milk (infant) coupons

[Steve]

OK, so its easter saturday, im on the checkout covering someone's dinner, and a woman comes up with a basket full of easter eggs, chocolate bars, creme eggs. total comes to just over £10.

She pulls out a wad of milk coupons and says "right how many of these do you need"



I'm like "well, you can get 4 litres of milk for each coupon", and she continues "no, you redeem these for £2.50 dont you?"

"yes, for 2 whole or semi skimmed milks at £1.25 each"

"well they have done it for me before here just last week"

"who did it? they will be in trouble when i find out"

"im not telling you if they will get into trouble"

"fine. i'll pull of a till audit for the last week which shows every transaction by every operator and what payment was recieved, now thats £££ please"

"i dont believe this" <while pulling out her money>

(to husband) "we'll have to come back in when those 2 are working again"

Now, the theory is, we COULD redeem those coupons for general groceries, only us in store would ever know, but its the principle. My taxes paid for those coupons, yes? To be honest, i'm insulted that people do this. if she doesn't need the coupons for milk, then why have them at all? I dont pay taxes for people like this to have free chocolate. I wish i didn't have to pay them for people to have free milk, but thats life. The bare faced cheek. And i WILL find out who took the coupons for groceries, and they WILL get a disciplinary. What a stupid thing to try with the deputy manager though!!!!

scrounging low-life scum (even though she did look quite respectable ) and she didn't look like the sort that needs milk coupons. What is the eligibility for milk coupons? I mean, how do you get them? I dont fully understand the system!

 

[Dellsmp]

Completely agree
Fraudsters cost us far too much, more care and assistance could be given to the really needy if it wasn't for these people

 

[Brightness]

Just pulled this off a Benefits site...http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/life/benefits/help_with_health_education_and_legal_costs.htm

Help with health costs


Milk tokens


Some people on low incomes can get milk tokens which can be exchanged for free milk.



You can get free milk tokens if you are at least ten week's pregnant and you are getting Income Support or income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance. You will also qualify if you get Child Tax Credit but are not getting Working Tax Credit and your income is low enough. If you are a member of the family of someone who is on these benefits, and you are pregnant you can also get free milk tokens. A member of the family in this case is an opposite-sex partner, same-sex partner or dependent child of the person who is getting one of these benefits.



Free milk tokens are also available if you are breastfeeding a child under one, and you (or a member of your family) get Income Support or income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance. Also, if you get Child Tax Credit but are not getting Working Tax Credit and your income is low enough.



If you get Income Support or income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, any of your children who are under five are entitled to free milk tokens. If you get Child Tax Credit, your income is low enough, and you are not able to get Working Tax Credit, your children under five are also entitled to milk tokens.



If you are an asylum seeker being supported by the National Asylum Support Service, you cannot get milk tokens, but if you are pregnant or have a child under three, you will get an extra payment for milk or infant formula.



Milk tokens for children are issued automatically if you are eligible.



If you are claiming milk tokens because you are pregnant, you should fill in a claim form and have it approved by a health professional – for example, a midwife. The form is in the leaflet 'Free milk for pregnant women' which you can get from your midwife or doctor or from the Department of Health website at www.dh.gov.uk



I must admit that when I worked for a supermarket, we sometimes used to let some of the families exchange them for fresh veg and things but most certainly not Easter Eggs - they're hardly a necessity are they?

 

[Steve]

Cheers Brightness. I wish i had checked the dates on the milk coupons this woman had - surely they didn't send her 10 with the same date on all at once? I mean, who drinks that much milk???? And she had obviously been in the other day with coupons too do they think shes running a creche??

Thinking back, i wish i had told her that my taxes pay for the needy to have free milk, not for the greedy to have free chocolate. There was quite a queue behind her, would have made her look real bad!!! But her husband would have battered me knowing my luck!!!! Should have took her coupons, torn them up, thrown them in the bin, and told her the total again

 

[Brightness]

Maybe she's exchanging milk tokens for 'favours' or drugs? You never know these days!

 

[poshman]

crafty.. you could argue that there is a certain amount of milk in chocolate

 

[BOB.DOLE]

OK, so its easter saturday, im on the checkout covering someone's dinner, and a woman comes up with a basket full of easter eggs, chocolate bars, creme eggs. total comes to just over £10.

She pulls out a wad of milk coupons and says "right how many of these do you need"



I'm like "well, you can get 4 litres of milk for each coupon", and she continues "no, you redeem these for £2.50 dont you?"

"yes, for 2 whole or semi skimmed milks at £1.25 each"

"well they have done it for me before here just last week"

"who did it? they will be in trouble when i find out"

"im not telling you if they will get into trouble"

"fine. i'll pull of a till audit for the last week which shows every transaction by every operator and what payment was recieved, now thats £££ please"

"i dont believe this" <while pulling out her money>

(to husband) "we'll have to come back in when those 2 are working again"

Now, the theory is, we COULD redeem those coupons for general groceries, only us in store would ever know, but its the principle. My taxes paid for those coupons, yes? To be honest, i'm insulted that people do this. if she doesn't need the coupons for milk, then why have them at all? I dont pay taxes for people like this to have free chocolate. I wish i didn't have to pay them for people to have free milk, but thats life. The bare faced cheek. And i WILL find out who took the coupons for groceries, and they WILL get a disciplinary. What a stupid thing to try with the deputy manager though!!!!

scrounging low-life scum (even though she did look quite respectable ) and she didn't look like the sort that needs milk coupons. What is the eligibility for milk coupons? I mean, how do you get them? I dont fully understand the system!

Sounds great to me anything you can spunge im all for it...

what about milkybars.......

 

[keyplayer]

Ten pounds does not buy a great amount of Easter themed confectionery. I hope she managed to get her children some elsewhere.

 

[joe-90]

The odds are that she has been buying milk for cash at the supermarket (who'd want to exchange coupons in a crowd like that). I'm sure the family have been using milk so what's the problem? Politicians are fiddling expenses to the tune of tens of thousands of pounds and you are bothering about a bit of chocolate for the kids at Easter? Get a grip.


joe

 

[securespark]

Make a living out of it, don'tcha, joe??

 

[gcol]

The odds are that she has been buying milk for cash at the supermarket (who'd want to exchange coupons in a crowd like that). I'm sure the family have been using milk so what's the problem? Politicians are fiddling expenses to the tune of tens of thousands of pounds and you are bothering about a bit of chocolate for the kids at Easter? Get a grip.
joe

It's the principle Joe. She's stealing from the taxpayer.

 

[keyplayer]

I don't know which supermarket Crafty works for, but I'd hazard a guess that they're not averse to a tax dodge or two themselves, legal or otherwise.

 

[joe-90]

The odds are that she has been buying milk for cash at the supermarket (who'd want to exchange coupons in a crowd like that). I'm sure the family have been using milk so what's the problem? Politicians are fiddling expenses to the tune of tens of thousands of pounds and you are bothering about a bit of chocolate for the kids at Easter? Get a grip.
joe

It's the principle Joe. She's stealing from the taxpayer.

I'm self employed. I use every trick in the book to avoid tax. Don't you?



joe

 

[joe-90]

Make a living out of it, don'tcha, joe??

Out of what?

 

[hermes]

I wasn't aware of milk tokens until now, and what I think crafty did was right. I'm sure that these tokens must help children in low-income families to get milk that maybe they otherwise wouldn't get, and that seems like a good idea to me. To try to swap them for chocolate (of all things) makes a mockery of the system.