Parent stay at home looking after the kids?

robindunne1

One thing that annoys me is that this government will do anything to force both parents out of the home to work and put children in child care. There is no financial incentive whatsoever for one parent to work and the other to look after the kids.

I cannot get my wifes taxable allowance and we do not qaulify for the single persons rebate on council tax. I have done some number crunching and even people on benefits are better off then a family with a SAHM.

I have draughted a letter to my local MP, what do you think?

.......................................................................................................

I am writing to bring to your attention to perverse and obscene way the state administrates the tax and benefits regime in this country. Below is a table I have formulated which calculates the income of two families with identical domestic situations – the only difference being one family earns a salary while the other has both parents at home, with one claiming incapacity benefit and the other carers allowance. Both the families have two children.

The housing costs are worked out on what is now the average mortgage and the income of the working family is calculated on one of the parents working and earning the UK average wage, while the other parent stays at home looking after the children.

Other assumptions are the working couple contributing to a pension at 6.5% and paying back a student loan.

With average housing costs and an average salary the number are as below:

Working Benefits
Incomings:
Salary 23000
Child Benefit 1520 1520
Tax Credits 2048 4080
Housing Benefit 7300
Council Tax Benefit 1129
Income Support 1353
Carers Allowance 2441
Incapacity Benefit 4082
Mobility Allowance 858
TOTAL GROSS INCOME 26568 22763

Outgoings:
Income Tax -3707
National Insurance -1400
Council tax -1130 -1130
Pension Contribution -1495
House rent -7300 -7300
Student Loan -780
TOTAL OUTGOINGS 8512 1130

TOTAL NET INCOME 10756 14363

Therefore, a family on benefits will be better off by £3607 a year (£70 a week) than a family who works for a living with average income and average housing costs.

The above numbers do not take into account the incidental direct costs of going to work. The costs of travelling to work, buying work clothes and food all add up. Research has suggested that these costs amount to an additional £2000 a year. When these numbers are factored into the equation a family on benefits will be £100 a week better off then a working family.

There are also fringe benefits to living off the state. Those who depend on the state rather than themselves will be able to claim free prescriptions, free school meals and grants for heating. All this is very perverse when you can see from the numbers above that they have a much larger disposable income.

When will the government see that the current legislation penalises the family who wish to look after themselves and not push their children into childcare to force both the parents out to work.

A situation where a family who does not contribute to the economy has a better standard of living than a family who does is obscene and needs looking at as soon as possible. No wonder there is a dependency culture in this country when there is more of an incentive for people not to work than go out and get a job.

milkydrink

robindunne1 wrote:

I cannot get my wifes taxable allowance and we do not qaulify for the single persons rebate on council tax. I have done some number crunching and even people on benefits are better off then a family with a SAHM.

I think the husband should be allowed the wifes tax allowance, also the bit about council tax rebate is a good point as she is financially dependent on her husband. Two good points IMHO.
A working father & a SAHM are probably the ideal set up for raising a family & as you point out, two working parents or a family brought up on the welfare state are probably better off.
Of course two working parents should be better off (they deserve some reward for having to juggle family & work life), but it's a strange country when its better to be on the dole & raise a family on the welfare state than to work!

Alan50

My children are now 20,23. would agree with most of your post. Both myself and ex-wife worked to raise the children and there where times when benefits would have been an easy option...but we have our pride and a belief that the benefits system was designed for the very unfortunate... also govenments have always promoted the family unit as being the bedrock of the nation.....The End of the fairy tail.

If you are very poor or rich you will receive government help, so I would forget the letter.

The only thing you can do is to earn more money.

Best wishes and a happy new year

Alan

Seanymph

Unfortunately the government need women in the workforce - so therefore all policies will be drafted with this as an incentive.

Mumstheword

One of the difficult things about getting people off benefits is that it's so hard for them to be sufficiently better off (leaving aside self esteem etc) to encourage them to do so, and in a lot of cases they are actually worse off working.

It's a terribly sad state of affairs, and one which leaves people who genuinely dont want to work able to be comfortable. They shouldnt be. Those who actually dont want to work should be very poor, and given the basics only! Save the benefits for the genuinely unable to work people!

Mumstheword

Seanymph wrote:

Unfortunately the government need women in the workforce - so therefore all policies will be drafted with this as an incentive.

...unless we got all the men who choose not to work to do those jobs?

on a less sexist point......I've no problem with the man stopping home and the woman working, just that where possible one member of each household should be earning the income for that household

dmg24

You posted exactly the same months ago. I assume you did nothing about it at that time?

24skins

This is a copy of the post I originally made in the cutting tax board.



Not all families on benefits receive Incapacity Benefit, Mobility allowance or Carer's Allowance.

In some cases 'working families' are entitled to Carer's Allowance.

Your tables make no sense to me, I can't differentiate between the earned income and benefit income.

EDIT: Housing benefit of £7300 means that rent = £140 per week, how did you come to this figure?

livinginhope

I agree totally with the other half getting the extra tax allowance,BTW,whatever happened to married couples allowance? why did they stop that no incentives for people to get married.
I do disagree with the amounts you are stating that people on benefits receive,when my DH lost his job a couple of years ago and was out of work for a couple of weeks,we put in a claim for all the necessary benefits,we actually managed to get the grand sum of.....£36 :j :mad: what a joke! it took 6 weeks to come,by which time he was settled into another job,so we went out for a pizza with the money :rolleyes:
I am a stay at home mum,not by choice,I was forced out of my job due to my illness and am now not able to work,but I still get refused any benefits,so we live on the one income,if DH got my allowance for tax and single persons council tax,we would be much better off.
I get a bit angry when I see people on benefits living what seems to be a lavish lifestyle,but I just don't understand how they manage to come by so much money
LIH

conradmum

24skins wrote:

This is a copy of the post I originally made in the cutting tax board.



Not all families on benefits receive Incapacity Benefit, Mobility allowance or Carer's Allowance.

In some cases 'working families' are entitled to Carer's Allowance.

Your tables make no sense to me, I can't differentiate between the earned income and benefit income.

EDIT: Housing benefit of £7300 means that rent = £140 per week, how did you come to this figure?

I agree it doesn't make any sense. Also, how can a family on benefits receive 2040 in tax credits if they aren't paying any tax?
Maybe if your calculations made sense your MP would take your letter more seriously.
Families with two working parents get more tax relief because there are two people contributing to the economy rather than just one.

vippymini

A great post , personally i cant see the point of parents going to work and paying for childcare especially as the tax credits pay up to 70% to someone else. why not just pay the parent that stays at home .

one breath the goverment want mothers to work and in the next they complain that theres not enough children about for the future.. i guess you cant win,