Who will pay for education costs?

11:22am Saturday 14th July 2012 in Letters By Reader's letter

IN RESPONSE to the article in The Press about family living (The cost of decent family living, July 11), I agree that a family of four should have an income of £36,800 a year.

I am a carer for my elderly neighbour with illnesses so I get £58 per week. My husband gets £24,000 a year.

I have a ten-year-old and a 16-year-old; my 16-year-old is doing a full-time course at college come September. I have received a letter stating tax credits for him stop on August 31.

We live six miles away from college, £3.70 per day bus fare, so who will have to feed him, clothe him, put top-up on his mobile each week, as the £20 child benefit I get for him only pays for his bus fare?

Mrs D Powell, Fossway, York.

Comments(16)

Even AndyD says...
1:26pm Sat 14 Jul 12

It is never good to stereotype, Mr C. What about those who worked in banking for two decades AND are left wing - like me. What convenient box do you want to put me in?
Most people work hard, there are some with disabilities and the like who quite simply cannot. A nation is judged by how it deals with its vulnerable - this government is the most scary I've seen in my lifetime. Simple as that.

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Jezreel says...
2:32pm Sat 14 Jul 12

The Matthew/Crabtree implication is that business makes a major contribution to society whilst the rest of us "bleat". However Matthew is silent about white collar crime. It is right to "bleat" about landlords who go to prison for their role in massive social security frauds from vulnerable tenants, of which I could quote many examples. Recent developments show that unregulated businesses veer towards greed and dishonesty as is evidenced from the massive international banking collapse. It is the rest of us who pay the price for these criminals.

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YSTClinguist says...
5:11pm Sat 14 Jul 12

This is why I couldn't afford to go to college when I was 16. I opted for a YTS scheme instead. Received £29.50 a week, gave my parents £15 out of it, and laid out £10 on bus fares (8 miles away.) I was denied a chance at formal education because my parents didn't have the money to support me at the time. What all the attempts at social mobility come to is that, 25 years later, some parents still can't see a way to ensure their children get an equal chance based on capability (and not misplaced political correctness)

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Jezreel says...
5:12pm Sat 14 Jul 12

Sillibillies, Anti Semitism? How do you arrive at that conclusion. Abuse is no substitute for a reasoned argument.
You are wrong too about the economy as Andy pointed out. What had Labour to do with the collapse of Lehman Brothers or the sub prime mortgage scam which triggered the crisis? Most European Governments now in crisis had right wing governments.

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Sillybillies says...
5:25pm Sat 14 Jul 12

Labour flooded the country with immigrants, oversaw the creation of hundreds of thousands of non jobs in the public sector, failed to regulate the banks and interest rates, sold off our gold reserves at rock bottom prices, and threw £billions in benefits at the idle and feckless to encourage the creation a Labour voting underclass.

Spain, Italy, Greece etc were bankrupt counties which should never have been allowed to join the EU in the first place, never mind the rapidly becoming worthless euro.

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Silver says...
6:30pm Sat 14 Jul 12

I used to cycle at 16, 7 miles to and from places such as college.....

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Jezreel says...
6:38pm Sat 14 Jul 12

YSTC linguist is spot on. The rich don't have the dilemma of of whether or not to give their children an education, they can afford it.
Sillibillies has ducked developing his antisemitism charge. He also ducks explaining how right wing governments in America, Europe, Iceland are in serious problems, and how the Tory austerity programme has tripped us into a double-dip recession.
I can slag off Labour with the best of 'em Sillibillies, I can't stand'em, but they did not cause the world monetary crisis and that's a fact.

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Even AndyD says...
7:46pm Sat 14 Jul 12

Sillybillies wrote:
Labour flooded the country with immigrants, oversaw the creation of hundreds of thousands of non jobs in the public sector, failed to regulate the banks and interest rates, sold off our gold reserves at rock bottom prices, and threw £billions in benefits at the idle and feckless to encourage the creation a Labour voting underclass.

Spain, Italy, Greece etc were bankrupt counties which should never have been allowed to join the EU in the first place, never mind the rapidly becoming worthless euro.
Let me get this straight - you are blaming all this on foreigners and calling me underclass for voting Labour? What a charmer you are, sir!

