To go off topic a bit, regarding the ineffectiveness of the CSA/CMS they are finally paying my arrears of maintenance. My son is now 27 and a father himself and I have worked out that I will be 90 before what is owed is paid off at a risible £8 a week. More likely my son’s father will be dead before it’s paid! And I too should have been retired 4 years ago.
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Sending you hugs Vanessa…((( 
)))
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My family and friends are a mixture…having traversed home ownership…to homelessness…to threats of eviction from both council/housing associations and privately rented to having mortgaged property where they have been unable to keep up mortgage payments…I totally empathise with all as I have been there…
I feel fortunate here as I own my home albeit of very little value except the peace and tranquility that comes from living a simple rural life…
When anything may the great goddess forbid that anything happens to my mom I will inherit along with my sister the family home…One of my daughters wants to be in a position to buy it to keep it in the family…
I am at once wholly on board with her plans…worried about the mortgage it will entail…touched by her compassion for me that if I ever need to return to uk that she’ll look after me in my old age…
Before any of that I am not emotionally ready to lose my mom…although she talks about her death freely and has survived many instances which I feel would have finished off many elderly disabled people she remains an inspiration.to Me …
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I’m in exactly the same position. It’s taken them 27 years . My daughter is 31 my son 33 but finally the CMS has done an attachment of earnings to my ex husband’s occupational pension. It can’t be done to his state pension apparently . I’m just hoping the “B” event doesn’t screw it all up next year. As I said earlier he owes £15,000+ and at £30 a month I’ve worked out he will be 110 by the time it’s repaid .
One interesting fact the CSM told me by phone is that the debt doesn’t die with him & can be recovered from his estate . Snag with that is that even if he has anything he will have ensured it isn’t in his name 
. Meanwhile the DWP has done me out of £41,000 in State Pension and when I finally do get it I’ll get £130 a week after paying tax and NI for 41 years (in the early years I paid 3 lots as I employed a nanny) because some of my employers were contracted out:see_no_evil:.
Exactly. People’s circumstances change throughout their life and if that means that a family needs a home which is now just occupied by the original elderly parents, then the family should have the home.
In the private sector if your circumstances change, you lose your job, then you might very well lose your home altogether, not just have to move to a smaller house.
Well done. I have sent it round my friends too.
I think that a lot of people would agree with you that benefits ought to be restricted to those who really need it. A big problem with this is another point which you make yourself: that then you have to resource the process of assessing whether they need it or not.
In principle, I should prefer distributing benefits to all, and then using a rebalancing of income tax liabilities to correct for the “excess” payments to those who do not need them. This also has the advantage of giving the wealthier as well as the poorer a stake in the welfare system, and so influences attitudes towards social responsibility rather than selfishness.
My daughter in Munich rents their flat. They have also taken over the next door flat and joined the two together. They are very lucky, they have an exceptionally pleasant landlord, but are also protected by law.
If they were to buy, one million euros would buy them a ticky tacky house with a tiny garden and they would have to commute into work every day. They walk to work and the boys walk to school.
He has also founded the Centre for Social Justice, which could not be more inaptly named!
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Please moderate your language.
Good luck with the gilets jauns, the strikes and Macron. Ici Londres, Life in Blighty not so bad. Boris’s majority has given us all a welcome boost the other side of the channel. No shortages of pet food or loo rolls, stock market good, pound rising nicely. What’s not to like. Bonne année
Oh dear Millie…I haven’t even got going yet.
If you are going to insist that certain folk on here moderate their language, you’re going to have your work cut out
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Keep it friendly though, some of us dreadful tories have feelings. Bonne année
Being a Tory is something I’d never have admitted to…if I were one, of course.
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To:
You are quite right Millie - @Codfanglers missed out lying, underhand, and scared of scrutiny! The phrase I liked best was NoShowBoJo!
With just a couple 2% rise in the number of votes cast to the Tories they do seem very smug right now.
Time will show that Johnson will once again prove to be entirely useless - the case proved that his previous bosses have confirmed they wouldn’t re-employ him.
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From a once upon a time Tory, I wish they had kept their feelings to themselves.
I have never seen such a bunch of self serving, disgusting individuals as there are still in the right wing of the Tory Party nd it remains to be seen just how many more have joined them.
Please get real, these are not nice people.
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The lull before the storm Millie. I will watch with dismay as the clown Johnson wreaks havoc. Soon you’ll be eating US food that doesn’t even reach current pet food standards, that may be well be the trigger for your predicted loo roll shortages.
BTW, you must be a bit of a lone voice in the wilderness á Londres.
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Touching 220,000 signatures now. Imagine a quarter of a million people thinking one was a total shit?
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This is IDS we’re talking about, he won’t give a flying fark.