Child benefit

This is a 'no brainer' for anyone with kids. If you haven't signed up for it then get on it now! For your first child you are paid £16.50 per week and then for every other kid a further £11.50 per child per week. This is paid to you irrespective of your earnings or what other benefits you are receiving. You can begin claiming it as soon as your child is born but most importantly the maximum you can 'back claim' is 3 months worth. One further point is that you need to be living in the UK 'free of immigration control'. As per above it is also important that you are signed up for this so that you can receive your CTF (see below).
For further information please see: http://www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/childben...igible.htm

Child Trust Fund

This is a new initiative that has been launched by the government. Each child is entitled to a CTF (Child Trust Fund). Every child born after September 2002 will automatically be entitled to a voucher of £250 from the government (However you need to be signed up to the Child Benefit) The government will begin issuing information CTF packs in January and the vouchers should be issued by April 2005. This voucher must be invested within 12 months of issue. Each CTF can be funded to a maximum of £1,200 per year with no tax arising on this. The cash in the fund is locked up till the child turns 18. For households with annual income of less then £13,480 there is an additional amount payable. For further information please see: http://www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/ctf/basics.htm

Child Tax Credit

This is a means tested benefit that is paid to families with children. The amount of benefit paid is dependant on the household earnings. All families with children and income of up to £58,000 a year (or up to £66,000 a year if there is a child under one year old) can claim this benefit in some form. The amount of benefit paid is dependant on the gross annual joint income and the number of children. There is a table which lays out what you can claim - see http://www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/pdfs/wtc1.pdf

Working Tax Credit

This is a means tested benefit that is paid to families regardless of whether they have children or not. It is very much dependant on gross annual earnings and generally is only payable if you have very low annual earnings (less then £10,000 as a single person & £15,000 as a couple). We would doubt if this is of much use to most of our clients - unless you take a year off to study or something similar. There is a table which lays out what you can claim - see http://www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/pdfs/wtc1.pdf

Child Care Benefit

This is a benefit that is paid if you have children in the care of a registered or approved childcare. There are many different provisions around this and it is certainly worth investigating as I am sure many of you (particularly those who use nurseries), will be able to claim some benefit through this. The maximum you can claim for one child is £94.5 per week (with a max of £140 for two or more children). The benefit is payable until the age of 15 (so it seems that it includes schools as well!. For further information see: http://www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/pdfs/wtc5.pdf

Other free Benefits associated with children

There are many other maternity based benefits that are worth looking into. These revolve around what you are entitled to whilst you are pregnant and on maternity leave. These include free child prescriptions till children are 16 yrs. Free NHS prescriptions and NHS dental care whilst pregnant and for one year there after.

EK moet seker 'n vriendelike gesig he of so iets want dit gebeur gereeld dat mense by my sal verby stap en my hierdie ongelooflike vriendelike glimlag sal gee! Mense vra my ook gedurig hoe om by plekke uit te kom as ek in die straat loop.

ek het nou al die mense wat saam met my werk gevra of dit met hulle ook gebeur en ek is die enigste een.

Gebeur dit met enige van julle?

Hey there bookwurms, anyone wanting to find another book for us to discuss and read like we did in 2004 ! How about finding something for Feb, what do you all feel like reading ? Been a long time...! :read:

Just need some help here thanx, I reinstalled my linux and need to set up my sound card again. I remeber boasting about being able to do it once before ut now im a bit stuck. Last time I used the sndconfig command, but where? I tried using it in the console but it just wont work. Advice?

Anyone in the Midlands area... Rugby / Coventry / Birmingham?

Sheesh....

Sorry people, but I have to let off some steam otherwise I might just explode!

We put in an offer on a house at the end of October last year.... since there was no chain, we were supposed to have it all exchanged and completed by mid December.....

Well, mid December came, and nobody could tell us if we would be exchanging and completing as there were some unanswered queries.

Anycase, we exchanged on the 16th December, and all of the sudden the Seller was all sulks because we decided to only complete in January.... our reasoning was that nobody was able to tell us if we would be able to exchange and complete by the 15th December, thus leaving us little or no time to arrange a moving lorry and the solicitors were closing on the 17th December. Basically, we didn't know what would happen, and everybody was closing for the Christmas week.... So shoot me!

We decided to go on holiday and only stress about the move upon our return, which was easier said than done... knowing that there is some big unfinished business carried forward for 2005!

Had the holiday, went back to work yesterday and completed today. Hubby went to get the keys from the Seller, and they trashed the place inside. He didn't replace the glass panes in the back door as per our contract, and WORST of all, he left some of his possessions in our garage... when asked out the stuff, a fruit gambling machine and a tyre, he said "oh my mate will come and get it" When asked how his mate will get access, he quite happily replied that his mate had a key.

EXCUSE me... but it is now my house, so nobody other than me should have the key.....

Am I going insane here??? Is this normal practice?

I am really trying not to stress... but being pregnant and knowing that I have to go and cleam up after some pig family is very stressfull, and not to mention about strangers having keys to my house!!!

I cannot believe that we were so trusting with this guy. He is Turkish, and he came accross very genuine, but OBVIOUSLY not!

