goodbye family credit..forever..Now what?

Poppycat

Well put chugaplug.

I will also been in that position in a few years assuming I cant get my kids to college.

Where I live virtual all the jobs are low paid, minimum wage, that just about pays the bills and I dread to think what it would be like for our youngest starting out even the lowest prices for housing is £100,000 well tbh you wouldnt get a morgage if two were on low incomes and as for councilling housing you stand more chnace of flying too the moon.

WFTC and CTC have helped many from poverty there is still a long way to go, the problem with it is that it is hard to come off, and employers take advantage of the situation because they no they can get away with it and the government can and do subside some employers.

It always seems to be in the world lets knock those on benefits, I say why not have ago at those on high incomes who can afford to begger off x amount of times a year and pay nowt in taxes or have money in a foreign bank account. No instead nowt hardly out is said about them, on no we give some of them knighthoods.

viktory

Poppycat wrote:

Well put chugaplug.

I will also been in that position in a few years assuming I cant get my kids to college.

Where I live virtual all the jobs are low paid, minimum wage, that just about pays the bills and I dread to think what it would be like for our youngest starting out even the lowest prices for housing is £100,000 well tbh you wouldnt get a morgage if two were on low incomes and as for councilling housing you stand more chnace of flying too the moon.

WFTC and CTC have helped many from poverty there is still a long way to go, the problem with it is that it is hard to come off, and employers take advantage of the situation because they no they can get away with it and the government can and do subside some employers.

It always seems to be in the world lets knock those on benefits, I say why not have ago at those on high incomes who can afford to begger off x amount of times a year and pay nowt in taxes or have money in a foreign bank account. No instead nowt hardly out is said about them, on no we give some of them knighthoods.

Define poverty. To me, poverty means no roof over your head, no food in your tummy and no clothes to wear. I don't think anyone in this country can claim that they are truly poverty stricken.

Although I will agree there are a lot of low paid jobs, the argument I use (on my son) is simply that if you get a decent education (which is free) then you will be able to get a decent job. When I started full time employment I was on a criminally low wage, without the assistance of tax credits, but I worked hard and now earn a good wage. Took me years though and that is the point. Today's youngesters think that they can stroll into a job earning mega bucks.

I agree with tax credits - to a point. What I don't like is the fact that families become totally dependant on them, to the extent that they fail to address the issue at hand - that is that when their children leave home their income will drop drastically. Surely it would make sense to work at improving the situation whilst in receipt of tax credits so that when the time comes to lose that particular benefit you are in a position to make up that loss.

The problem is people live up to their income - for example, if you earn £200 a week generally you will spend £200 per week and manage. If you earn £400 a week, you will spend £400 a week and so on. Then, when this drops dramtically people are finding that they are unable to manage and fall into debt. The Government are offering the assistance whilst it is needed but it is up to each individual to also help themselves. krisskross made a suggestion to a poster earlier that involved saving each month. Now that is good advice. When the tax credits stop at least that family will have a healthy bank account to helkp counteract the loss of tax credits.

One never to be forgotten thread that was closed was written by someone who felt it was the norm to continue having children because they were in receipt of tax credits that would increase with each child. That, to me, is abuse of the system.

I think that those on a low wage with families should claim the tax credits they are entitled to. Just don't complain when they have served the purpose that they were intended for and stop!

viktory

funnyguy wrote:

our forth child left school this summer for uni..and I just rang family credit to inform them of this..so sadly our £100 per week from them will stop from today along with the child allowance{approx £500 per month all told} along with our free prescriptions/dentist/glasses..and we will have to live on £700 per month from our combined part time jobs...both my wife and I work less than 25 hours per week..so with a £400 per month mortgage to start with and nothing in the kitty,its not going be fun..We are both in our 50,s..so its not easy in the job market ..Is their any other help out there until I find a permenant job?

