Saturday 30 August 2008

Everything wrong with Britian, in a single letter

This letter was sent in to a national newspaper this week. It should have been an open letter to every politician in the country.

It hasn't been edited in any way.




My name is Kelly. I know you must get a hundred letters like this every week but I need to rant, and what’s the point in writing to a politician – they are too busy with the environment to care.

I am 24 years old. I have been with my partner for four years and we have a mortgage (it’s interest-only, but in 50 years it’ll be worth it!!).

I work 48 hours a week on minimum wage, which brings in roughly £200 a week, give or take £2, and my partner earns £1,000 a month. We had life OK until exactly nine weeks ago when my son was born.

The baby has a few secondhand things because, as you can see, we don’t have much cash to spare. But we scrimped and saved and got an overdraft to cover the cost of everything else. We thought we were doing well.

Until, of course, I was eight months pregnant and my work made me go on maternity leave!!

Everybody told me I’d be fine: “You’ll get maternity money”, “he’ll get paternity pay”, “you’ll get child tax credits”, “you’ll get a maternity grant”, “you’ll get child tax credits”.

So still I thought, yeah, we’ll manage.

Well, fast-forward nine weeks and we are £1,400 into our overdraft with no way out and my son dresses head to toe in George.

I get £113 maternity pay. My partner had to take two weeks’ holiday because we couldn’t afford paternity pay. I get £20 child tax credit and am not entitled to working tax credit because I am under 25!!

I’m not entitled to a maternity grant because, believe it or not, I’m still classed as being in full-time employment. For the same reason, I can’t ask for help with milk or the council tax.

I have nine months off (including the month before the baby was born) then I’m expected to go back to work and leave my eight-month-old baby in a nursery.

All of this would be fine, I would grumble and get on with it. Babies are expensive, that’s life.

BUT . . . I’m in this position because I have a partner. Because my baby has a daddy. Because I have a job.

If I was single or on benefits, my rent would be paid, ditto my council tax. I would have been given £500 to buy the baby a pram and cot, etc.

I would still receive £113 maternity pay, but I would also get an extra £100 each week in child and tax credits, regardless of my age. My son, instead of receiving the £250 child trust fund from the Government, would get £500.

And to top it all off, I would be paid to be with my son and would not be expected to go back to work until he is seven!!

I’m absolutely gutted! I’m so sick and tired of this country. HOW IS THIS FAIR??? Why is my family being punished for being exactly that, A FAMILY!!!!?

Why is it suddenly better to be single? Or a layabout content to live off benefits? Why is the Government ONLY helping single parent families and rewarding the idiots of the land who refuse to work and contribute like everybody else?

I feel cheated by so-called Great Britain. From where I’m sitting, it’s not so great.

All I can say is that in 50 years, when I’ve paid off my overdraft and my mortgage, my grandkids will be visiting me in Australia because as soon as I can, I’m turning my back on the country that has already turned its back on me and my family.

Thank you for your time and sorry to have dragged on so much.

Kelly and family xxx




Personaly i don't think she dragged on at all.
What she does do is highlights the shame that the leaders of modern britian should feel.
People like Kelly don't matter, white and working class she sidelined.

Kelly pays taxes, the very same taxes that pay the wages of the people in charge of running the country. They have a duty to make the green and plesant a better place for people like Kelly.

Instead they chose to ignore her plight and champion minority groups and pontless causes. Money is spent on excorcises designed to make it look like they are doing something rather than doing anything.

Maybe if some of the policticans were to be dragged to Kelly's table for a few weeks and had to live like her, they might just change their minds about what causes to champion.

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