Tax Credits cuts - don't know what to do

DaisyFlower

You need to take a good hard look at what you are spending - that joint salary plus money from your parents, CB and tax credits should leave you with more than enough yet your other posts say you end up with no money before payday arrives.

Given you only work 18 hours, you could look for a second job or up your hours. Work around your partner so no childcare costs.

The changes have been announced for months so should come as no surprise. If you took tax credits and other state assistance into account when working out if you could afford children, you cant complain when they stop as parents not others should support them.

melly1980

Blue22 wrote: »

Ditto it really annoys me too.

It also annoys me that they compare the gross income rather than take home pay, and that people on lesser salaries choose to ignore the thousands of £s they receive in tax credits when making comparisons.

If people looked a bit closer at the OPs circumstances they would see how little she has left after housing and work related expenses

Nett income in the region of 35k
Childcare costs 10k
Mortgage 8k
Council tax (?) 1k
Work related transport costs for 2 people (?) 5k

Which leaves the family with approximately 11k or about £220/week after these essential costs.

The governments figure for what a family of 4 need to live on after housing costs is in the region £250/week
.

And in your example you have took one of these costs off in petrol to fudge your figures. Also, 5K for petrol. If anyone is paying 5K in petrol to get to work then they need to move house. At 6 quid a gallon that works out at 833 gallons a year and at 30 miles to the gallon it = 25000 miles / year or 480 miles per week.

melly1980

Blue22 wrote: »

Ditto it really annoys me too.

It also annoys me that they compare the gross income rather than take home pay, .

While that maybe true you can not be seriously suggesting that the welfare state should be used to prop up the spending of people who are bringing 45K plus in.

zagfles

melly1980 wrote: »

And in your example you have took one of these costs off in petrol to fudge your figures. Also, 5K for petrol. If anyone is paying 5K in petrol to get to work then they need to move house. At 6 quid a gallon that works out at 833 gallons a year and at 30 miles to the gallon it = 25000 miles / year or 480 miles per week.

So that's 24 miles to work each. Not too unreasonable.

Besides driving now costs 45p per mile according to the govt, when you take other costs like servicing, tyres, depreciation etc into account. So on that basis 5k = 11,111 miles, 5555 each, about 115 per week each, so 11.5 miles to work.

zagfles

melly1980 wrote: »

While that maybe true you can not be seriously suggesting that the welfare state should be used to prop up the spending of people who are bringing 45K plus in.

In most countries they help families using tax allowances. End result is much the same, except people don't then whinge about the "welfare state propping them up".

PeterZ_2

EmmyRoo wrote: »

No Hammyman I am not a troll. I thought (maybe naively) that people on these forums helped each other out with money problems, I didn't realise that we were judged for them first.

My husband and I drive over 300 miles a week between us which costs a fortune in petrol these days but is unavoidable for our jobs. We do have debt on credit cards of about £6000 which I completely accept is our own problem (although most of it has been spent on things we needed and had no other way of paying for, e.g. the £1400 in essential car repairs we were forced to pay in November last year). I think compared to many people this is a very small amount of debt to have.

My problem lies mainly with the fact that as a mother of young children I am expected to go out to work to help boost the economy, but I the help I need to pay for the necessary childcare is being cut to a quarter of what I need.

I'm glad you don't feel that you are skint on a similar income to ours, but perhaps you don't have as much expenditure as we do?

Thanks for the suggestion zagfles, I'll have a look at doing an SOA.

E.

Why should I as a taxpayer who gets no benefits have to pay towards supporting your lifestyle and debts that you ran up?

Rant aside, what cars do you drive? Have you looked into getting something with better mpg?

Blue22

melly1980 wrote: »

And in your example you have took one of these costs off in petrol to fudge your figures. Also, 5K for petrol. If anyone is paying 5K in petrol to get to work then they need to move house. At 6 quid a gallon that works out at 833 gallons a year and at 30 miles to the gallon it = 25000 miles / year or 480 miles per week.

I didn't intentionally fudge any figures and we didn't have the figures from the OP. The question mark signified a guess at what petrol plus keeping a second car on the road/or a season ticket into work may cost the OP. IMHO £100 a week didn't sound unreasonable for the two of them to get to work.

Blue22

melly1980 wrote: »

While that maybe true you can not be seriously suggesting that the welfare state should be used to prop up the spending of people who are bringing 45K plus in.

No I don't think the welfare state should 'prop up' the income of a couple earning 45K. But I think a couple earning £45K should be left with enough money, after tax, to adequately support their family.

l also feel that someone on 40K with 4 kids (your circumstances I believe) should not need to claim tax credits.....your previous posts say you do. And you should be better off then someone earning 7K, although as I'm sure you know, there isn't any great difference.

melly1980

Blue22 wrote: »

No I don't think the welfare state should 'prop up' the income of a couple earning 45K. But I think a couple earning £45K should be left with enough money, after tax, to adequately support their family.

l also feel that someone on 40K with 4 kids (your circumstances I believe) should not need to claim tax credits.....your previous posts say you do. .

I think your confusing my point. I am not complaining about people getting tax credits because as you say, I get them myself. What I am complaining about is those people on high earnings (like me) EXPECTING to get tax credits on the basis that they have high outgoings. It is posted as if their high running costs are some kind of default position that is unavoidable when in reality it is a lifestyle choice.

Blue22 wrote: »

And you should be better off then someone earning 7K, although as I'm sure you know, there isn't any great difference.

oh, Im well aware of that but that doesnt mean i should expect welfare support.

melly1980

zagfles wrote: »

In most countries they help families using tax allowances. End result is much the same, except people don't then whinge about the "welfare state propping them up".

we can pretend its not the welfare state propping them up if you want to but we know it is. Again, my issue is not with the money but the incredulous look on their faces when they have to give something up...its like "what...you want me not to drive my 4x4 and to cut down my sky package a bit...how dare you".

I dont care what anyone says, maintaining a family of 4 on 45K+ should be comfortable. Its a case of working out what you need rather than what you want (those can be added after if affordable)