There's no point working
Finally the kids and I have moved to a house with affordable rent. Yippee, I think to myself, I can now go out and get myself a job. So I started to scan the job section of the local papers and eventually found a job that I knew I would be good at.
I went down to the job centre to discuss my plans with the lone parent advisor, just to make sure my calculations were correct and that that we would be okay. So let's see, where are we?
Yes I am a lone parent with two children living at home. No I don't get any help either financial or otherwise from THEIR father. Yes, I also have three kids that don't live with me and who I have no access to. Yes, their father has a high paying job, but he contacted the CSA anyway.
The lone parent advisor goes off to do the calculations and let me know where I stand. The answer comes back, sorry but you will be worse off financially if you work. The CSA will allow you 20% of the net because of the two children you have with you, but will take the 25% for the other three off what is left, oh and by the way; working tax credit and child tax credit are counted as a form of income too.
So here I am in a poverty trap, where there's no point in getting a job because I will be financially worse off. What are you supposed to do in this situation?
By: Pink
Comments from visitors
I feel for you, go an have a few more kids that way youll get more child benefit and child tax credit. Youll even get your rent paid. Thats what keeps me
-2
Click to rate 
Report
Respect the government - 27-Apr-11 17:46
Oh, thank God for my insight when I moved to the country and bought a property with high walls, security gates and a long driveway.
-5
Click to rate Report
Big Fat Greasey Banker Man - 22-Apr-11 09:02
The more kids you have the more you can send them out into the streets to beg theirs and yours living. Keep a baby or two (borrow one if you haven't got one) slung around your shoulder. Stick your arm and hand out cupped like a begging bowl. Motion the cupped hand towards your mouth in a feeding fashion. Practice these motions every morning upon waking until you are perfect.
Look dirty and unkempt. Pick your location carefully. Watch out for the protectors of others who claim the pitch you are trying to use as their own. Look out for nasty policemen who may move you on.
Smile. Look happy with your station in life. You make others feel they are well off despite how poor they are or how dreadful a job they might have. That is your very special role. The government will pay you for this.
Look dirty and unkempt. Pick your location carefully. Watch out for the protectors of others who claim the pitch you are trying to use as their own. Look out for nasty policemen who may move you on.
Smile. Look happy with your station in life. You make others feel they are well off despite how poor they are or how dreadful a job they might have. That is your very special role. The government will pay you for this.
+8
Click to rate Report
The Mendicant Society - 22-Apr-11 06:47
Well all of this is your own fault, you chose to have five children after all.
It disgusts me that the government is allowing you to choose not to work.
It disgusts me that the government is allowing you to choose not to work.
-3
Click to rate Report
Hello everyone, What are you all going to do when the country cannot pay benefits any more?, because that scenario is approaching fast.
-1
Click to rate Report
GL, I would not take it too personally, "Anon" or "anon" is grumpy against everybody.
+8
Click to rate Report
cryptic comment - 8-Jan-11 20:05
Anon - thanks for the thought but I am not that easily offended. Broad shoulders.
-1
Click to rate Report
Isn't "chicken" the nasty name calling that GL is always on about? Is it different when he does it?
-7
Click to rate Report
I’m not suggesting that there is anything wrong with people who are unemployed. In many places there is just no work, especially if someone loses their job when they are in their fifties or even forties. The majority of unemployed people want to work but can’t find a job that pays enough to live on.
However, unemployed people have to go for job interviews, take temp jobs or short term contracts. They might be a very unreliable and fluctuating source of child care which might be unsettling for the kids. Also, if they come and go a lot the authorities might start to skip some of the police checks that have to take place at the moment if you want to work with children.
Regarding what some (too many) priests did to children and what the upper echelons of the Catholic Church did to protect the offenders, that was a sick and disgusting series of crimes and cover ups. I doubt we will find ourselves in disagreement on that one.
However, unemployed people have to go for job interviews, take temp jobs or short term contracts. They might be a very unreliable and fluctuating source of child care which might be unsettling for the kids. Also, if they come and go a lot the authorities might start to skip some of the police checks that have to take place at the moment if you want to work with children.
