T&B - I would need to earn £70,000 to get off benefits

[gingerjedi]

Sharon, 49, and her children, aged 19, 18 and 14, live in a spacious three-bedroom semi with its own drive and 80ft garden in up-market St Albans, Herts.

She drives a Honda CRV car and her 26ft lounge boasts a 42in flatscreen television.

Living the dream.

[eek]

Sorry -

rep'ed for ya

[MyUserName]

Load of crap. Most of that speciously-calculated sum is university fees. The universities get that money, not her (the clue's in the name). What is disgusting is that not everybody gets that help with university fees. Scrap the fees, scrap the student loans, and bring back grants with parental contributions based on earnings.

Sorry -

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to NickFitz again.

[vetran]

never understood why if you are 18 and effectively no longer your parents responsibility their earnings (which you are no longer entitled to) make any difference to the personal loan you are given to pay for your training that will make you more successful over your life?

Give everyone the same basic deal, possibly allow some an enhanced loan if they are less likely to be able to afford to support themselves. But again why do taxpayers earning little more or less than benefit claimants have to subsidise the offspring of those that may not have strived as hard as they did.

Convince me everyone on benefits is struggling and going without and I might change my mind but cases such as these prove me right.

[formant]

Load of crap. Most of that speciously-calculated sum is university fees. The universities get that money, not her (the clue's in the name).

Yes. This.

What is disgusting is that not everybody gets that help with university fees. Scrap the fees, scrap the student loans, and bring back grants with parental contributions based on earnings.

Scrapping the fees will just place a greater burden on the tax payer. I'm not sure that's a better solution. Education simply doesn't come for free, even if you make it so for the end user. Student loans are actually a pretty awesome kind of debt. Nothing to pay back if you don't make at least £21k/pa - above that it's rate of inflation + 3%. And it's written off after 25-30 years (depending on when you started (35 years in Scotland). Oh, and it doesn't ever affect your credit rating (i.e. life). That essentially is more of a grant than a loan. It's just not entirely free of course, but I think that may be a good thing and may stop the odd person who's only studying because they don't know what else to do with their life and are likely to drop out before completion anyway.

I see a greater flaw with expecting parental contribution where parents have enough of an income, as it doesn't look at the family's outgoings and realistic affordability. It also assumes that paying parents will not interfere in their children's choices of subject, university, etc., when clearly many do then put a lot of pressure on their offspring to go down the route they want them to go down.

Anyway, that woman could and would do more for her kids if she went back to work, had them take tuition fee and maintenance loans but would use her own cash to subsidise their living costs. Cause that, depending on where you're studying is tough to manage (though doable) on just student loans/bursaries and a part-time job.

[NotAllThere]

...Scrap the fees, scrap the student loans, and bring back grants with parental contributions based on earnings.

Reduce the number of entrants back to 1989 levels.

[doodab]

Load of crap. Most of that speciously-calculated sum is university fees. The universities get that money, not her (the clue's in the name). What is disgusting is that not everybody gets that help with university fees. Scrap the fees, scrap the student loans, and bring back grants with parental contributions based on earnings.

WHS. Or something similar. Make education free and healthcare chargeable.

[Zippy]

Load of crap. Most of that speciously-calculated sum is university fees. The universities get that money, not her (the clue's in the name). What is disgusting is that not everybody gets that help with university fees. Scrap the fees, scrap the student loans, and bring back grants with parental contributions based on earnings.

WHS.

I wanted to say a lot more but ... best not to really.

[NickFitz]

Load of crap. Most of that speciously-calculated sum is university fees. The universities get that money, not her (the clue's in the name). What is disgusting is that not everybody gets that help with university fees. Scrap the fees, scrap the student loans, and bring back grants with parental contributions based on earnings.

[d000hg]

That "sitting pretty" caption has to be deliberately ironic... has she made the room as horrific as possible so she can look good in comparison?

Lovely pair of pups though, I have to admit.

[BolshieBastard]

EXCLUSIVE: I earned £120 in the City..now I’m paid £70k in benefits | The Sun |Woman|Real Life

Sums up what's wrong with the country. What makes it worse is no one does frack all to sort it out. Makes you wonder just who is the real mug though, doesnt it?

[vetran]

EXCLUSIVE: I earned £120 in the City..now I’m paid £70k in benefits | The Sun |Woman|Real Life