I don't mean to be inflammatory, but you knew that the tax credits would stop when your youngest went on to further edcuation, so why did you not make provision for this?

krisskross

This is another thread in which people are never going to agree. That is because there are the recipients of large amounts of dosh via benefits versus the beleagured tax payers who see large chunks of their income taken away forcibly to be redistributed to enable the recipients to have a better income than the tax payer. Sort of Robin Hood principle, except that the folks doing the paying out are not rich!

Had such high levels of financial support been available when we were young struggling parents I doubt very much that I would have done the 3 years study and hard work that enabled me to be earning £20-£25 an hour when I retired.

It follows therefore that the benefit system is perpetuating itself and sucking in more and more people.

I do wish Government would stop encouraging families to rely on the State as their paymaster, human nature being what it is it takes a very determined person to climb out of the black pit that is a life on benefits.

Pennywise

There should be a "tapering away" of benefits after so many years to encourage people to make their own provisions.

I'm not talking about disability benefits where there is no foreseeable chance of recovery, but to other benefits where the claimant can, over a period of several years, retrain either in further education or via apprenticeships etc, or move gradually from part time to full time by increasing their hours by promotions, job changes, etc.

None of this can happen quickly, and probably very little can be achieved when your children are very young, but as children go through secondary school, for example, there should be an expectation for the parents to become less dependant on benefits, after all the children should be less dependant on their parents as they become older.

I read recently about the USA system where I think benefits are paid for a limit of 5 years without exception and most claimants came off benefits long before the time limit as they realised that they had to make their own arrangements eventually, and once that was accepted, they tended to do it quite quickly.

chugalug

All this assumes that employers will pay decent wages and that the jobs will be available when we all retrain. Think how many young people will have degrees in a few years and the aim is for at least 50%. If you were an employer would you employ a younger person who is cheap but educated or an older person with experience but who is expensive (and who is also likely to be less malleable). Not true in all cases but we all know there are teaching assistants who are cheaper than teachers, care assistants who are cheaper than nurses, community officers who are cheaper than police etc etc. Its not as simple as an individual responsibility to retrain.

PosterBoy77

Juni wrote:

Look at my assets (at the bottom). I can still claim tax credits!!!

Needless to say I don't, but it shows how messed up the system is when a multi-millionaire can claim what is classed as a benefit.

Short of taking another job I'm not sure what to suggest to the OP. My usual advice is to retrain for a higher paid job in your spare time but that could be trickly in your 50's.

I agree that the system we have is totally messed up. By the way, I assume your assets are properties that are mortgage free?

funnyguy

to answer viktory thread {post 45},I lost my job last year so your question is not relevent to me,and that job was only low paid,as I had been made redundant{for the third time in ten years} the year before.I can understand people getting het up with people getting what seems large ammounts of family credit..But their are 3 issues here.....Firstly..the government{who most of you probably voted for lol}..have been too generous with family credit{even ministers claim the child tax credit}..which you can get on £60,000wages(this has been well covered on this thread so far}.Secondly their are so many honest,legitimate loopholes around the system {and do not forget this is a money savers site so the sort of people on here will use them to get every penny they can,,which is fair enough.I have got a lot of tips myself.}.Thirdly as I originally stated at the beginning ,their is no stepping stones to reduce the tax credit credit when your child leaves school..just a complete cut off.WHICH IS WHAT THIS THREAD IS ORIGINALLY ABOUT.To conclude I would just like to add that my wife and I have worked all our lives from the age of 16 {except when she was breeding],and I have only been unemployed for a year of my life,but work is hard to find when your in your 50,s so the last 3 years have been a struggle on low paid jobs,and then family credit came along...And when did family tax credit start...? remember this is only the third year....

msmicawber

Hi Funnyguy,

Is there no way that either you and/or your wife could increase your working hours, or get a second job to increase your income? I'm not having a pop at you, just asking, since you're not much older than me and being in your 50s still seems young to me.

Juni_3

mikael wrote:

I agree that the system we have is totally messed up. By the way, I assume your assets are properties that are mortgage free?

Three houses (mine, my sons and my neice). A large boat and a lot of cash.

For tax credits they don't take into account the amount of savings you have unlike just about every other benefit (or at least they didn't when the tax credit website was still working!).