Darren McCarthy writes:
This is from my wife’s blog on proposed cuts to child benefit and how it will have a real impact on us as a family and all the other middle-income earners in this country.
I have always had mixed feelings on Child Benefit. I am completely against a universal welfare payment to all yet have always been grateful for the monthly payment. When times were good, child benefit was increased and it increased annually all throughout the last decade. By the same logic now times are bad it needs to be decreased.
I have three children, my child benefit has been cut every year in the last three and the third child payment will be reduced again at the end of this year regardless of what happens in this year’s budget.
I did not complain or give out. I was not opposed to the payment being cut. I bought into the adage of we all need to tighten out belts, take the cuts, put the head down and battle on.
No more.
…Child Benefit is the only welfare payment my family receive. My husband works full-time. I work part-time and I am self-employed. My children are two, four and six. The reasons I do not work full-time are varied, one of them is the crippling cost of childcare. I have not worked full-time since I became a parent for this reason. So I work around the children and I work when they go to bed. My husband works hard. He travels a lot. He has never seen our youngest daughter on her birthday. Again that’s fine, that’s life. We thankfully do not have the noose of a house with negative equity around our necks. Unfortunately we do not own a home either. We rent privately. The rent is expensive but again that’s fine, that’s life. At this stage I had envisaged we would own a home again but do you know anybody getting a mortgage in this country at the minute?
We had no Celtic Tiger. We didn’t buy flash cars or holiday homes. We have personal debt. We are paying it back at the agreed terms when we took out these loans.
We pay a significant amount of tax every month. We pay our rising fuel, heat, electricity and food costs.
Do you know what we are left with at the end of the month? Nothing. Disposable income is a thing of the past.
If Child Benefit is cut, it will hit hard. Where will the money saved go? I know another 2 billion is due to be paid to the banks bondholders before the end of the year. I know another 17 billion is due to be paid next year. These figures are laughable they are so large.
Is that where the savings on Child Benefit will go?
More here: Stuck In The Middle- No To Child Benefit Cuts (The Clothesline.ie)
(Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland)
