Recently resident cat herder Discordia (Disco) discussed how The Price of Parenthood [Is] A Necessity, Not a Burden. This article will discuss how with the help available in various countries – primarily Australia, England, and the U.S.A. – you can afford that price.
The factors that will be discussed include:
- Direct Government Financial Assistance (Welfare/ Social Security)
- Childcare Subsidies
First though, the Karens must be addressed. Relying on Government assistance to raise your child/ren is not “gibs” or some other worthless derogatory description.
To start with, for most parents they have already spent their adult lives being robbed blind by taxes on income (>22% in Norway) and on goods (10% GST in Australia, 20% VAT in England, 25% VAT in Norway). The average first-time mother in Australia is 29.8 easily rounded to 30. While the numbers aren’t available for first-time fathers the median age is 33.7. If we assume a first-time mother and father are 30 that means at least 12 years each in the workforce. Even at minimum wage that’s a combined income tax liability of $142,698.48 taken at gunpoint.
It’s not free money, it’s getting your money back.
Secondly, the government needs you to have kids. Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe described Japan’s combination of an ageing society and declining birthrate as a “national crisis”. The Michigan Journal of Economics has a list of problems a low birth rate can cause including: lower tax income, increased tax rates, and an increased retirement age. If the government wants it why shouldn’t they pay you for it?
And lastly if the poors don’t provide the 2.1 children per woman the government needs to prop up the national Ponzi scheme they’ll find them elsewhere. The government’s solution will be “more open immigration policies”. In fact the idiots at The Guardian are straight up saying it: the “[r]ise in older mothers and one-child households” means “Britain ‘must rely on immigration’ to compensate for falling birth rate”. The beneficiaries of these policies are, as Disco pointed out, more than happy to pump out 6-8 kids while not actually being economically active, a.k.a a drain on a system they never contributed to unlike the natives. God forbid the politicians follow Hungary and attempt to introduce tax incentives to have children.
Is that clear enough? Good. Now the resources available can be looked at.
Following is an non-exhaustive description of the resources that are available to families with children broken down by country. For the purposes of calculations a family will be defined as two adults, one employed full time at minimum wage with the other unemployed, and a newborn child. Calculations will be presented in the relevant countries currency.
Australia
Starting with the familiar Australia has a variety of programs including four directly through the welfare/ social security agency Centrelink:
- Parenting Payment
- Family Tax Benefit
- Childcare Subsidy
- Paid Parental Leave
Yep, you read that right in Australia the government pays some people’s parental leave.
So how much does the defined family get from this? Where there are additional eligibility criteria the defined family will be assumed to have met it. It is also assumed that the decision of which parent will claim will have been made so as to guarantee the highest possible rate. The minimum full time wage in Australia is $47,627.
Father employed, mother unemployed:
- Parenting Payment
- $11,297.00 yearly
- Family Tax Benefit
- $10,683.40 yearly
- If renting an additional up to $6,453.72 yearly
- Childcare Subsidy
- $7,435.58 yearly (paid directly to the childcare)
- Paid Parental Leave
- Nil
Adding these payments/ services increases the household income to the equivalent of: $83,496.70 an increase of ~75%. If instead it is the mother working she is eligible for $915.80 per week for 22 weeks in Paid Parental Leave to supplement her lost employment income, this is in addition to any Parental Leave her work may provide.
If that’s not enough how about:
- Bulk Billed doctors appointments through Medicare for recipients of Parenting Payment, meaning no out of pocket expense.
- Bond Loans – Interest and fee free government loans to cover Bond (Deposit) and potentially first two weeks rent.
- $372 per year off electricity costs
And that’s just some of the programs directly available from the Federal/ State government.
England
In England the minimum wage is £23,795.20 annually. Entering the details into a benefits calculator the results are:
- Universal Credit (for the non-working parent)
- £11,592.96 yearly
- Child Benefit
- £1,331.2 yearly
- Local Housing Allowance
- £9,419.8 yearly
A total of £22,343.96 bringing the family income to £46,139.16, a whopping 93% increase.
Residents of England may also be entitled to benefit from other schemes such as:
- NHS Low Income Scheme
- A Warm Homes Discount, a rebate of £150
- Marriage Allowance, If one parent’s income falls below their Personal Allowance the other parent may have their tax reduced by £252
United States
The U.S. Federal Minimum wage is $15,080. Because the U.S. is so large and programs vary by state Idaho will be used for these examples.
Even in the U.S.A. which is not known for generous welfare for nuclear families a number of resources are available.
- SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program aka Food Stamps)
- $768 per month
- Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP)
- $75 – $1,242
- Idaho Child Care Program
- Temporary Assistance for Families in Idaho (TAFI)
- $309 per month, up to lifetime limit 24 months
American families are also eligible for the Child Tax Credit up to $2,000 per qualifying child per year. Unfortunately the assorted systems are too obtuse (and hidden from foreigners apparently) to develop an exact calculation but overall this can work out to approximately $14,166 per year for two years. Not as great a deal as some places but better than nothing.
As has been laid out, even in the U.S. there is assistance available for families in need and you better jump on it before the government gives it all to first generation “refugees”. If you and your spouse/partner want to have kids there is little point to putting it off, the older you both are the higher the risks genetically and during pregnancy, chances are you won’t be saving more anyway thanks to inflation and cost of living skyrocketing, and the housing market is fucked and not going to get better if the government keeps allowing net overseas migration to be 84% of the population growth.
You can afford a family otherwise you can’t afford a future.
This article has been released early to help in ongoing discussions. For corrections (especially in relation to the American benefits) please contact Bezek via Discord.
About The Author/s
Host of The Sultans of Shadilay Podcast