Could Ghana explore a kind of support system for all children and families. Tax allowances in the UK for children were initially introduced in 1909 and then family allowances in 1945.
Most mothers in Ghana and the rest of African countries struggle raising their families. Without any support from the Government mothers labour and toil to make a living for the survival of their familiies. The cost of living in going up by the day yet there is no help from the Government except NGO’s.
With the same meagre money mothers or parents living on the bread line are forced to pay for medical care and prescriptions , education, clothing and transportation. When it comes to prioritising their needs it is obviously which ones will go without.
Why have those in Government never considered alleivating the struggles of poor families. Example of their struggles are seen in actitives such as galamsey in mining areas, illegal logging etc.
A support benefit should be a flat-rate, not age-related. The case for age related is that children become more expensive as they grow older. The case against that is poorer families tend to be those with younger children, mainly because the woman in the family is unable to work or work from hand to mouth wages, and it is simpler not to relate the benefit to age
Would it be right to have basic argument for child benefit as follows:
- it is paid to the mother, who may or may not have other income
- it is not means-tested and takeup is very high (perhaps 99%)
- it is simple to administer via even the mobile phones
- Support benefit avoids problems like the poverty trap and stigma most poorer children have
- it helps to protect the position of the working poor.
The solution
It would be expensive and money needs to be raised somewhere. Balancing benefits against costs will never be easy – high benefit rates will encourage fraud and encourage benefit dependancy, while paying for this will be an issue.
We need to have a way of claiming support money.
Possible solution
Limit support to say three children per family only and reward parents with support incentives.
Sexual education from primary to University level.
Introduce apprenticeship to all young mothers and mothers who missed the opportunity for any formal education.
Introduce sweat equity (Where a family owns 15% of the equity of their rented property) housing schemes throughout the country to weed out the slums in our cities and even villages.
Introduce free I/T training in libraries and use churches venues, build library within market complex as location venue for informal training basic literacy.
Introduce universal old age pension to alieviate poverty in old age in the country.
Engage in partnership with all community leaders and DCE, including traditional priest.
Arrest all illegal miners particularly the Chinese who bribe our vulnerable to engage in this business.
Have guards around all minig sites.
Public engagement with vulnerable persons in every town, village as well as cities.
Introduce corporate social responsibility for businesses to also take the responsibilities of community development.
Introduction of citizen advice bureau to help the vulnerables among us to have a better understanding about their rights in society.
Give the vulnerable a voice through a community empowering scheme to identify their own needs.
The elderly among us should identify their needs with each community as they all have varying needs.
The elderly should fight for a regular health checks at health hubs suggested to be located at local markets.
Compulsory apprenticeship for all the youths with low academic interest into various vocations . This will be a long term educational planning from the Education Minister.
Child protection policies for children and families which would be adhered to across the board.
Instead of some of us having mercy on the poor and the vulnerable as a nation we should all fight for strategies to be put in place to bridge the wider gap that exist between the rich and the poor.
The Government through the educational system should also ensure that there are opportunities out there. We should all use our intuition to creats more jobs through innovation.
Confucius said give someone a fish you feed him for a day, teach him how to fish and you will feed him for life
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