Ok.. now I'll get off my oapbox:

Thanx for listening. :bigcry: :bigcry: :bigcry: :bigcry: :bigcry:

As jy ernstig is oor jou verhouding met God, dan moet jy vandag een van jou kosbaarste besittings aan Hom gee: JOU TYD! Meeste Christene dink nie hieraan as hulle dinge op die Here se altaar neersit nie. Hulle bring hulle besittings, geld, eie wil, en .n klompie ander dinge, maar min mense bemaak ooit hulle dagprogramme aan die Here!

Om 'n kragtige Christelike lewe te leef, moet jy jou horlosie, jou dagboek en jou jaarprogram in die Here se hande sit. Jy moet leer om jou tyd te sinkroniseer met die Here S'n, anders mors jy jou tyd op die verkeerde goed. Praktiese geloof is wanneer jy elke oggend jou dagboek vir die Here gee sodat Hy sy hemelse prioriteite bo-oor al joune kan inskryf met hemelse ink. Jou geloof werk wanneer jy hierdie wegggee-oefening dag na dag, jaar in en jaar uit, herhaal.

'Moenie jou tyd mors nie. Maak die beste gebruik van elke geleentheid wat jy kry, want ons leef in moeilike en slegte tye' (Efesiërs 5:16). Tyd is kosbaar. Elke dag wat jy deur jou vingers laat glip om saam met God te wandel, is 'n verlore kans; 'n dag wat jy agteruit groei.



Stephan Joubert

http://www.ekerk.co.za
http://www.echurch.co.za

I enjoyed a few of last years books and now Richard and Judy have complied a new list of books they are going to review and read. Here is the list:

THE SHADOW OF THE WIND - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

This wonderful page-turning literary detective story is set in the heart of the old city of Barcelona in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War.
At 10 years old, Daniel Sempere is taken to the ‘Cemetery of Forgotten Books’, a library of obscure and forgotten titles that have long gone out of print. It is here that Daniel is allowed to choose one book to keep. The book, La Sombra del Viento (The Shadow of the Wind), initially seems a charming find yet in later years becomes a devilish curse.
The Shadow of the Wind is an exploration of obsession in literature and love, and the places that obsession can lead.

THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE - Audrey Niffenegger

The Time TravelerÂ’s Wife is an extraordinary, magical first novel. It is not a science fiction novel, but the ultimate love story.
As Audrey herself says, ‘It’s not about time travel. It’s about love and separation and how time determines so much about our lives’. It is the story of Clare and Henry. They’ve known each other since Clare was six and Henry was thirty-six, and were married when Clare was twenty-two and Henry thirty.
Impossible but true, because Henry is one of the first people diagnosed with Chrono-Displacement Disorder: periodically his genetic clock resets and he finds himself misplaced in time, pulled to moments of emotional gravity in his life, past and future. His disappearances are spontaneous, his experiences unpredictable, alternately harrowing and amusing.
This story is intensely moving and entirely unforgettable.

THE AMERICAN BOY - Andrew Taylor

Interweaving real and fictional elements, The American Boy is a major new literary historical crime novel. Set in England 1819: Thomas Shield, a new master at a school just outside London, is tutor to a young American boy and the boy's sensitive best friend, Charles Frant. Drawn to Frant's beautiful, unhappy mother, Thomas becomes caught up in her family's twisted intrigues.
Then a brutal crime is committed, with consequences that threaten to destroy Thomas and all that he has come to hold dear. Despite his efforts, Shield is caught up in a deadly tangle of sex, money, murder and lies – a tangle that grips him tighter even as he tries to escape from it.

And what of the strange American child, at the heart of these macabre events – what is the secret of the boy named Edgar Allen Poe?

THE PROMISE OF HAPPINESS - Justin Cartwright

What should you do if the world has turned against you? When Father Anselm is asked this question by an old man at Larkwood Priory, his response, to claim sanctuary, is to have greater resonance than he could ever have imagined. For that evening the old man returns, demanding the protection of the church.
His name is Eduard Schwermann and he is wanted by the police as a suspected war criminal. With her life running out, Agnes Aubret feels it is time to unburden to her granddaughter Lucy the secrets she has been carrying for so long.

Fifty years earlier, Agnes had been living in Occupied Paris, a member of a small group risking their lives to smuggle Jewish children to safety – until they were exposed by a young SS Officer: Eduard Schwermann.

As Anselm attempts to uncover Schwermann's past, and as Lucy's search into her grandmother's history continues, their investigations dovetail to reveal a remarkable story

When my little one wants to draw, don't you think an A4 size paper is too small? and I don't find the paper strong enough to withstand crayons jabbing into them while you're drawing on the carpet. So I found a roll of wallpaper which had been marked down to 10p, tear off a large piece, tape it down on the carpet with packaging tape and voila! a durable surface for Madam to practise her drawing skills

Instead of spending loads of money on expensive aprons for your child to wear while painting or doign messy play, just cut the bottom off a supermarket packet and pull it over her head ... the handles make perfect straps, at no cost to yourself!

Why spend loads of money buying commercial playdough? Rather make your own and add your own food colouring to it at a fraction of the cost of bought playdough!

Are there any tips you've found which work for you?

My daughter tells me that it is so much cheaper to "eat out" here in S.A than over in the U.K. & we have done quite a bit of that lately. Sadly, she goes back in a couple of days but we sure have had some good times together, especially at restaurants.