[pointyhats]

They should do this in the UK. From observing the locals, the maternity grant (until yanked by the government) was used to buy designer gear for the mother, cigarettes and some expensive fashionable buggy for the baby (usually topped up by the baby's grandparents).

Unfortunately essential stuff was forgotten.

This solves those problems.

[josephlord]

Having done a little research the grant is £500 available to parents receiving an income related benefit (including some in work benefits) [1].

It was changed a couple of years ago to apply only to first children rather than each child which I presume is the yanking referred to.

Essential stuff being forgotten. That happens there is a lot to learn quickly being a parent. Can you show that reckless spending caused necessary items not to be affordable when the error was realised?

"Expensive fashionable buggies" can easily cost more than £500, pushchairs are unsuitable for very young infants, those on low incomes are unlikely to have cars and may need a better buggy than those only nipping out of car although I'm sure there are solutions well under £500 especially if you look at 2nd hand.

I do agree that a universal box would be a good idea even though I'm not comfortable with your lazy tabloid stereotyping of "the locals". It may be that the box should be supplemented by a cash grant (of a reduced amount) for those currently entitled to the grant.

[1] https://www.gov.uk/sure-start-maternity-grant/overview

[oracuk]

Could you publish a citation referencing these problems?

[pointyhats]

Stand outside ASDA in Feltham or Hounslow and observe.

[josephlord]

And how do you observe:

1) that essential stuff has been forgotten

2) that those you see were even eligible for the grant (it is only for those receiving income related benefits).

Note while not the nicest area of London suburbs the Job Seekers Allowance claimant rate is only 3% [1] with another 5.5% on Incapacity Benefit or Employment and Support Allowance. The vast majority of JSA claimants have been claiming less than 6 months rather than long term. [2]

There are particularly deprived pockets though but I question your ability to identify by pure observation outside a supermarket real income sources.

[1] http://www.hounslow.gov.uk/local_economic_assessment_overvie... (p iv)

[2] Same report (p 37)

[peteretep]

So, no?

[pointyhats]

Not everything needs citation in the form of a survey or scientific paper. I doubt the results of it would be honest as the people who they would be surveying have an interest in lying about the things they have purchased with it.

Some things are blatantly obvious if you peel your eyes occasionally and observe humanity.

[alan_cx]

No, but in the UK there is a wind of judgemental tabloid nastiness in this area. Lies like this are made up daily, based on a very small minority, and huge chunks of people are tarred with the same brush.

So, yeah, where is the research?

Well, there is none, because apart from tabloid smearing lies, there is none.

What is "obvious" is how nasty people are in the UK towards the poor working classes, who are under constant attack.

[silves89]

What I see when I stand outside ASDA are a bunch of normal people, and then some poor people who struggle to buy food and pay their rent. I don't see fancy clothes and designer pushchairs, I see old tracksuits and second-hand pushchairs, I see people who don't have jobs and feel bad about themselves.

Demand for food-banks in the UK has soared. But if only they didn't spend it on fags and wide-screen TVs they'd be able to eat.

[pointyhats]

And by making the distinction of working class are you not contributing to that bias? I treat all people as classless.

The people described by myself are not bound by class, but by attitude and morals. There is no class distinction involved.

The problem is not specific to one traditional "class".

The whole "tabloid smearing lies" drivel is another form of enforced division by promoting classes of reading.

This sort of stuff annoys me.

(for reference I have never purchased a newspaper and rarely even bother to look at the news unless it's technology related)

[brazzy]

Please read up on the difference between anecdotes and data, and selective perception.

[pointyhats]

I know the differences, probably more than you realise.

I presented a hypothesis, which you can turn into a theory by sitting outside ASDA for a bit with a clipboard and a copy of SPSS. My suggestion was that you should try it.

[thejosh]

Same as Australia in most cases unfortunately.. They have now removed the "Baby Bonus".

[dools]

Really? In "most cases"? My wife and I, and all our friends who have kids (which is the majority of our friendship circle now) used the baby bonus(es) to buy, you know, stuff for our babies. Like clothes, sleeping gear, safety stuff for round the house, prams (one for the first and a dual P&T when the second came along ... both off gumtree). We used it to pay for the ridiculously high electricity bill caused by having a heater running all the time to keep the temperature optimal so our baby would sleep properly in our shitty rental house in winter. We used it to pay for proper car seats, to have those seats properly installed, to install a metal grate so crap doesn't fly from the back of the car into our children's faces when we stop suddenly.

Whilst there were some pretty high profile cases of misuse (especially when it was given as a lump sum payment when it was first introduced as pork barrelling measure to gain ground amongst "Howard's Battlers") I think your claim that it was misused in "most cases" only goes to show that you don't have kids.

[BSousa]

In Portugal, it's the same for most 'grants'. The day after they are payed, there are more drunks in the streets (Wife works in an ambulance, calls for drunk people laying in the floor are 3-4 times more in the days following pay than in the rest of the month)

[HaloZero]

They also had a maternity grant though the box was just opted in 95% of the time though

[pointyhats]

That is because the 140 EUR grant is of significantly less value, which is absolutely wonderful motivation to do things properly.

I applaud what they do in Finland.