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12 months ago I set up a new business bank account for Syntax Terror Games, a new venture dealing in game development and current gen system repairs. Unfortunately I got severely sidetracked and have hardly used the account. In October, following the release of WP7 Mango, I decided to try my hand at a bit of Silverlight and created a relatively simple app for WP7. It's a digital clock radio. It's taken about 25 hours work to figure things out and get it to the stage where it's streaming internet radio.
Unfortunately M$ have a pretty stringent admissions policy to the WP7 marketplace. I applied to join as a developer but, presumably due to M$ covering their own backs in case developers don't pay the tax they owe on money they get from M$, the admissions policy meant that I couldn't join if I was a sole trader. I had to set up a limited company.
Myself and my wife have been on benefits for years for one reason or another. In fact, we've been okay and probably bringing in more money than if we'd been working for someone. Having said that, almost half of it is payments in lieu of her disability. Of course, that's made us wonder. We've worked out that we've been taking around £16,000 per year. That's not a bad haul for sitting on our asses doing nothing. But I've always been ambitious and it just didn't feel right. If we're going to move ourselves up in the world, we had to do something about it.
But there are people out there who lack ambition and motivation to do anything to better themselves. When the UK government announced plans to cap benefit payments to £26,000 per year for families, it made us shudder. We were doing fine on £16,000 per year. What the hell could justify paying a family £26,000 per year? Apparently, some 50,000 families were getting more than that. Most of these had numerous children and so child benefit was making up the bulk of the rest it seems. A survey since the announcement has shown that 2/3 of people in the UK think that the proposed threshold is still too high. I agree. We know one family in Cardiff, for instance, who has had two council houses knocked together to accommodate them and their seven or eight (lost count) children. The simple answer is ... if you can't afford children, don't have them.
To be honest, if it wasn't for the disability payments, we'd have struggled badly. My concern is that if they do bring the limit lower then it could mean that disability payments could be affected or that disability payments could restrict other payments, such as child benefit. Some people are opposed to the limit because of the effect it could have on child benefit. That's not the issue. Many women breed like rabbits just to get the extra payments. The issue is whether certain benefits, such as disability living allowance and carer's allowance, should be included in the calculation. These are essential payments to help with often increased living costs but if the threshold is set too low then parents with disabilities could be penalised and have their child benefit restricted.
A far better system would be not to have a payments cap but instead have a cap on the number of children who would qualify a family for child benefit and child tax credit payments. The UK is suffering a housing shortage at present and that's one problem that's only going to get worse as the population increases. So it could be used to prevent problems in the future.
Anyway, we finally took the plunge yesterday. So Syntax Terror Games Ltd. is now open for business.
Unfortunately M$ have a pretty stringent admissions policy to the WP7 marketplace. I applied to join as a developer but, presumably due to M$ covering their own backs in case developers don't pay the tax they owe on money they get from M$, the admissions policy meant that I couldn't join if I was a sole trader. I had to set up a limited company.
Myself and my wife have been on benefits for years for one reason or another. In fact, we've been okay and probably bringing in more money than if we'd been working for someone. Having said that, almost half of it is payments in lieu of her disability. Of course, that's made us wonder. We've worked out that we've been taking around £16,000 per year. That's not a bad haul for sitting on our asses doing nothing. But I've always been ambitious and it just didn't feel right. If we're going to move ourselves up in the world, we had to do something about it.
But there are people out there who lack ambition and motivation to do anything to better themselves. When the UK government announced plans to cap benefit payments to £26,000 per year for families, it made us shudder. We were doing fine on £16,000 per year. What the hell could justify paying a family £26,000 per year? Apparently, some 50,000 families were getting more than that. Most of these had numerous children and so child benefit was making up the bulk of the rest it seems. A survey since the announcement has shown that 2/3 of people in the UK think that the proposed threshold is still too high. I agree. We know one family in Cardiff, for instance, who has had two council houses knocked together to accommodate them and their seven or eight (lost count) children. The simple answer is ... if you can't afford children, don't have them.
To be honest, if it wasn't for the disability payments, we'd have struggled badly. My concern is that if they do bring the limit lower then it could mean that disability payments could be affected or that disability payments could restrict other payments, such as child benefit. Some people are opposed to the limit because of the effect it could have on child benefit. That's not the issue. Many women breed like rabbits just to get the extra payments. The issue is whether certain benefits, such as disability living allowance and carer's allowance, should be included in the calculation. These are essential payments to help with often increased living costs but if the threshold is set too low then parents with disabilities could be penalised and have their child benefit restricted.
A far better system would be not to have a payments cap but instead have a cap on the number of children who would qualify a family for child benefit and child tax credit payments. The UK is suffering a housing shortage at present and that's one problem that's only going to get worse as the population increases. So it could be used to prevent problems in the future.
Anyway, we finally took the plunge yesterday. So Syntax Terror Games Ltd. is now open for business.