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Jezreel says...
8:38pm Sat 14 Jul 12

What a load of old dingos kidneys. The Elders of Zion forgery was written 1/2 a century before Israel even existed. Israel is a country not a race. You can't be racist about a land mass. Anyway I hate racism, anti semitism, Islamophobia, all of it. Can you say the same? You don't even seem to like many of your fellow citizens whith your spleen about "underclass"
And you are still wrong about Labour causing the international financial crisis.

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George Appleby says...
10:25pm Sat 14 Jul 12

In the really bad times of the 40s and I was the eldest of five in a 5th Avenue council house and my dad earned £4 a week on the railways. I passed my 11 plus and went to Nunthorpe Grammar. I had a large paper round in the mornings, cleaned windows evenings, until somebody reported me for not being insured, rode to school on a made up second hand bike costing £1.

Dad grew sweet peas, chrysanths and dahlias and I sold them round the street. I worked on farms and at the post office sorting office running up to Christmas. I didn't want to take up higher education and left school to work as soon as I could.

We are in a different world, but I worked until 65, made good and happy progress in sales, fetching up our family who have done well, moving around the country to achieve better positions and am enjoying retirement with my wife of 62 years who has supported me throughout.

Life is a constant struggle but can still be satisfying. Hope you may find something here to help.

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Jezreel says...
11:11pm Sat 14 Jul 12

Well said George. Good luck to you and your wife. You deserve it

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Jezreel says...
10:30am Sun 15 Jul 12

Nothing to say about this really. Unpleasant and callous right wing views, why would anyone want to take them on board except another unpleasant and callous person?
The wonder is that the writer expects to win people over with this stuff.

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Paul Leeming1 says...
11:19am Sun 15 Jul 12

So you have lost your tax credits and gained more in your tax allowance. Stop expecting everybody else to subsidize your lifestyle.

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Mr Crabtree says...
7:07pm Sun 15 Jul 12

Jezreel wrote:
The Matthew/Crabtree implication is that business makes a major contribution to society whilst the rest of us "bleat". However Matthew is silent about white collar crime. It is right to "bleat" about landlords who go to prison for their role in massive social security frauds from vulnerable tenants, of which I could quote many examples. Recent developments show that unregulated businesses veer towards greed and dishonesty as is evidenced from the massive international banking collapse. It is the rest of us who pay the price for these criminals.
The private sector are the main contributors to tax revenues - that in my book is a major contribution to society. Many multi-millionaires are philanthropists who set upfoundations with their money. Joseph Rowntree was a massively wealthy businessman, who did so much good. Don't judge all rich successful businessmen/women by the standards of a few corrupt bankers, and tax avoidance is not just the crime of the left - just ask Jimmy Carr !

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Silver says...
7:11pm Sun 15 Jul 12

am yisrael chai wrote:
Silver wrote:
I used to cycle at 16, 7 miles to and from places such as college.....
Madman!

Who paid for the bike? Who paid for the clothes you wore? What if you got a puncture and needed a puncture repair kit? Who paid for that? What if you saw some dizzy twist whilst you were cycling that you wanted to get next to? Who paid for you to take her out? What if you passed an electronics store on your journey and fancied a new TV? Who paid for that?

Fact is, if you managed to get on your bike to attend a college course that was free to you at the point of use, then you must've been the CEO of a large multinational corporation or a banker, because only the filthy rich could afford to do something like that.
Well seeing as I had a job at the time and I did indeed have the bike bought for me by my parents. I had income that I used to repay the bike and I could use that money to do all the stuff you mentioned to buy the items you wanted so long as I used this concept called "Saving" And FYI I did all this 12 years ago. Something tells me times haven't changed that much.
Dizzy twist who uses that language?

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Liz Wilson says...
8:22am Tue 17 Jul 12

Just a quick piece of advice that I hope gets to Mrs Powell - you can continue to get Child Tax Credit for your son if he's staying in education. You need to let the Tax Credit Office know. Child Tax Credit can be paid until the young person reaches 20 years if still in non-advanced education.
Best wishes for his future.

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