57 Responses to “Wokingham”

1. H.Hemmelig

   If a father’s contribution is a proportion of their unemployment benefit then the figure will be an extremely low amount of money.

   And at the same time the administrative costs will be enormous. Are you old enough to remember the CSA and what a disaster that was?

   As with the CSA, many mothers would collude with the father and claim not to know who the father was, where he lives etc etc. What would you do then?

   November 9th, 2011 at 3:32 pm
2. LBernard

   I think jobseekers allowance is about £60 for over 25s and £53 for under 25s so even £!0 a week out of that can help towards the cost of having a baby. I would hope that living on such a small amount a week would spur that father on to look for work.
   I cannot remember the CSA but I’m judging that it did not work out too well. If the mother does not know who the father is then she will be entitled to nothing. Simple.
   The policy will only work between parents whose relationships (if they ever had one) has broken down, the father has dismissed all responsibility while the mother is left with the burden of raising a child on her own.

   You’re right though about the administration – lets hope if something like this was implemented it could be done with a minimum amount of fuss.

   November 9th, 2011 at 3:58 pm
3. H.Hemmelig

   “even £10 a week out of that can help towards the cost of having a baby.”

   LOL – from that comment I deduce that you haven’t got any children of your own? £10 per week is complete peanuts, enough for about 2 days supply of nappies. And the government would never get away with reducing someone’s subsistence level JSA by 15% in terms of the courts and human rights act etc.

   The CSA was a complete disaster. It started off with the aim of doing pretty much what you’ve suggested – forcing deadbeat dads who have disappeared to pay something towards the upkeep of their children.

   However the whole thing turned on its head. The workshy underclass deadbeats it was intended to catch mostly wriggled out of paying anything, due to them being on benefits and having no money, also through evasion, being hard to trace, and colluding with their ex partners who had no incentive to help the CSA (all money from the father was knocked off their benefit).

   In the face of this difficulty the CSA concentrated on going after easy middle class targets -respectable fathers who were already supporting their children, but according to a CSA formula were said to owe more. Many middle class divorced men vote Conservative and this was a definite vote loser for the Tories before the 97 election.

   November 9th, 2011 at 5:51 pm
4. Pete Whitehead

   HH I don’t disagree with your basic argument, but I take it you and your wife haven’t had your baby yet? If you have I sincerely hope you aren’t going through £10 worth of nappies every two days. You could probably get about 100 disposable nappies for £10 which should last a couple of weeks at least. And actually nappies is probably the main item of expenditure for newborn babies, (at least if they’re being breast fed). Older children certainly start to drain ones finances, but babies need not be all that expensive really

   November 9th, 2011 at 6:55 pm
5. H.Hemmelig

   Yes I know I was was exaggerating a bit to make my point. The baby is due in Feb 2012.

   Preparing for the baby is certainly a bit draining initially, with prams and cots and pushchairs and car seats and redecorating etc. But I guess you’re right that their running costs are quite low, disregarding the large amounts of potential income lost as a result of looking after them 24/7.

   Also we bought and moved into our new house before selling the old one, which certainly makes the move less stressful but financially it’s a bit hairy having so much capital tied up in two houses right now.

   Hope you’re well.

   November 9th, 2011 at 9:02 pm
6. LBernard

   Thanks for that HH – I imagined that something is better than nothing. £10 a week more is better than being £10 down. I suppose the actual idea is sound but its one of those ideas that in theory is hard to make a success which is a shame really. I imagine you’re right about the Human Rights rubbish as well.

   November 10th, 2011 at 8:05 am
7. Pete Whitehead

   Very well thanks HH, though now at the stage of having to pay a child minder for two days a week which markedly increases the running costs (not to mention I pay child maintenance for my other child – substantially more than £10 a week). Neither of these expenses would of course apply to a single mother, so I would maintain that a parent of a very young child in that situation should not find the expenses too great. Likewise the loss of potential earnings would not be great if we are talking about deadbeat underclass mothers. You are of course right about the initial outlay on infrastructure, which can be very pricey

   November 10th, 2011 at 12:02 pm