Extra family allowances,

[woolybanana]

but only if you are a fonctionnaires. What a scandal!

There has been talk in France of tying the family allowances to salary levels, so that the poor get more, or even taxing them as part of income, but Mr Hollande has vetoed the idea, as he does most decent ideas.

But it has brought into focus a glaring anomoly and unfairness in the system which should be sorted right away, but which the governement seems unable to correct, for fear of the unions, it seems.

As part of their salary and bonus package, fonctionnaires receive extra family allowances, over and above those normally given by the State. And the more they earn, the more they get!

They receive an extra 3% of salary for the first two kids, 8% for a third and 6% each for any more.

Oh, and their bonus is a fixed annual sum which is not so public.

No wonder France is up that there creek without a paddle!

http://www.lefigaro.fr/vox/societe/2014/10/10/31003-20141010ARTFIG00378-allocations-familiales-des-fonctionnaires-ce-qu-on-nous-cache.php

[Frederick]

Wooly wrote : No wonder France is up that the creek without a paddle!

Looks like others think the same

http://www.cityam.com/1413017161/france-suffers-cut-credit-outlook-economy-struggles

[idun]

We were always told that this applied to the military too, military families  who had four kids would get most benefit.

As every military family we knew always had four kids I had no reason to question this.

[NormanH]

Whereas in the UK where tycoons pay to dine with the PM

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/oct/12/conservatives-tycoons-fundraising-black-and-white-ball

Children starve

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/majority-of-british-children-will-soon-be-growing-up-in-families-struggling-below-the-breadline-government-warned-8531584.html

[idun]

NH I do not doubt that the rich are becoming disgustingly rich and not paying their share, because they are wealthy enough to find all the loop holes and avoid it, or simply don't pay.

However, last time I looked at the figures for child poverty, I felt like it meant that I had grown up very poor, as had everyone else I knew. How we judge poverty is weird to say the least these days. In England at least, one can live very cheaply. Children's clothes and shoes have never been cheaper. Plus there are the charity shops. And food is not expensive either, OK one can pay a lot, but it is still possible to eat very well for not  much. In fact I doubt that food has ever been cheaper.

We lived very well when I was a kid. Healthy diet, one room heated with a coal fire, the rest of the house was not heated, hot water bottle in our beds. A tv, not everyone had one, and we had a fridge too. Look at the way they work out the poverty figures and you'll see that apparently I grew up dirt poor. It is all nonsense. I see prices here and know how expensive it is to live, even for people on benefit. Parents make choices, we cannot stop some people being irresponsible, being stupid and making very poor choices ever, doesn't work like that.

Same same with France, one family who I would qualify as poor would be out buying pizzas from the van, they'd cost a lot and yet I'd hear same mother complaining she couldn't afford a bottle of gas at the school gates. She could have bought food for the whole family and a bottle of gas for the price of several pizzas she bought. We had a treat every once in a while and one pizza was bought and there was salad at home to go with it.

I would still make sure that the rich paid the taxes that they should, and companies not have loop holes either. France loses out, the UK loses out, the good thing I suppose is that Ireland getting all this money in, has got itself out of the mire it was in.

wooly, the allowances families get in France are so unlike the UK or perhaps anywhere else. It is really quite incredible if one stands back and looks at it all. I realise that having just one child affords little, but with two or more and it can look as if people have won the grande cagnotte by having children in France. Somehow it seemed fair to me when I got there, as did lots of the other benefits people got, as wages compared to cost of living were lousy and if living wages were not to be paid, then making up people's pay by other means seemed the just thing to do. The trick though was to be working, otherwise one was stuffed!

[woolybanana]

So, Norman, you think it wrong for the wealthy and the successful to mix. These events are public.

Actually, a thousand quid seems very cheap for, say, a major manufacturer to weigh up the politicians before deciding to build a factory whch provides 1000 jobs.

Do you consider that it is better for the commies in Unite to buy Labour in return for promises, kept quiet of course?

You seem to have a real problem with success and money. Were you badly treated as a child?

[DraytonBoy]

Like so many things today the meanings of wealth and poverty have been skewed beyond reality.

To me being wealthy means never having to watch what you spend not going to some dinner where you might meet the PM and being poor means you struggle to put food on the table not this month's Sky subscription may not be paid.

[PaulT]

Ah yes, the younger generation struggling to cope. But ask most of them and they have the latest mobile phones and sky high bills for them, Sky with all the channels feeding the latest smart TV.

Some of them need to get their priorities right.

[Frederick]

[quote user="PaulT"]Ah yes, the younger generation struggling to cope. But ask most of them and they have the latest mobile phones and sky high bills for them, Sky with all the channels feeding the latest smart TV.

Some of them need to get their priorities right.[/quote]

Very true .... As a committee member of a charity that was called upon to help out financially families that were unable to pay their service bills by social workers . I used to find on visiting some families the things you mentioned came first . I used to suggest that the monthly SKY subscription was something that they could manage without and was usually told that had to have it for the kids .