crappy government

[ellaandcallum]

They are only cutting the child trust fund not the sure start maternity grant.

 

[chelleb2]

you are fcuking joking?! my baby is due on 24th october so now he/she is only going to get £50 towards its future? point?!

oh well, something is better than nothing i guess.

 

[Mrs IKW]

In Spain they pay a 'baby cheque' of €2,500 when your baby is born as long as you have lived in Spain for at least 2 years and worked during that time however they voted a couple of weeks to abolish it as of 1st Jan 2011 and replace it with nothing!!!! There is no child benefit or family allowance or anything like that as far as I am aware.

Hopefully we will just squeeze in before the cut off as baby is due 15th November. Im not counting on the money though incase we miss out... If we do get it then it will be a lovely bonus!

 

[ClaireLR]

This sort of discussion always gets my back up.

Where the CTF is concerned, why the hell should taxpayers pay for other peoples children to have savings? You want kids, you want them to have savings, pay for them yourself. What about the families that have ten kids, thats 5 grands worth - why should tax payers pay for that? Regardless of whether the country is in a mess financially or not I don't believe these should have ever been introduced.

As for the rest, why do people need £500 to pay for baby things? Have people never heard of buying second hand cots, buggies etc? I can't see why anyone would need £500 to buy baby items, a newborn baby actually needs very little, again why should the taxpayer finance other people wants for expensive nursery furniture/equipment etc? Same goes for the £190 - I am entitled to that but would actually be happy for them to scrap that also, or at least means test it. I can imagine a huge percentage of expectant mothers spending that money on anything but being "healthy in pregnancy". Surely the government shouldn't pay for pregnant women to be healthy, surely any pregnant woman would want to take care of her health through healthy eating, not drinking, not smoking, gentle exercise etc, why does the government have to bribe women to do this with this money?

Rant over.

 

[aob1013]

Because some people do actually need it.

 

[lkb21]

This sort of discussion always gets my back up.

Where the CTF is concerned, why the hell should taxpayers pay for other peoples children to have savings? You want kids, you want them to have savings, pay for them yourself. What about the families that have ten kids, thats 5 grands worth - why should tax payers pay for that? Regardless of whether the country is in a mess financially or not I don't believe these should have ever been introduced.

As for the rest, why do people need £500 to pay for baby things? Have people never heard of buying second hand cots, buggies etc? I can't see why anyone would need £500 to buy baby items, a newborn baby actually needs very little, again why should the taxpayer finance other people wants for expensive nursery furniture/equipment etc? Same goes for the £190 - I am entitled to that but would actually be happy for them to scrap that also, or at least means test it. I can imagine a huge percentage of expectant mothers spending that money on anything but being "healthy in pregnancy". Surely the government shouldn't pay for pregnant women to be healthy, surely any pregnant woman would want to take care of her health through healthy eating, not drinking, not smoking, gentle exercise etc, why does the government have to bribe women to do this with this money?

Rant over.

yeah cause thats what we all want the money for. i wanna kit out my quarter mil home nursery out in mama and papa's finest! gimme a break! and obv, cause i've not got much money i smoke and shoot up and drink and eat burgers, erm no!!!! the HIP grant, fine, i'll agree, pretty pointless, cause i feed my family and keep us all healthy on my wages. but dont slate ppl for needing some money to get started (not necessarily me), who the hell are you to judge!

i'm sorry to be so passionate about this, but i really think that ppl need to think before they spill their narrowminded opinions all over the place. its offensive!!

 

[chelleb2]

claire!! buying things second hand still mounts up! babies need a bloody lot of things and some people really do need the help!! i don't need that £500 and also don't qualify for it but i'm afraid your "rant" got on my nerves

so are you telling me you haven't / won't accept CTF?

 

[buttonnose82]

when you decide to have a child then you should be the one to provide for their future not the government.

we managed for hundreds of years without it and will manage without it ago

'crappy government' isn't exactly fair, regardless of which government got in, the cuts NEEDED to be made.

out of interested i would LOVE to know what areas people deem 'ok' to make cuts in? i am guessing it is a case of 'as long as it don't effect me then i don't give a damn

we are a pampered country but we as individuals need to take responsibility for our own lives and not expect the government to run around clearing up after us

 

[aob1013]

when you decide to have a child then you should be the one to provide for their future not the government.

Some babies are unplanned and unprepared for.

 

[aob1013]

out of interested i would LOVE to know what areas people deem 'ok' to make cuts in? i am guessing it is a case of 'as long as it don't effect me then i don't give a damn

Yep, me. If something doesn't directly affect me, i don't care about it.

 

[chelleb2]

when you decide to have a child then you should be the one to provide for their future not the government.

Some babies are unplanned and unprepared for.

agreed.

 

[buttonnose82]

when you decide to have a child then you should be the one to provide for their future not the government.

