Soaring heating costs, what's your plan.

Conversely, if a person can find better paid work or do longer hours or a second job/ weekend job, rather than claiming benefits why in the world is that considered an inappropriate thing to vocalise?

No one should be paid so little that they have to work all the hours God sends. There has to be quality of life. Children need to spend time with parents. Did we not change employment laws for those reasons?
I'm sure my single parent daughter would love to find better paid work, if only. (in Civil service job !! )
Explain how she can work weekends GSM
Cuts in UC will help I'm sure. And she's far from the only one in this situation.
Exasperated!

Thanks Bob, you explained that excellently

FannyCornforth

Norah of course ‘child minder comes to mind’
But have you not considered that the person whose child/ren is being minded may be out of pocket because of this?

Tbh I’m a bit cheesed off now (to say the least) with this thread, and the posters who have absolutely no idea of, or indeed interest in, ‘how the other half live’, but they can’t help but pontificate on how they ought to organise their lives

Yes, I've seen the maths on costs of childminding.

I have an idea how others live, we've lived many years with no money.

I have no intention to pontificate to anyone on how to organise their life and I don't think I have done. Everything I've quoted, I believe, was examples such as "my friend or my niece etc".

I have opinions as anyone else does, I assume I'm free to respond even as I may not agree with others' normal.

Norah you can do or say whatever you choose!
I never said otherwise.
Btw you have absolutely bugger all idea what ‘my normal’ is.
I assume that you mean how much I have in the bank? You might be surprised.
But you can’t buy empathy or emotional intelligence, can you?

8n the interest of my sanity and blood pressure I'm ignoring this thread now, and not listening to any news about the Conservative Conference.

I've been thinking (always dangerous) and just realised that of the young couples I know with small children, without exception, the mums have only been able to go back to work because they have at least one grandparent who is able to look after their child or children for at least some of the time. There's a whole army of us grandparents out there providing unpaid childcare and without that, those parents would simply not be able to afford full-time professional childcare. Imagine what kind of state the country would be in then?

I think it's wonderful how many grandparents provide childcare but also sad because people deserve their retirements

I've been home since 4. I've stuck a wash on, a load put to dry, helped youngest with homework and listened to him read, washed my hair cleaned the bathroom, and I've just stuck home made toad in the hole in the oven with roasties...

And I blame gransnet for the fact that multitasking to this degree means I've forgotten to put the blooming toads in the hole.

Lol

Toads with hole for six

Love it VS at least you have been working

FannyCornforth

Norah you can do or say whatever you choose!
I never said otherwise.
Btw you have absolutely bugger all idea what ‘my normal’ is.
I assume that you mean how much I have in the bank? You might be surprised.
But you can’t buy empathy or emotional intelligence, can you?

Not your normal, anyone here who has a different opinion to me. I have no idea what anyone else has in the Bank, nor you me.

I have empathy, can't be bought.

Norah

Barmeyoldbat

Because they think you can or should pay for child care despite the fact you would probably be paying 80% of any extra earned in child care costs and then when tax was taken away you would be left with very little. But hey ho in the Tory world that’s ok, surprised they haven’t mentioned bringing back the workhouses

No.

Because I think working extra hours and earning extra, no matter the total, is extra in the pocket. In Blondiscot's example the extra is over £1000 a year.

And exactly how is that good for children if they are rushed out of the house very early every morning and not picked up until 7 or 8 pm or so because Mum (or Dad) is working extra hours to get an extra £20 a week?
The childcare would cost more than that so negative result all round.
Stressed parents, unhappy children.
Childminders don't generally work weekends either.

As a TA, it's not great for children honestly.

It would be wonderful if some well paid jobs were more child friendly

This is the next generation of workers and customers

VioletSky

As a TA, it's not great for children honestly.

It would be wonderful if some well paid jobs were more child friendly

This is the next generation of workers and customers

Absolutely. As I said in one of my earlier replies on here, just because we may have had to struggle, shouldn't we want better for the current (and next) generation?

Norah

Blondiescot

So Norah, tell me this - would you work full time for £20 a week?

No longer, at 77 years old we're beyond that now.

However my husband worked at least 2 jobs, very low pay, for years, to put food on the table.

I'm in favour of doing for yourself with little government involvement.

Were you doing two jobs as well, Norah?

If I was Norah's husband, I'd have cut down my hours if she was at work, too.

Norah

OnwardandUpward Some people would probably be glad to welcome back slave labour and would still victim blame and victim shame even when someone works so hard in bad conditions that they have no quality of life.

Nobody said that.

Conversely, if a person can find better paid work or do longer hours or a second job/ weekend job, rather than claiming benefits why in the world is that considered an inappropriate thing to vocalise?

Because not everyone can.

Thats what seems to be missing. People are putting their own circumstances onto others and deciding that the others are failing

Has anyone even mentioned how expensive it is to retrain now if you are in low paid work? How expensive it is to go to college? How expensive it is to go to university?
It isn't called the poverty trap for nothing
There is no night school anymore
and PLEASE don't mention the open university, they charge a lot too.
There are some free courses but they are for low paid, skills shortage jobs.

There are some smug and judgmental people on this thread talking down to people in low paid [yet valuable] work.

Not everyone has parental support/childminding grandparents, a great education, a wonderful husband, a very well paid job, good health and fitness.

Life is diverse, with different opportunities, various [happy or dysfunctional, and everything in between] backgrounds, problems within the family, accidents, redundancies, run down communities, dependent relatives etc.etc.etc.

These self satisfied individuals do not seem to understand how the real world [without advantages] can be for some and how life can conspire against even determined individuals who are willing to work hard. Do they not have the capacity to understand, to be empathetic, to be emotional intelligent?

Whatever, remember the thread about the bullies on here a few weeks ago?...

You have hit the nail on the head

Doodledog

Because people keep bringing it up, however hard others try to drag things back to the point of the thread?

Heated gilets and thermal knickers, anyone?

... thermal knickers look a bit too 'clingy'. I imagine they're great if you're out in The Pennines.

Have you seen men's thermal bib knickers? They're a bit pricey.

Bib knickers sounds like they are padded for cycling

Looking them up now Dickens. Goodness me, hope that image isn’t in my dreams!

Once seen, never forgotten, I fear

I recommend buying one of these. Cheaper than oodie and not so heavy as some other brands. Ours are from the company Bedsure;

amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B09YM4S7N7/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1]]

Lightweight but oh so comfy. We decided that it would be cheaper to heat ourselves than the entire house. So far so good!

I switched my central heating on last night for the first time as I was feeling the cold. I have a smart meter and am in credit with my gas and electricity provider to the tune of just over £200. I don’t intend to overuse the heating but we have to keep warm. My thicker duvet is now on the bed, as is a blanket. I also recently bought an oodie, which is lovely and warm.