Child Benefits to be cut, surely about time!!!

The benefit system is a mess and always has been. It needs a radical reform.

When my daughter was born (she's 42) there was no child benefit for the first child (I think it was called family allowance then).
Whatever government was in power decided Family Allowance should be paid for the first child and invited people to apply for it.
My husband and I agreed that we were not rich but in no need of state benefits and we would not apply only to find that we would be taxed on the money whether we claimed it or not.
Nothing has improved !

 

Yes we got "Family Allowance" for the second two. We made sure it was spent on "extras" for the kids.

Our daughter is expecting her fourth child. She had a better idea, from birth, each child had a savings account opened for them and the child benefit paid into it. She'll continue doing this for as long as she receives it. It'll be given to them when (and if ever!) they leave home. Not many will be able, or be willing to do this.

 

I have a much better idea, but I doubt many will agree. It is very simple really.

You want kids? Pay for thier upkeep yourself. If you do not have the income, don't have kids.

The best child is seen, not heard, belongs to somebody else and is kept in a cage until old enough for national service.

Why should my tax and national insurance contribute to somebody elses offspring?

Chopper.
PS: Best not get me started on foreigners, parking attendants and the PC Brigade.

 

My gradfather and all his forefathers were born in England. My grandfatehr served in WWI in a british regiment. My dad is British and served in the armed forces during WWII. I served in a British regiment in a British colony. I am married to a British born lady but I was born in South africa but have lived and worked in britain for the last 17 years. Am I one of your despised foreigners?
We never had child benefit available to us to bring up the kids. I am of the opinion that the more kids you have the less the benefit as this will stop the child churning factories that want more benfits and a council house.
There was an article recently about a young man who had fathered 17 children by different women but had never worked a day in his life due to a bad back. They should be stopped.

 

One of the reasons for the introduction of the Family Allowance was to encourage parents to have more than one child, that's why you didn't get it for the first. This was to ensure population levels were maintained. Now with mass immigration we need more kids like Custer needed more indians! (sorry! "native Americans").

 

NO! You are not one of my " despised foreigners", nowhere did I say that I despise foreigners. I just do not want them in my country unless they are here on holiday. You and your family have served Queen and country. You have made valid and positive contributions to our country. If you have served in the forces then you have also paid income tax. The fact that you were born in South Africa and served in a colony is pretty much irrelevant.

I also served in the army. I was a member of The Life Guards, Household Cavalry. I did eight and a half years before being medically discharged with an Exemplary military record and a War Pension.

Every one of my brothers has been in one of the armed forces, several nephews and cousins are currently serving. Four of my family have or are serving in Afghanistan and Iraq. Three served in the Falklands and the Balkans.

I served at Knightsbridge, Windsor, Detmold BAOR, Cyprus, Hong Kong, Belize, Northern Ireland and Berlin. I was wounded three times. I am British and can trace my family back a long way. I have every right to want my country the country I swore an oath to serve back.

My father served 22 years in the RAF Regiment including Germany, Sharjah, Aden. My grandfather was decorated twice during WW11. My other grandfather was a Master Gunner on board HMS King GeorgeV. My uncle was killed at Pegasus Bridge. My great grandfathers both served in WW1. My Great great grandfather served in the Royal Nay and the army.

Chopper.

 

Since my family were 'foreigners' a few generations ago, I'm keeping out of that one. But immigrants or no immigrants, we have an ageing population which is going to have to be provided for somehow. The state pension was calculated on the basis that people would draw it for around seven years. I have relatives who retired thirty years ago and are still going strong, partly thanks to expensive NHS medical care.

I've just come back from the weekly shop at Sainsburys. It was the usual hellish experience, due in no small part to the large numbers of screaming children. But then we were all screaming children once. I think we should remember that the young generation will be paying for us one day, along with all the other burdens they will have to carry. I don't have particularly strong feelings about child benefit - although I was very glad to receive it - but I worry a bit about a society which just sees children as a nuisance. I find spending time with my teenage nieces and nephews, who are full of hopes and plans for the future, a darn sight more life enhancing than having to listen to a certain elderly relative droning on about how his pension 'only just covers the basics' ... on his three houses.

 

Well, I dont have a problem with well behaved kids, its just that they are very hard to find these days.

Never really liked kids, even when I was one myself.:D

But the modern kid seems to be mostly me, me, me.
There are exceptions and its unusual when you come across them.

As for today's kids paying my pension,
its not my doing, its the successive governments that have gotten us into, "another fine mess", and I'm sure when they grow up things will not be much different, and the next generation will be paying their pensions.

I'm sure your elderly relative is not the norm Clare, most I know are struggling and not making a noise about it.

 

When I moved from the North to the South of England many years ago I was patronised and treated like a 'foreigner' in my own country.
We are only here once and not for very long at that, moaning about children and 'immigrants' is OK but not very forward looking nor indeed very positive. Lets live and let live - it's much easier and more mentally satisfying...............

 

It may well be "easier" but easier doesn't solve any problems, we are massively overcrowded, greenbelt land is being sacrificed for housing, something needs to be done!!!!!!!!!!!

Val

 

Well, you would move to snooty old Surrey, wouldn't you, Barnaby? :hehe: You should come to Medway. They take all sorts here. Even my sort.

I don't mean to sound stingy about pensioners, Pete - the way things are going, I may well have to throw myself on the state at some point. But there's nothing written in the runes that says that the young generation can always pay for the one which precedes it. That all depends on people finding jobs and it remains to be seen whether 'we're-all-in-this-together' Cameron is up to the task. His wife might have hung out with Banksy, cultivated an estuary-tinged accent and pseudo-slummed it in grunge pubs, but I'm not sure he really gets it. Where are the extra taxes on his high-earning mates? Surely that is much more important than pfaffing around with child benefit.

 

Oh I'm not Impressed by Cameron yet Clare, he has a long way to go before he gets my backing.
I'm assuming that this is just the start, and a lot more cuts are to come.

But if anyone is waiting for the upper crust to feel the pinch, my guess is dont hold your breath.
No government will put the squeeze on them because they have too much influence.

As to pensions, well, I paid in and at some point I will want paying out.
To be perfectly honest I dont care where it comes from.

 

Sorry Barnaby that you were treated so badly.

On a more up to date note, I've seen houses boarded up, up north because nobody wants them, but down here we are putting houses everywhere and still there are not enough.
I think we need a bit more realism and the streets in the south are not paved with gold.

 

I agree, Pete, Cameron will never get the people at the top to cough up. We're all in this together, but some of us are more in the *&^% than others.

 

Thanks for the comment Pete - it was a long time ago and since when we have lived all over the place including Edinburgh, a place where Englishmen were non-too welcome in our time up there.

I think that Cameron's problems are only just beginning and am not sure if I like the Liberal involvement - such a small number of MPs with such influence.