being in school but it's still taken me 5 months of applying for any job going to get a 16hr a week job cleaning, and let's face it, Care Homes and the toilets I'll be cleaning won't be pretty.

I want to work and I need the money so I will do it.

The worst interview I've had though, the only one where they asked nothing about me and gave no feedback at all was the one to work for the Job Centre.
I was so pissed off I wrote to them and told them!

was the lady that didnt stay in that shop the only one with more than one dc?and were they all lone parents?i missed the beginning.

they were all lone parents, yes.

the lady who didn't stay on had 4 children. and the benefits v. work printout she had was a calculation from her lone parent advisor at the JobCentre where only the lowest of low do lurk.

donagh the drinker had 2, but they were teens and she'd only been unemployed for 2 years.

the one with glasses and all the debt had one.

the one with shortish blonde hair had a boy and a girl but they looked fairly young, primary-school aged.