ADULT LEARNING GRANTS - why not for mums on benefits?

Question

I recently heard about adult learning grants , i am a single mum in her thirties , i worked more than ten years before having my 2 kids and not always been a single mum

i checked it out and was rather disappointed to find people on income support dont qualify for the grant

surely this would encourage more people to go back to college and study towards getting better jobs instead of being lazy , sitting round drinking beer all day , and would be helpful to single mums too as it costs about £6-£8 a day to put kids in a college creche , this mounts up over a week, so the £30 would of been useful , then theres bus fares to get there and meals etc not to mention books and college materials

so who is this grant actually for if it meant to be for adults over 19 years?

Surely if people are working they wont have much time for college and if on a good paid job wont need the extra £30

why cant people with children get this too, id love gto go back to college but cant afford to

Answer 1

There is little incentive for people on benefits to get a better education and move away from benefits  -  this means that many become totally reliant on the benefit state.

My personal experience - i had my son as a teenager, was a single parent and received income support.  I continued my alevels by doing one a year at night class.  When i tried to continue with my education at uni I was taken off income support and given a grant which was equal to my income support.  BUT ihad to pay for bus fares / books / resources / my sons school dinners / prescriptions etc so I was MUCH worse off - but with my family support I continued and passed.

This means that I have given me and my son a MUCH better life and he is now at uni himself, I met my husband and have worked full time since.

I know it will be hard but if you show you are committed to furthering your education, unis look favourably on people who do this,  and you can cope with the cost for the short term it will be worth it.

Go to the college and see if there is any support that they might suggest especially regarding child care - if you dont ask, you'll never know.

To 'eriverpipe'   -  bad things can happen to ANY one.  i dont imagine cyberangel planned to be in a relationship / have kids and end up as a single parent.

Answer 2

I imagine that it is due to the fact that the benefits you receive as a single mother are either already calculated to include assistance for costs associated with either finding work, or re training, or that you MIGHT qualify for some sort of grant for retraining (purely vocational) but not simply for learning.  Whatever, I would have to mention that what with the range of benefits already offered to parents (be they single or married), there is a growing swell of opinion that the balance has been pushed way too far that way.  Therefore those of us who choose not to have kids that we cannot afford are subsidising those who do have kids to an entirely unreasonable extent.

Add:

fair enough, but those of us with 20 odd solid years of paying everything from income tax etc to support benefits/ family tax credits, through council tax to support schools etc. are entitled to a different opinion