MSE News: Families with kids '£500 a year worse off' from Friday

fatbelly

I met a young couple last week (he works 22 hpw in a supermarket, she looks after 2 very little children at home) who are about to lose £70 pw Working Tax Credit.

When we churned through the numbers, increased Housing Benefit and Council Tax benefit should reduce the loss to £20 pw.

However, considering they are struggling as things stand, the future looks bleak.

At least David Cameron reassures us that 'we're all in it together'.

[Deleted User]

NewCustomerOnly wrote: »

Do you really think that voters are going to fall for all this 'pretend to give with one hand then take away double with the other?' Or even wade through reading all that spiel? No, voters will decide at the weekend, round the family kitchen table when thrashing out what the kids can't have and what's not on the menu,what repayments are being missed.Then they will go to the polls and think 'ok, i'd rather have harsh cuts under a government that carres than under one which doesn't.'

They will soon work out that all gains coming from the higher personal allowance are blitzed out over and again by losses caused by the other cons: today families with children are about £511 worse off when the whole raft of coalition changes in the new tax year are considered. That's what they will work out!

dont forget the 2.5% vat rise from last year is costing families £450 a year,and that very few have had wage increases matching inflation,living standards are falling faster than at any time since the 1930s

NewCustomerOnly

fatbelly wrote: »

I met a young couple last week (he works 22 hpw in a supermarket, she looks after 2 very little children at home) who are about to lose £70 pw Working Tax Credit.

When we churned through the numbers, increased Housing Benefit and Council Tax benefit should reduce the loss to £20 pw.

However, considering they are struggling as things stand, the future looks bleak.

At least David Cameron reassures us that 'we're all in it together'.

LOL just had a great idea for raising a litle cash - I will place a bet on Billionaire Dave never using that phrase again! Has he told his kids they can't have a holiday this year? Actually, come to think of it , where ARE they going?

The_Economist

BigAunty wrote: »

Remember that originally, 9 out of 10 households with children qualified for tax credits, this in itself is completely bizarre - why do 90% of families need state assistance to meet their basic living costs?!

Because of the amount of Tax we have to pay and all the companys that are profitering from the currant situation.

MiserlyMartin

BigAunty wrote: »

It's a real shame that there is little energy to actually tackle the high cost/low economy which has led to the need to give handouts to the working and workless poor.

Where are the jobs, the decent pay, the cheap and readily available childcare, the cheap and readily available public transport, the affordable housing and so on?

Remember that originally, 9 out of 10 households with children qualified for tax credits, this in itself is completely bizarre - why do 90% of families need state assistance to meet their basic living costs?!

Well that was just a stupid Labour thing, to grab headlines and voters they hoped. Tax people more ('they won't notice') then give some back in the form of tax credits to people with children etc. Unfortunately a lot of voters are too stupid to realise this and see the tax credit as a sort of benefit. This sort of policy by Labour only promoted the benefits culture over their 13 year reign. And also made the tax system more expensive and complicated to administer.. ie its far cheaper and easier not to tax people so much in the first place rather than taxing them then giving it back.

Yes MSE news is becoming a rather lazy cut and paste given to them by the press association, full of party political bias and unchecked 'facts'. Most poor.

NewCustomerOnly

None of that matters any more, it's all over for this uneducated and inexperienced administration - once voters have seen through the spin they make their feelings known on election day! Better off to have a proper government that at least tries to help, rather than a botch job coalition. The Tories didn't win!

As for MSE News I depend upon it for guiding from all the new decisions every day - and so do thousands of other money savers. Cameron and Co are running for the hills this weekend in urgent talks about how they can never use 'all in this together' again as a slogan and madly rethinking and coming up with a new one. Too late, their secret's out! What a disaster - I prescribe some new spin doctors as a remedy! Tax Credit changes was the last straw for families already on the edge.

PurpleJay

I am employed 18.5 hours and my husband is a full time student on a degree course. We have a 5 year old. By moving the goalposts they have basically cut out anyone who job shares or works half time and loads of people must be affected.

