Tax Credits cuts - don't know what to do

melly1980

dreavi wrote: »

I think this post assume that Victory doesnt like middle class earners getting tax credits but supports low income people getting just as much.

To be fair i dont think he has ever said as much, he could quite easily not like them claiming either. The point is when the taxpayer subsidises your lifestyle to any degree no matter your income you open yourself up to recriminations as to how their money is spent.

Harsh but unavoidable unfortunately

While that is correct why should it be the higher earners that get all the stick. The simple fact is that the lower earners seem to be oblivious to the situation that is they themselves are getting topped up a good deal and spending on stuff that they dont "need" as well. It appears they want the higher earners to forfeit everything so they can continue to spend as they please. If we are expecting higher earners to downgrade their lifestyle then it is only fair that everyone in receipt of taxpayers money should be spending on a "needs" basis rather than above and beyond that.

bestpud

jellyhead wrote: »

I assumed that the £30 entertainment cost was for more than just lottery. A family of 4 might want to go swimming sometimes, or to the cinema.

Also, the grocery bill might include clothes, up to 2 children in nappies etc.

They have a budget for clothes on top, but, yes, it might include nappies. Still pretty high though.

As for the entertainment - good point - that would make more sense! I couldn't get my head round a 'struggling' family paying £30 a month for lottery tickets!!

sugababy

zagfles wrote: »

If you earn under £30k then your tax credits this year should be higher, if your income hasn't changed since 2009/10.

What does it say on your latest award (this will have a section for run-on payments after April this year)? You may have to wait till they process the renewal to get the higher amount.

No, I don't earn 30K,I work 30hrs, earnings £24304

EmmyRoo

Good grief this is getting ridiculous! Feel like I've started a war or something!

Thanks again to the people who have offered non-judgemental advice on this subject. I'll try to answer some of the questions raised if I can remember them all.

Our food bill includes nappies for one child and night time pull ups for the other, all our household cleaning products, cat food etc and all toiletries. I do buy Asda own brand products and keep the bills as low as I can. I'll look into the old style advice too though.

The £55 bank fees are: up to £5 a month for my overdraft (50p per day that I'm overdrawn up to max £5) and up to £50 for my husband's account. He gets charged something like £1 a day or something for being in overdraft, more for going over his limit, hence how it can get so high. We know he needs to look into getting another account somewhere else, it's on the to do list.

The £30 entertainment thing is not all lottery, we play a couple of lines in the hope we might win something back. We will cut this back though. The rest is for when we occasionally go out for the day as a family etc.

Someone mentioned not buying clothes for a few months, maybe it wasn't clear but we don't buy clothes at all. My husband and I are wearing things we bought 10 years ago and ours kids are mostly wearing hand-me-downs from friends or clothes they got as presents. We have a small amount allocated for clothes in case we need to get something and there isn't a birthday coming up.

Our life assurance is worth looking into, it was done through an independent financial adviser when we moved house, but may well be more expensive than it should be. The "other insurance" cost is a mortgage payment protector in my husband's name, in case he (as main earner) got cancer (god forbid) or something and couldn't work for a long time. It also includes a once a year payment for card protection which covers all our cards, driving licences and passports in case they're stolen.

I don't get my hair cut every month, it is once every 2 months which costs about £34. The £25 was an attempt at working it out for the year and dividing by 12. It is pricey though so I'll cut this back.

Our water costs are included in council tax, we live in Scotland.

I don't want to stop working as I love my job and if I lose it won't be able to get it back due to recruitment freezes in the council. Also I'd lose my pension. I thought I could make it through a couple of years of earning less than the childcare costs because it'd be cheaper once our eldest is at school and it'd be worth it to keep the long-term benefits of the job. I have considered a career break but it wouldn't really offer a great deal of difference in our finances. I see your point re. giving up a car, but at the end of the career break I'd need to buy a new one and where would the money come from? Also at the risk of being slagged off even more, we live in a remote village and no car would mean being very isolated.

Re. the emergency fund, that is to cover things like our washing machine and dishwasher breaking down as happened recently, also car costs like the £800 MOT bill I paid in Nov followed by the £600 when my husband's car broke down a couple of weeks later. The emergency fund goes nowhere near covering that and we had to use credit cards.

The xmas and birthday present fund may look excessive but we are both from large families and need to get presents for nephews and nieces as well as our own kids and the children of close friends. Plus the ages of our children means we are invited to endless birthday parties which mount up even with me spending only £5 per present. Would you like to have to tell your friends that you can't afford a £5 bit of plastic for their child? Or have your kid be the only one who goes to a party without a present?

For the information of those banging on about how unfair my claiming tax credits is on "the taxpayer" I'd like to say that my husband and I have paid tax & NI in every job we've ever had, since our first saturday jobs at 16. That amounts to over 40 years of contributions between us.
When we were at university we received no goverment help, our money came from loans, overdrafts & parental help.
Neither of us have ever claimed any other benefit in our lives, when I was made redundant a few years ago we stretched his pay to cover our outgoings until I got another job, I didn't claim income support.
We have 2 children, hardly an enormous family. I'd love a third and a few years back we intended to have 3 but have had to come to the extremely upsetting decision that we just cannot afford another child. I do not think that it is too much to ask to have some of the tax I paid and my husband paid back in the form of tax credits to enable me to work, thus boosting the economy and providing a larger pension pot to enable me to pay my own way when I retire.

Some people have asked why these cuts have come as such a shock, maybe you all have maths PhDs but I couldn't for the life of me work out what the cuts meant in real terms until the HMRC updated their tax credit calculator on April 6th, could you? Of course we have been aware that cuts were coming but without knowing exactly what they would be it's been hard to know what action we'd have to take.

