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Tax Credits / Step Children should my income count?
Comments
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I'm saying parents should be responisble for their children. Not someone who happens to live with the parent, whether a sibling, friend, lover or grandparent.
In this case, the taxpayer had been responsible for these children and not the parents; until the OP married into the family and now the taxpayer doesn't have to pay so much to support them.
OP says their tax credits have reduced. Tax credits are income based welfare payments; funded by the taxpayer.RENTING? Have you checked to see that your landlord has permission from their mortgage lender to rent the property? If not, you could be thrown out with very little notice.
Read the sticky on the House Buying, Renting & Selling board.0 -
I have to say that a;though a step-parent should support their partner and step-children financially it is a bit of a madness that a person can be asked to support a child financially and yet have no legal rights in regards to them.0
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When my stepfather married my mother, he paid for all my older sister's wedding; gave them money for a house deposit; went halves on an ex racehorse with me when my financial partner wanted out; paid for my wedding; paid for holidays for my little sister and my mother. He wasn't buying us, but was just a genuine guy who said when he married my mother, he took on the whole package and what was his, was now all of ours too. He always said he was fortunate to find a ready made family. He wasn't rich, worked hard and had savings, but they didn't last long when he took on us 3. He never once moaned about the small fortune he spent on his 3 step daughters'. This was in the days before the state benefit Tax Credit arrived, to keep some families.
OP, I'm staggered to read that you think that welfare should still keep this family now that you are part of them. I guess I was really lucky with my mother's choice of men.
I think that perhaps you need to point out to your wife that Tax Credits is an income based benefits payment and that by you being there, her reliance on state welfare is decreasing. It might even get to the point where you can both look after yourselves and the children, without needing to use any state welfare. Just think how good that will feel.RENTING? Have you checked to see that your landlord has permission from their mortgage lender to rent the property? If not, you could be thrown out with very little notice.
Read the sticky on the House Buying, Renting & Selling board.0 -
MissMoneypenny wrote: »In this case, the taxpayer had been responsible for these children and not the parents; until the OP married into the family and now the taxpayer doesn't have to pay so much to support them.
OP says their tax credits have reduced. Tax credits are income based welfare payments; funded by the taxpayer.
And I'm saying the level of taxpayer support should depend on their parent's income/maintenance payments. Not someone who doesn't even have PR for the kids.
Why should the taxpayer support a family who may be on a low income yet get a large amount in child maintenance because the ex earns a high salary? If you want to whine about taxpayer being forced to support the kids?0 -
And I'm saying the level of taxpayer support should depend on their parent's income/maintenance payments.
Perhaps it is time to get back to the idea of not relying on state welfare all the time?RENTING? Have you checked to see that your landlord has permission from their mortgage lender to rent the property? If not, you could be thrown out with very little notice.
Read the sticky on the House Buying, Renting & Selling board.0 -
MissMoneypenny wrote: »When my stepfather married my mother, he paid for all my older sister's wedding; went halves on an ex racehorse with me, when my financial partner wanted out and paid for holidays for my little sister and my mother. He wasn't buying us, but was just a genuine guy who said when he married my mother, he took on the whole package and what was his, was now all of ours too. He always said he was fortunate to find a ready made family. This was in the days before the state benefit Tax Credit arrived, to keep some families.
OP, I'm staggered to read that you think that welfare should still keep this family now that you are part of them. I guess I was really lucky with my mother's choice of stepfather for us. I think that perhaps you need to point out to your wife that Tax Credits is an income based welfare payment and that by you being there, her reliance on state welfare is decreasing. It might even get to the point where you can both look after yourselves and the children, without needing to use any welfare. Just think how good that will feel.
And I know someone who gives vast financial support to his aged parents. Because he wants to, because he loves them, because they supported him when he was young, and because he earns a fortune.
Yet if he came on here to ask what benefits his parents might be entitled would the usual sactimonious crowd lay into him I wonder?
Probably not, because the answer is different. You are under less obligation to support your own parents that to support other peoples' children. Personally I think that's wrong. But what do I know - maybe I need a sactimonious lecture...0 -
MissMoneypenny wrote: »Perhaps it is time to get back to the idea of not relying on state welfare all the time?
Perhaps it's time to realise that tax credits, as well as replacing "welfare" like the child elements in IS, also replaced tax allowances like the married couples/additional personal allowance. Pre 1979 there were also child tax allowances.
Quite a lot of high earners benefitted from this "welfare" in previous decades. Is that what you want to "get back" to?0 -
It sounds like you took on the role of father to these children though, in which case, I can understand that it became natural to become financially responsible for them. However, in many cases, step-dads are not that much more than the kids' mum partner, whether they get along or not so well. If the step-dad gets many 'I love you', father's day cards, special attention for Christmas and birthdays, and simply have a relationship like you have with a parent, it is likely that man will feel very different is on father's day, all he hears is how the children's father loved getting his card, no 'I love you', no I would like you to come and see me play football on Friday or to parent's evening because daddy is already coming...0
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monkeymouth wrote: »Ah so there are two types of step dads.
Those that don't give a toss about the kids and are only interested in their mum
Or those that see mum and children as being a financial package that comes as one. Take me, take my kids.
No, there's another type. The non-existant type. The UK has more single parent families than any other EU country.
Co-incidently, the financial impact on a man on a decent salary moving in with a single mother on benefits is also greater in the UK than nearly every other EU country.
That's why we spend more on family benefits than most countries yet are still near the bottom in terms of child poverty.
Still, at least it lets people moralise...0 -
The UK has more single parent families than any other EU country.
Not that we need a report to tell us this, but.....
http://www.thewelfarestatewerein.com/archives/2006/09/britain_has_the.php
Britain has the highest proportion of single mothers in the European Union and, surprise, surpise, one of the highest rates of benefits for single mothers.
And from the report:
The study contrasts the situation in Britain and elsewhere in northern Europe with Mediterranean countries such as Spain, where single-mother families constitute less than 1% of the total. Spanish single mothers received £137 in special benefits a year in 1994, which by 2001 had declined to £38.
Spain, along with Greece, Portugal and Italy, have the lowest numbers of single-mother families in Europe.
AND
Frank Field,
the former Labour minister for social security, said: “I’ve always believed in a causal link between benefits and the number of single mothers.
The article was dated 2006.
RENTING? Have you checked to see that your landlord has permission from their mortgage lender to rent the property? If not, you could be thrown out with very little notice.
Read the sticky on the House Buying, Renting & Selling board.0
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