Some babies are unplanned and unprepared for.

maybe, however everyone knows that NO contraception is 100% safe, you choose to have sex then you know there is a chance (even if it is a 2% chance) that you might become pregnant. People need to take responsibility for their actions

 

[ClaireLR]

claire!! buying things second hand still mounts up! babies need a bloody lot of things and some people really do need the help!! i don't need that £500 and also don't qualify for it but i'm afraid your "rant" got on my nerves

so are you telling me you haven't / won't accept CTF?

No I won't, because I don't agree with it.

Babies don't need a lot of things, as someone on this thread has already pointed out you can buy reusable wipes, nappies, other than a cot, pram/buggy and some clothing/bedding what else does a baby need?

 

[aob1013]

@ buttonnose: Unfortunately, life isn't as black and white as that.

 

[WILSMUM]

They are only cutting the child trust fund not the sure start maternity grant.

Yeah I was just about to post that - the only changes that have been mentioned so far are to do with the Child Trust Fund - everyone is entitled to £250 voucher but families on low incomes receive £500 voucher - they are putting forward a legisation to cut this to £50 and £100 and then to phase it out completely by the end of the year - its not definate yet as the legislation still needs to be passed.

The Sure Start Grant of £500 and the Healthy Eating Grant of £190 are not going to be changing - well not yet anyway!

 

[aob1013]

The Sure Start Grant of £500 and the Healthy Eating Grant of £190 are not going to be changing - well not yet anyway!

Thank the lord

 

[Butterfly1984]

This sort of discussion always gets my back up.

Where the CTF is concerned, why the hell should taxpayers pay for other peoples children to have savings? You want kids, you want them to have savings, pay for them yourself. What about the families that have ten kids, thats 5 grands worth - why should tax payers pay for that? Regardless of whether the country is in a mess financially or not I don't believe these should have ever been introduced.

As for the rest, why do people need £500 to pay for baby things? Have people never heard of buying second hand cots, buggies etc? I can't see why anyone would need £500 to buy baby items, a newborn baby actually needs very little, again why should the taxpayer finance other people wants for expensive nursery furniture/equipment etc? Same goes for the £190 - I am entitled to that but would actually be happy for them to scrap that also, or at least means test it. I can imagine a huge percentage of expectant mothers spending that money on anything but being "healthy in pregnancy". Surely the government shouldn't pay for pregnant women to be healthy, surely any pregnant woman would want to take care of her health through healthy eating, not drinking, not smoking, gentle exercise etc, why does the government have to bribe women to do this with this money?

Rant over.

I completely agree!

CTF - What the hell will £250 be worth in 18 years anyway, all that's going to happen is that all our babies will be using it to go on holiday or something, it won't get very far towards uni etc, it will just be flittered away! and I don't see why the taxpayer should fund this, always thought it was stupid!

Also, as adults, it is our won decision to have children and we shouldn't be putting ourselves in the position to get pregnant if we can not afford to! We have 9 months to prepare for the birth of our children and therefore 9 months to save and buy things for them so why should people get £500 to buy these things????

Also, the HIP grant to me seems like a ridiculous amount of money, what exactly is it for??? We went to the baby show yesterday and used ours to buy reusable nappies, it was very nice to have them for free but also we would have saved for them if we hadn't been given the money, it just seems so much money to hand out to everyone!! And I bet no one uses it for fruit and veg!! My midwife calls it a 'handbag grant'!!!

 

[ClaireLR]

[/QUOTE]

yeah cause thats what we all want the money for. i wanna kit out my quarter mil home nursery out in mama and papa's finest! gimme a break! and obv, cause i've not got much money i smoke and shoot up and drink and eat burgers, erm no!!!! the HIP grant, fine, i'll agree, pretty pointless, cause i feed my family and keep us all healthy on my wages. but dont slate ppl for needing some money to get started (not necessarily me), who the hell are you to judge!

i'm sorry to be so passionate about this, but i really think that ppl need to think before they spill their narrowminded opinions all over the place. its offensive!![/QUOTE]

Did I mention smoking/shooting up/drinking or eating burgers? No. Neither were my comments aimed at you. You've said the HIP is pointless as you'll be feeding and keeping your family healthy regardless, well I think the £500 is pointless because without it, people would still manage to buy all of the things they NEED, not necessarily the things they WANT.

 

[buttonnose82]

@ buttonnose: Unfortunately, life isn't as black and white as that.

life isn't so 'black and white' because we are too pampered as a country

parenting = responsibility

don't see whats difficult to understand about that, I wouldn't decide to have a dog then expect the government to pay me to look after it, so why should i expect the government to pay me to look after my child

 

[chelleb2]

claire - i've been looking into reusable nappies and the average starting out cost is £300... now i don't think there are that many people that could (or would want to) shell out that much on nappies when they could pay approximately £10 a go on disposables (and yes i already know that in the long run it costs more, but it's the starting out cost that i'm talking about!!)