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The current row about child benefit coming just weeks before the budget on 21 March has again concentrated minds on the impact of austerity and government cuts on family finances.
Family Action this week produced a new report Breaking the Bank: Family Fortunes - an investigation into the issue of austerity and family life. We spoke to families who use our children's centres and an advice centre about the state of their finances and about the messages they would like to send to the Chancellor as he prepares to unveil his Budget red box.
We spoke to Worcester women feeling the squeeze as they contemplated returning to work after having new babies, families in Bradford crippled by high fuel costs, young mums in Southend struggling on low incomes to make ends meet and parents in Islington who were hit by rising prices and cuts to housing support.
You can read the findings in our report here but suffice to say family budgets are under intense pressure as families struggle to make ends meet. Key conclusions show that parents are prioritising fuel bills meaning that they have less to spend on other essentials. Some families have less than £2 per person per day to spend on fuel after paying the bills.
Parents are desperate to save for their children's future fortunes but high bills and welfare cuts today mean that this is impossible for most. Mums highlighted the importance of child benefit as a key component of family budgets whether they were in the squeezed middle or on a low income.
All these parents, no matter where they were from, had a key message for the Chancellor. They want to see him protecting family incomes in the Budget and taking action to reduce childcare costs so that work pays. We also want to see the Chancellor reverse changes to Working Tax Credit which could push over 200,000 working families into in-work poverty.
You can read all the messages our families sent to the Chancellor in Family Fortunes - and you can join in and tell the Chancellor how austerity is affecting you using the hashtag #OiGeorge on Twitter.
Follow Helen Dent on Twitter: www.twitter.com/family_action
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The only people that I know who will really be affected are the lazy jobless types who open their legs for anyone and the what I call 'mental' women who have an obsession with spewing out as many children as possible.
But sorry ladies if you insist on knickers dropping to get pregnant why should single people on a fraction of your income pay tax so YOU can get benefits?
Single people get very little in the way of benefits, everything is aimed at breeding females.
If you want children YOU pay for them, I'd phase out all benefits involving children and use the money to cut taxes for the low paid.
The middle classes can go swivel.
How about all unmarried men are castrated at puberty & as its a reversable operation this could be undone when they are earning enough to support their children.
women really do have more control that they make out
say no
ask him use comdom
use a cap
have pill or injection or coil,
use the morning after pill,
chouse some one better to sleep with,
ok mistakes happen but 3-4 times with diff people. get to know them to trace matinace of them
quick to say no to benefits-cuts but couldnt say no in the bed room
MEN should pay toward their kids with rights to see them, and if the men have the kids the women should pay
dont want to label everyone as this, but in some places its common
some women may see it a way to get what they want house, kid, freedom,
ether payed by taxes or random man(baby trap men)
A few MEN seem to think is good having 6 plus with diff women not paying to them, they should have op with bricks
If i was a woman, wouldnt let a cock like that near me, must know?
If i meet a womam with a kid id wanna know could trust her before getting heavy
DnA parents at kids birth
sorry if i sound judgmental ive tryed avoiding trouble in life and think others should too
Sometimes people are put in need and have done every thing they can
eg they might end up widdowed