Why Is This Happening

[youngmafbog]

We have a benefits system that pays plenty of money, seems more so if you are foreign, but it does give you enough to live. Maybe not live the high life, but enough to eat.

I wold like to know how many of these 'parents' smoke, drink and own a mobile phone or even a car rather than feed their kids.

I think child benefit should be cut and used to fund free school dinners for all, then, all benefits should be paid for by food parcels and electric cards, no money should be changing hands.

[youngmafbog]

Oops, forgot the link
http://news.sky.com/story/1025286/teachers-giving-food-handouts-to-poor-pupils

[Francis Asis]

I think that's a really good idea

[Gromit]

Poor children are entitled to free school meals. Free meals for every child would be hugely expensive. Why should the taxpayer buy meals for children of wealthy people?

DfE:

// If you get any of the following support payments your child may be entitled to receive free school meals:

Income Support
Income-based Jobseekers Allowance
Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
Support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
the guaranteed element of State Pension Credit
Child Tax Credit (provided you’re not also entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual gross income of no more than £16,190)
Working Tax Credit Run-on - paid for 4 weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit
Children who receive a qualifying benefit in their own right are also allowed to receive free school meals.

Children under the compulsory school age who are in full time education may also be entitled to receive free school meals.

If you think your child is entitled to free school meals, you’ll usually need to fill in an application form supplied by your local council. Give your completed application to your child’s school and make sure you can show documentary proof of any support you are receiving. //

[pdust]

and would you think the same if you had worked for years then suddenly found yourself out of a job and couldnt get another?

[McMouse]

Contraception should be mandatory for all males and females on reaching puberty. Thereafter breeding should be restricted to people who can demonstrate an ability and desire to work and support a family without need for benefits. OK so I'm dreaming.

[NOX]

No McMouse that's a nighmare.
It's a wonderful idea you have there YMB to castigate, humilate and otherwise set apart a whole swathe of society as being unfit to run their own lives. I must admit I never would have thought that making people submit to being part of a social underclass could solve all our problems. I'm so glad you've enlightened me.

[emmie]

many children won't eat school dinners, either because it's awful or they prefer to get chips and burgers outside at lunchtime

[pdq1]

I always remember Margaret Thathcher, the milk snatcher who decided to withdraw milk from school kids. Our family was so poor, we did not have state handouts and often went without breakfast. If it wasn't for the free school milk we would probably have all suffered from malnutrition. Many other families in the area also suffered.

[emmie]

it's odd to me because we weren't well off, but always had milk at home.

[dave50]

Excellent idea McMouse, I thought that for a long time.

[pdq1]

You probably also had a fridge em

[craft1948]

That wouldn't make any difference, they'd just flog the food parcels off cheaply to get beer and fag money.

[Scylax]

True, Craft, true. It is often said (by me) that if you give a man a fish, it will feed him for a day. Give him a fishing-rod and he'd probably sell it and buy a fish with the proceeds.

[modeller]

Can you tell me how football fans on benifits are able to travel abroad to support their teams. Last year a lot went to South Africa and when questioned they said they were not staying in hotels. They avoided saying how they had paid their fare, and entrance tickets.

[Old_Geezer]

I don't think child benefit should exist. Maybe there is an argument for a first child since we assume we have the one life and it seems harsh to tell someone they can not contribute to future generations simply because they are poor, but beyond that ? No, we have too many people here as it is.

I don't think this issue is easy to answer. It would be inhumane to let a child starve/suffer just because a parent has failed to provide; but when the State says, "don't worry, have as many as you like, we'll get the taxpayers to pay your bills for you", then this is not a good message to send. How do you draw the line between not being used as a sucker, and keeping the dignity of someone down on their luck, intact ?

Whatever you choose, it's wrong, one way or another.

[ummmm]

Child benefit is NOT a benefit. It replaced tax cuts.

The main bread winner 'used' to have tax allowance when they had children. It was realised that not all 'breadwinners' spent their money on the household so Child Benefit was introduced. This money was paid to the main carer of the children so if the breadwinner pissed it up the wall the carer of the children could still feed them.

[emmie]

pdq, no we didn't, we weren't well off, in fact what one would call poor. My father rarely worked, workshy bstard, my mother kept everything together.

[emmie]

milk was delivered every day, this was before the days of big supermarkets, also you usually had a larder, pantry, which was cold enough to store milk.

[Goonermatt]

"I think child benefit should be cut"

It is being cut. If either parent earns over £60k you can either cancel your child benefit or opt to still receive it but you have to pay 100% back to the tax man.

If you earn between £50k-£60k you have to pay 1% for every £100 over £50k.

If you earn under £50k you can still claim your £20 a week.

If both parents earn £49k you can still claim the lot, but if one earns £60k and the other earns FA you can't have it. How is that fair?

We had a baby in August and have been claiming the child benefit but will soon have it stopped. We are entitled to not a penny more to help/help with our baby, despite the fact that we pay tens of thousands of pounds in tax each year.

[Old_Geezer]

But child benefit is a benefit by definition. As was the reduced tax bill it replaced. The change didn't demand the breadwinning parent paying extra tax which is then passed to the carer; but merely to pay the correct tax for a change, and then a handout is given from the public coffers instead. It sounds to me this is more of a child neglect issue not something that should be tackled by handouts. Trying to tackle the issue using benefits simply encourages folk who could not afford to support further offspring to have them anyway; quite the wrong message.