We have both been looking for extra hours so we don't loose out on working tax credit and in the end I have decided to do Avon and see how that goes. I am expecting to do about 25 hours work per week in total (and hubby can help with bag stuffing etc in the evenings). It has been hard for hubby to get a few hours work as he needs to be available to get our son from school on the days I work which just leaves weekends - there is nothing out there tbh.

I have informed the tax office and tax credits people who are quite happy with what I am doing. My working tax credits for the coming year now appear largely unaffected. I will have to fill out a tax return and pay tax on my additional earnings. If I make a fortune they will obviously need to be informed and my tax credits will be reduced but I will be a happy bunny if that happens (I am not holding my breath)!

Incidentally, I do intend to make a proper go of Avon and not just pretend to do it for the sake of getting the tax credits. There must be something other couples can do. If you take into account that you are getting the tax credits you don't need to be earning a fortune to make it worthwhile making an effort.

Jane x

Archiemitchell

I am fairly new to the forum, and like thousands of working couples around the country this week, was disgusted about the next WTC cuts. The means testing is so unfair - let me give you a crazy example . My husband and I earn a combined income of £32K with one qualifying child and now lose out on £41 per month benefit. A work colleague is a single parent - 3 qualifying children, works full time, and earns £17500 -receives £600 per month maintenance payments - gets 25% council tax discount - her twins aged 16 get £30 each for education maintenance allowance (Scotland) she also get discount on other acitivities for them like swimming lessons. If you work it out online she will receive £8570 a YEAR working tax credit - £700 a month- she also gets extra towards her childcare costs for the younger child. Her ex hsuband is taking kids to Florida in the summer so she has no outlay for a holiday for them. He pays for the school clothes and contributes a lot towards their birthday parties and xmas. Older boys also get £10 per week from dad pocket money. I appreciate that not all absent fathers are so generous. But its not rocket science - who is better off here? My husband and I both working and child not getting £30 pw EMA or her ? We as a couple have all of these outlays from our cobined £32K. What is there to encourage both partners to wokr? There is an on-line E petition where disgruntled couples should sign to have maintenance payments considered towards working tax credit. Its ridiculous that someone should receive over £8K from the government and her £600 per month is not taken into consideration. PLEASE SIGN THIS - JUST GOOGLE E PETITIONS

midnighter_2

thelawnet wrote: »

It's a fairly standard piece of contemporary social Marxism.

Call something 'tax credit' when it's actually a welfare payment, and pay it, though in much smaller amounts, to nearly everybody, in order to drag as many people into the scope of the welfare state as possible, and to obfuscate any future attempts to reverse that dragnet by portraying changes as an attack on everyone.

With regards to my comment, in a sense it was giving with one hand and taking away with the other, because for those entitled to ONLY the £545 (and £1090 with a baby before that), they did indeed pay (a lot) more tax than that £545, and it was paid out as a discount off their tax bill (through PAYE).

They could have just stuck the £545 onto Child Benefit in the first place, but they wanted to expand the size and scope of the welfare state so they did it like this.

No complaints that it's gone...

this sounds like a party political attack on tax credits rather tThan a fair assessment of who will and wont be better/worse off. Consequently your rhetoric is no better than that which you attack.

thelawnet

midnighter wrote: »

this sounds like a party political attack on tax credits rather tThan a fair assessment of who will and wont be better/worse off. Consequently your rhetoric is no better than that which you attack.

?

I don't claim to be issuing a news article to inform would-be 'money savers'. Surely you can see the difference between comment #8 on a DISCUSSION forum, in reply to another OPINION, and a news article?

There's a sticky at the top of this forum,

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/365935

by MSE Martin

"Its about helping people get their entitlement! Not about benefits policy!

This board is here for help and support for those on or looking to claim benefits, not for judgement.

It’s ONLY focus is helping people with their money.

It's here to help people find out what they are entitled to under the current system, and to help them get it."

"
We all know the benefits system is a mess – but that’s for the discussion time.

Whatever you're political persuasion, we're all aware the benefits system is a mess. Whether it’s the malpayments of tax credits, benefit fraud, or simply the fact that sometimes it doesn't pay to work - everyone has their grumble."

Yet this blatantly political article is posted in the Benefits forum (which people reading the article won't necessarily be aware of, since it's linked from the news section), and of course it gets political responses in reply.