Wow £50 a week worse off from today

Marisco

It's about time they did away with tax credits, for all but the very poorly paid! All it is, is a taxpayer subsidy for employers who pay carp wages!!! The OP and partner earn nearly 30,000 quid, if they cannot manage on that, then there's not much chance for the rest of us, cloth, cutting, according and means are the words that come to mind!!!

TBH, I've never taken much notice of what is available re benefits etc, as I don't claim any, but with it being in the news almost daily, it's unavoidable!!!! And quite frankly it's an eye opener:eek: No wonder people are complaining about the "benefits" bill!!! It seems to me these days, if you have kids it's a licence to print money, what happened about looking after your own??

clearingout

deeply offensive comments about single mothers. As a single mother who's income dropped from over £3k a month to less than £1k (I only worked 14 hours so wasn't eligible for childcare costs, despite having them and in the South East as well) when my now ex- husband walked out, I can tell you that you CAN manage if you choose to. I haven't taken on any additional debt in nearly 3 years, have paid off half of the marital debt I was carrying in my name, and my children (all three of them) have what they need. We make do and mend. We buy in sales, at charity shops, car boots and from ebay. We sell everything we don't need on ebay. We give away what won't sell on Freecycle and sometimes we get things we need back from Freecycle. Like Panda Pie, my ex makes no contribution whatsoever towards his children. I am (fingers crossed) about to start teacher training and will likely never earn huge sums with that but at least it will fit perfectly around my family. I am likely never going to be able to save much in a pension fund (unless the CSA manage to catch up with my ex but I think it unlikely) and I have huge concerns about my long-term future. And with three children full time, it's hard to get out there and meet other people so I doubt there'll be a future Mr. Clearingout!

You need to take stock of what you DO have and not what you don't. Thousands of people everyday have their lives blown apart by illness, job loss, infidelity, to name just a few. You have your health, a job and your family. Cherish that.

liam8282

It's obviously not as simple as the OP makes out.

Tax credits have reduced yes, but tax allowance have risen. So some of what has been lost in tax credits, has been given back as you pay less tax.


Personally what I found very confusing was, my partner increased her working hours from 15 to 16 about a month ago. No increase in salary or anything else, she just had to do an extra hour as this was training, still work but not getting paid anymore for it.

Even so, tax credits were reduced by about £100 pm from that point.

There were no other circumstance changes, we don't pay or claim for any childcare or anything else, so it puzzled us.

If somebody could explain that, I would be grateful.

Alias_Omega

I really dont understand the Tax Credit system..

Mr Alias - £30k income roughly
Mrs Alias - £0k income

House Rental profit - £1000, so a additional £500 each to the form.


The calculator said that we would get - £2797.74 a year in tax credits.

I dont know if this has gone up or down, but Mrs Alias stays at home to look after the children.

shaftola

Panda_Pie wrote: »

You know I initially read your post with sympathy towards you and your situation ... now thats all gone. The excert I have quoted above is deeply offensive ! I am a single mum, who doesnt have a partner, who does live with her parents [and pays 'rent' to them and before anyone thinks it no I dont claim HB since that would be illegal] and like you with the new tax credit cuts I lose over £2,500 a year ! I do not get child maintence from my childs father ... so dont just shoot your mouth off yes I am sure there are some 'single' mothers that do exactly what you say but dont tar us all with the same brush

Not all,
Feel sorry everyone who tries to work hard and make a living and like yourself £2,500 a year is a lot of money,
Sorry if I offended you but I do know quite few people who do claim benefits while there partner lives with them earning a wage while not declaring it,
It was a heat of the moment comment in my first post,
What the government need to do it stop taking it off us hard working people and stop sending our money all over the world,
This country is one horrible place now,

shaftola

bestpud wrote: »

I've had my eyes opened recently. I had no idea so many families with a reasonable income were raking in hundreds in tax credits!!

No wonder the country is in a mess! It's blamed on those at the bottom of the pile, but in fact, plenty of apparently self sufficient families have been doing very nicely with the help of benefits!!

It's even worse when they moan about pension contributions as that would have increased the tax credit allowance further!

Shocking!! :eek:

If nursery was free for all children whos parents work people wouldnt need tax credits,
One of us is going to have to stop work now until both the children are in school because we're not going to be any better off with both of us working,
It's mad it pays not to work for us?

moomoomama27

I think it's the 10% drop in childcare fees that has alot of families losing out, which is a shame, because there ws a massive push for mothers/fathers of young children to return back to the workplace.

shaftola

tinkerbell28 wrote: »

Eh? I have done things the right way. If the better off lose some benefits so what. £50 a week to someone on 29 k to lose that's ridiculous the govt were ever paying that much. Even what you get now is a lot.

They need to address the huge cost of living here, not subsidise it with tc.

Not all single mums are that way by choice fwiw. You should think yourself lucky you are able to save towards a pension with disposable income of 200 per week!!!

We are probably quite big losers but then, that's life, I'd rather it goes to people who need it. You clearly don't.

29.5k is the most we've ever earned in a year before tax etc,
nursery cost 15k a year for our two children in full time nursery

catfish50

shaftola wrote: »

One of us is going to have to stop work now until both the children are in school because we're not going to be any better off with both of us working

It's not compulsory to stop work just because you're in the fortunate position of being able to do so without significant loss of income.

Work has many benefits -- not least, a sense of self-respect and independence. Don't give it up lightly.

shaftola

tinkerbell28 wrote: »

Eh? I have done things the right way. If the better off lose some benefits so what. £50 a week to someone on 29 k to lose that's ridiculous the govt were ever paying that much. Even what you get now is a lot.

They need to address the huge cost of living here, not subsidise it with tc.

Not all single mums are that way by choice fwiw. You should think yourself lucky you are able to save towards a pension with disposable income of 200 per week!!!

We are probably quite big losers but then, that's life, I'd rather it goes to people who need it. You clearly don't.

I think everyones entitled to a rant sometimes,
I could of explained it better,