Anyway, thanks for the advice, I'll certainly look into the suggestions people have made.

E. x

Blue22

EmmyRoo wrote: »

I don't want to stop working as I love my job and if I lose it won't be able to get it back due to recruitment freezes in the council. Also I'd lose my pension. I thought I could make it through a couple of years of earning less than the childcare costs because it'd be cheaper once our eldest is at school and it'd be worth it to keep the long-term benefits of the job x

Hi EmmyRoo

I'm not one of bashers.

It's good that you realise that you are effectively paying to go to work and if that's what you want to do then that is your choice. The only worry I would have is how sure are you that your gamble will pay off and how secure is the funding for your job/dept?

You obviously know your job and your area better than anyone but I
know I would be unlikely to take a risk with any local authority job in my area. Many jobs here will either cease to exist or be subcontracted out to the private sector within the next couple of years.

Anyway good luck with whatever you decide to do.

michelle1506

:mad:COULDN'T AGREE WITH YOU MORE!! WHAT A KNOB!

FOURCANDLES wrote: »

Well I remember when the tax credits came in the odd few moaned but ahh we will no be able to stop them which is true ,the minimum wage which is paid to many who do what the educated may think is not an important job would not be enough in 2011, cleanrs,hospital workers,bin men,etc etc what a mess we would all end up in we have a moral duty to cut poverty. But with regards to this comment I would say up to last week every family with children unless very wealthy were being given tax credits etc , every self employed person with a good accountant is better off than an employee the very very rich are more subsidized and given more tax breaks than the average working family so in my view your idea is crap wake up and smell the coffee.

michelle1506

I must say I don't like what your saying. I have PAID TAX for 27 years, and I am now pregnant with twins at the age of 42! UP TO NOW I have never claimed WFTC or CTC and have only claimed benefit twice for very short spells, before finding work quickly.

I am equally entitled to claim tax credits not less!! I have paid tax for 27 years and no doubt paid for yours (if you have any) and a lot of other people's children along the way!

SO WHERE DO YOU GET OFF EXACTLY BY SAYING THAT THE ENTITLEMENT SHOUD BE REMOVED FROM ME, AS A LOWER EARNER, BUT NOT A HIGHER EARNER???

For the record I am also a non smoker!!

melly1980 wrote: »

Never said any such thing. By all means show me where I have. Back in the real world what I did say is that higher earners are subsidising the childcare payments for lower earners. So what purpose does it serve to make it impossible for a higher earner to work, because thats what we are talking about here. The sneering from the lower earners is mind boggling. People who assume that they should get everythink and the higher earners nothing. It doesnt even enter their uneducated little brains that their money is being topped to to almost the same as many of the so called rich people. Never mind tho, your entickled to it. You need it for "me fags"




Correct.

And when changes to the tax credits system have meant that higher earners no longer qualify these people now find it uneconomical to work. They have been let down by a system that is still allowing people on a lower income to work but not those that are subsidising it. Only someone with less brains than a molusc would proclaim that this is fair.

michelle1506

Rude and arrogant with it! Some of us have manners and would not have the bad taste to point something like this out!

melly1980 wrote: »

ahh, spotting errors with spelling / grammar. the last refuge of someone who is talking bobbins. Speaking of which, how are you getting on with that quote of mine?

calleyw

michelle1506 wrote: »

I have PAID TAX for 27 years, and I am now pregnant with twins at the age of 42! UP TO NOW I have never claimed WFTC or CTC and have only claimed benefit twice for very short spells, before finding work quickly.

Do you really think what you have paid in over 27 years covers anywhere near what you have taken out up to this point.

Your own education and health care. Let alone that of your to be born children.

Each child cost approx 12K a year to educate. Let alone a birth which is a tens of thousands of pounds.

People managed before tax credits and people will manage with out them.

I choose not to claim tax credits. The extra money would be nice. But my husband takes out far more than he has ever paid in.

My household income has already halved and will drop even further with the changes to benefit system for disabled people. If them deem my husband fit to work.

It will be a blow and our already lowish standard of living will take a further tumble. You either will get over it or you will not.

Labour made too many people reliant on tax credits. And people who should be better off are not going to be any longer.

It does not take someone with a PHD in maths to see that you can't keep paying out more than you have coming in for years on end. That is why the cuts have been so brutal.

Most people on £40K + under pre-labour tax credit system would never have been getting any help for child care and would have a nanny or au pair.

The problem and this is not aimed at particular at the OP. To many people say they can't cut any more out of their budgets. What they means is they don't want to. And that is their choice. But don't moan about it if you choose not to do anything about it.

Yours

Calley

melly1980

michelle1506 wrote: »

I must say I don't like what your saying. I have PAID TAX for 27 years, and I am now pregnant with twins at the age of 42! UP TO NOW I have never claimed WFTC or CTC and have only claimed benefit twice for very short spells, before finding work quickly.

I am equally entitled to claim tax credits not less!! I have paid tax for 27 years and no doubt paid for yours (if you have any) and a lot of other people's children along the way!

SO WHERE DO YOU GET OFF EXACTLY BY SAYING THAT THE ENTITLEMENT SHOUD BE REMOVED FROM ME, AS A LOWER EARNER, BUT NOT A HIGHER EARNER???

For the record I am also a non smoker!!

The point is, I never said that.

I have at no point suggested that lower earners should get tax credits removed while higher earners should keep them. Other people have claimed that I have said this and when asked to provide the post / quote they cant. It doesnt exist, that is not my view.