Whinger or not? You decide!

[samuel23]

I was listening to radio 5 this morning and a woman was on moaning about the amount of help new parents got. She was complaining that due to the fact she had given birth to twins she, and anyone else that had 'multiple births' as she put it, should get double (or more) financial help from the governement..
This woman had the nerve to complin that they needed 2 cars and a bigger house to cope with the twins she had . The debate was balanced by someone from the government saying that along with family tax credits, and other benefits the total extra help was in the region of £9,000 pa
Now (as one of 5 children) my parents never complained about not getting 'more help' from the government. My father and mother both worked to provide for us and didn't expect handouts.
Am I being unrealistic in thinking this woman was a whinging sponger or is that a harsh outlook?

[society]

Wizz, you don't even own a TV for gawd sake. hows you doing anyway? x

[ummmm]

My Dad and his 12 siblings were brought up in a 2 bedroomed cottage. A curtain across the room to separate the boys and girls.

[redcrx]

breast feeding 2 same cost
double buggy, perhaps £100 more
childcare contributions same as 2 kids
child benefit doubles anyway.
dont need 2 cars for twins, walk or swap car for bigger one


twins no different really to having 2. Just more tiring i would think :)

[ummmm]

You get less child benefit for the youngest twin.

[society]

People don't really know what they have... nor do they know when they have it good.

[redcrx]

you may do, ummm, but its still same as 2 kids.

[ummmm]

Yeah.....just seen it on telly today (unrelated) something I'd never thought about.

[annie0000]

I am guessing that the point she was trying to make was that when you have children singly, you can pass some things on or re-use them e.g. cots, prams etc Whereas when you have twins, you can't do that. However, as you say, that is the luck of the draw, I had two kids close together so couldn't do a lot of those things either and maybe you need to compensate families who have kids of different sexes as they can't expect their son to use pink blankets!

I am the youngest of 7, we never had a car at all, my parents worked to support us as it was their choice to have us. When you decide to have a baby, you need to consider in advance what you would do if it is a multiple birth, not just expect the rest of the country to fund it for you. I really do think sometimes that people think that the goverment has money to burn and that actually it is not coming from the taxes that we all pay.

[jackthehat]

Although, something that I noticed (I saw it on TV, though) was that she couldn't go back to work because the child-minding fees were £1800 per month for the twins !
That's still £ 900 per child which is absolutely astonishing !!

Even the additional £ 9000 would only result in 4 and a half months months childcare for these twins.

I'm in the wrong job.

[craft1948]

She could sell one...........

[B00]

rofl craft. Which one? The one she doesn't like as much? I like your thinking gal ;-)

[samuel23]

Thank you all for your input ~ I tried very hard not to judge, but it really wound me up to think that she could complain on national radio about not getting extra help for what was, after all, a choice that she had made.
Ok maybe she wasn't expecting twins, but she chose to breed and now wants the tax payer to foot the bill.
People like that drive me crazy!

[annie0000]

I had my two 13 months apart and childcare for our first was £600 per month and that wasn't full time - that was nearly 10 years ago - when we knew we were having our 2nd, we couldn't afford childcare for both so my husband gave up his job to look after them and I worked to support us all. We didn't get any state handouts and i wouldn't have expected us to.

[redcrx]

jackthehat, childcare for a baby at my sons nursery is £35 a day. so i can quite believe her bill. BUT for parents earning les than £50k a year up to 80% or something can be claimed back.

[annie0000]

not in my day redcrx - additionally now that we both work, I need childcare in the holidays, which costs the best part of a grand during the summer plus easter etc, but we don't get any help with that either as they average it out over the year.

[redcrx]

i cant claim either, annie, because i have savings. Not for long though at this rate lol

[annie0000]

Not good is it red? I may moan about the cost, but god knows what we are going to do when they get to age 12 as the current arrangement stops then and there is nowhere else for them to go and yet they can't stay at home by themselves. Looks like one of us will need to give up work again!! There is no way I am leaving 2 boys of that age in the house all day unsupervised. They are good kids so far, but anything could happen!

[redcrx]

im ok in as much as i work from home, though having the 1 year old at home with me can be difficult enough having both can be a nightmare lol