Regarding what some (too many) priests did to children and what the upper echelons of the Catholic Church did to protect the offenders, that was a sick and disgusting series of crimes and cover ups. I doubt we will find ourselves in disagreement on that one.
-1
Click to rate Report
Gainsborough Lad - unless you consider that disagreeing with what someone says is causing trouble then I have no idea what you are talking about.
I think your idea is a very bad one. You should not let your anger at the unemployed lead you into considering a policy which could put children at risk.
I think your idea is a very bad one. You should not let your anger at the unemployed lead you into considering a policy which could put children at risk.
-6
Click to rate Report
My mistake. You are only prepared to entrust other people's children to people you have a very low opinion of.
-4
Click to rate Report
Gainsborough Lad - you are always on here saying what scum the long term unemployed are yet you are happy to entrust your children to their care!
+2
Click to rate Report
ye the govement dont care about hard working mums like me,no help to get back to work ,me and my parter both work got in a lot of debt when we had our son had to go to work no choice payed for child care my self ! no help at all not cheap where is the money,people are better off not working all we do is work.work,work and pay tax and dont get a thing,they want us to work but they will not help!! us do it
+1
Click to rate Report
working parents - 7-Jan-11 15:21
I'm trapped. No transport, no way of getting child care of any sort because I live in the middle of nowhere in a village that only has a school. No friends or family that can support me in any way due to my neighbours being elderly and my family live to far away. The council moved us here after escaping a bad marriage. Been looking for work but it is impossible due to me not driving as well as no public transport and no child care near enough. I'm on job seekers and being hassled by them. At this moment it's impossible for me to move or work and my son has behaviour problems. I'd love to work but I really can't, job centre plus don't or wont understand my situation and making my life hell.What do I do?
0
Click to rate Report
When are you all going ot realise that MEN also are sngle fathers/parents! I have brought my 2 girls up on my own since my divorce six years ago and recieved little or nothing from my ex. I pay tax and dont claim anything other the the state child benifit, I dont get CSA or anything as the ex works cash in hand to avoid this, she lives in her new husbands home and doesnt have to worry about putting a roof over her own childrens head, but now the youngest of my two has decided to live with her mum I get the pleasure of paying 15% to her, even though I still have my eldest living with me and cant claim as she works for cash in hand.!! The system is wrong and the people who abuse it are wrong, it should be scrapped and a fair system put in place that takes in to account mortgage or rent for the Nrp and council tax and other house hold bills and then it should take there 15% not before.
-3
Click to rate Report
Hello everyone, What are you all going to do when the country cannot pay benefits any more?, because that scenario is approaching fast.
-2
Click to rate Report
I can only speak to what I know and most women that I know are in committed relationships. The few who are raising children alone did not set out to do that but were in relationships that broke down and yes they do work for a living.
+2
Click to rate Report
Hard working tax payer - 1-May-10 23:04
anonymous, single mothers who don't work a minority? you tell jokes as well then.
+2
Click to rate Report
lets everyone on here change their name to anonymous, gives it an anonymous feel.
+1
Click to rate Report
Anonymous/GL
Unlike yours my children are now grown up but it’s ok, I don’t mind paying a bit extra tax to support you if you are skint and need the tax credits to which you are entitled.
-------------------
Regarding your obsession with single mothers, some are only single because their relationship broke down and they were left to raise the child alone.
I know women who raise children alone but still work.
Some, usually very young girls, choose to have children and intend to live on benefits their whole lives and never work. They are a minority.
If women who never intend to work are the only kind that you know then perhaps you should choose your friends more carefully in future?
Most of us work hard in both our homes and our jobs and object to your constant denigration of us.
Unlike yours my children are now grown up but it’s ok, I don’t mind paying a bit extra tax to support you if you are skint and need the tax credits to which you are entitled.
-------------------
Regarding your obsession with single mothers, some are only single because their relationship broke down and they were left to raise the child alone.
I know women who raise children alone but still work.
Some, usually very young girls, choose to have children and intend to live on benefits their whole lives and never work. They are a minority.
If women who never intend to work are the only kind that you know then perhaps you should choose your friends more carefully in future?
Most of us work hard in both our homes and our jobs and object to your constant denigration of us.
+10
Click to rate Report
