Working For Families Cuts?

Paying 500-700/wk for your mortgage (or rent ) in ak would be pretty normal I think. That would pretty much completely eat up your 50K once you have taken tax out.

jazzy wrote: caliandjack wrote: *sorry thread high jack* Congratulations Hopes what an awesome surprise! wow congrats that's fantastic

Yay! Congratulations Hopes!

kiwilaurie wrote: BAMN08 wrote: SH*T! We could live comfortably on 50K let alone 100!! No offence, but come to Wellington then Nic! Median House Price in Wellington - $430k Median House Price in Levin - $220k Assuming a 20% deposit and a mortgage on the current floating rate, someone in Wellington is paying $250 a week more in mortgage payments alone. Factor in rates, insurance and cost of living in larger cities, and you can see why, all of a sudden, your massive income might not be going so far. And when you look at the rent figures, the divide is almost as great. Then move yourself to Auckland and see what happens!!

We got a hell of a shock vis a vis housing when moving from Auckland to Wellington to be honest kiwilaurie - we think it's worse here than it is there for housing - not so much pricing, but what you get for the price you pay is quite different. We sold a 4 bedroom brick house on a good section in a good area of South Auckland, but down here you're lucky if a house priced well doesn't have to be accessed by a blimmin elevator Nevermind section (we have dogs) etc. We ended up compromising and buying in Taita which most people nearly faint about because it's Taita but it was the closest thing we could get to the package we needed without increasing our mortgage (and we didn't have the luxury of renting and hunting around because we have 2 dogs and you can't get a rental with dogs for love nor money, unless you move into gangland, and even then it's tricky!). I was really staggered that coming from Auckland we didn't end up flush out of the move.

I think we can all agree to disagree ...
But I would think everyone agrees that ANY $ given to you from the goverment is a bonus .. and in some cases up to and even over $25,000 a year in WFF and childcare cost is HUGE!
Its no ones fault that some people are low income earners and others are high .. thats just the way life is. And i guess we all have a different idea as to what would give us a comfortable lifestyle .. to some 100k seems like a huge amount but to others in realitly it isn't. By the time you take into living costs, rent/house repayments, power, phone, food, petrol insurance, student loans, any debts (hps, loans etc), child care costs (at full price say $65 per days x 5 = $325 x 52 = 16900) of one child ...... it isn't.
We as humanbeings regard different things as wealthy and poor some think of wealthy as some one who has flash cars, flash house, boats, dines out and hoildays alot and for others wealthly maybe some one who can buy whatever at the supermarket without a budget, some one that can go down the shops and buy something if they like it.
But I personaly can not understand by people don't go back to work etc because "it cancels our wff out or because they don't come out with a lot more" maybe its the way i've been brought up to work for what you want .. then then again that will start a whole different topic ......

Off topic but I'm pretty bummed out this week about student allowance. I'd love to go back to tertiary study, the course I want to do a pre-trade entry so it's only a year long, but we would get no help whatsoever, not even an interest-free loan which really makes me Grr because I paid my first (interest-bearing) loan off within a year. (It was only 6k but still hard work.) So we'll have to save for my course fees, & extra for petrol & childcare before I can even consider it, =(.

blossombaby wrote: We as humanbeings regard different things as wealthy and poor some think of wealthy as some one who has flash cars, flash house, boats, dines out and hoildays alot and for others wealthly maybe some one who can buy whatever at the supermarket without a budget, some one that can go down the shops and buy something if they like it. But I personaly can not understand by people don't go back to work etc because "it cancels our wff out or because they don't come out with a lot more" maybe its the way i've been brought up to work for what you want .. then then again that will start a whole different topic ......

I totally agree with the top part, everyone has their own personal circumstances and has made choices regarding the job they have and their expenses.

But - I am in the situation where it would work out exactly the same if I worked full time and didn't get WFF. I am a single parent and work part time (30 hours per week). I get WFF and a child care subsidy. If I was to work full time I would lose WFF and all of my child care subsidy and the extra I would make would be cancelled out by the loss. I would not be any better off and would in fact be worse off in terms of time with my child. I would be poorer time wise for working full time and probably a lot more stressed trying to work full time, run the house by myself and look after my daughter. So I totally understand people who don't go back to work because it cancels their WFF.

I too am not sure about what you said how you don't understand why people don't return to work.

Its something that you can't judge (although not saying you are) unless you know the full situation. I would much rather stay home with DD and be her main caregiver then have her in care as we are in the situation where it would stop any benefits we could get if I was working and cut our WFF. I personally don't want someone else or a daycare raising my child. I also feel it is important for our situation that I am home as much as possible with her as I am essentially a single parent with a partner. I do everything on my own because her dad works such long hours and when he is home is asleep because of the hours he works. Today I had to take her to school boy rugby (which I HATE) because he worked from 2pm yesterday to 6am today and had to be back at work at 10am (highly illegal I know, don't get me started) to open the bar for a pack in. He had 2hrs off then had to go back to work in the middle of the day. We won't see him until 8am Sunday morning where he will sleep all day because he needs to sleep to function. It's really not normal for someone to basically do a full working week in 2days I know this but I can't change it. Anyway I digress. As I said I want one of her parents to be raising her not a caregiver, if we had different lives then maybe.

I also worked full-time for 10yrs with a year off trying to find work and myself and I never once claimed anything from the government in the 2yrs I had worked prior that that I had saved a huge amount of money. I have been a tax payer I think that I should be able to use any benefits that I might receive.