Earn £60 per week and they take £57 from tax credit!

Blitz01

what kind of an icentive is this for people to get of their bum and work.

To earn their income rather than live on handouts!

paddedjohn

one of the problems at the moment is that people see benefits (tax credits are a benefit, if you receive them you benefit.) as the be all and end all and not as a safety net as they were designed to be. her incentive to work should be that she can feel proud for providing for herself rather than relying on the state.

skintbint_2

sh1305 wrote: »

But she'd gain extra wages.

and she'd be supporting herself a bit more and not expecting tax payers money to bail her out -

ffacoffipawb

piclelilly wrote: »

can this be right? I employ a partime administrator and she has lost £57.00 from her benefit because she now works 9 hours a week beacause she earns £60.00.
this seems so unfare as she enjoys the job and is going to continue.

what kind of an icentive is this for people to get of their bum and work.
it will be she is worse off as it costs her travel expenses to come to work.

How is she worse off - she has to pay to go home anyway. The hour overtime means she goes home one hour later - why the extra expense - childcare?

Sixer

skcollobcat10 wrote: »

I often think at the moment with employers they are taking advantage of the benefits system/recession in that they think that they can pay low wages because the government supplements the wage with benefits.

Absolutely. And this is a side of the argument that many posters hereabouts seem completely oblivious of. For example, if the minimum wage of £6ish went up to the alternative living wage of £8ish, the savings in Tax Credits would be about £0.5bn.

And those paying income tax aren't the only taxpayers the country has. All of us are taxpayers - even benefits claimants. Anyone who owns a car pays tax. Many daily items are taxable: toilet roll, washing up liquid, a bar of chocolate, any new adult clothes, etc ad infinitum.

I don't think forcing up the minimum wage provides all the answers, but this forum is horribly single-minded.

Incyder

This is the reason many people find a way to get paid in cash, so they are actually getting to keep their wages rather than having them taken away.

Sixer

skcollobcat10 wrote: »

But if the minimum wage went up people higher up the chain would also have to have an hourly increase.

Yes. As I say, it's not an entire answer. A realignment of house prices would help. Certain aspects of immigration control and the looming implementation of Mode 4 also.

But it's a huge factor that is often completely ignored in the many anti-benefits rants in this section of the forum.

I'm happy to agree with many of the ranters that benefits dependency is too high in the UK and should be reduced - but simply cutting benefits or the number of those entitled to them while maintaining the status quo elsewhere isn't the entire answer either.

dark_lady

The pride factor wont pay your council tax or your gas bill or pay for smart clothes for work. Unless the council and gas companies are accepting pride these days instead of money. After all when you cant pay you can always ring these companies and say "Well i cant afford to pay you but at least ive got pride!!!!!!!

jennie65

no-oneknowsme wrote: »

To many people an extra £16 would be well appreciarted !

You have to consider that those young kids for which ctc is claimed wont always be young kids ! One day , inevitably (sp?) those kids are going to leave education and so the tc's will stop.....

Too true, am son going to be in that situation, I work full time and the extra TC is invaluable as it helpd pay the extortionate private rent I have to pay. Unfortunately when we lose tax credits if the children do not wwalk out of education and straight into jobs where they can pay me the shortfall we will lose our home. As there is no way I can afford to ren a 3 bed house or even a 1 bed flat on my salary alone and i earn £18k a year, but in my area thats just not enough to rent privately on your own.