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

annodomini2

The target of the budget was new parents not old people as reported by various news agencies.

I personally stand to be the thick end of £900 a year worse off due to this.

I'm actually surprised the BBC didn't pick up on this.

I'm not unfortunate enough to be on the bread line, but at the same time taking this money to feed rich 'friends' doesn't convey the concern for the working person/couple.

This government has no interest in it's people only in lining it's parties donator pockets.

jellyhead

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.

Could one of them sell Avon for 2 hours per week?

heathcote123

It's good to see the tories (and to give credit where its due, the lib dems played their part) roll back some of the vote buying that labour pulled off during their time in power, and give people back some independence.

They are raising the thresholds, allowing people to actually keep more of the money they earn, rather than being taxed on the smallest of earnings and then inefficiently given it back through a very complicated and expensive system.

This is the kind of thing that gives people an incentive to work, and I really hope people aren't silly enough to think labour set up tax credits out of the goodness of there hearts - it was simply an unnaffordable vote buying mesaure.

Wouldn't people rather be living off their own money rather than waiting on tax credits?

heathcote123

annodomini2 wrote: »

I'm not unfortunate enough to be on the bread line, but at the same time taking this money to feed rich 'friends' doesn't convey the concern for the working person/couple.

This government has no interest in it's people only in lining it's parties donator pockets.

Thre is quite a difference between taking your money, and not taking it from other people to give to you.

MiserlyMartin

Remember, it could be worse, we could still have that economic genius Gordon Brown in power, spending even more money that the country can't afford.

When they say we are all in it together, we are- to pay off Gordon Browns debt. It was never going to be easy. Personally I don't think the ConDems have cut anything like as much as we should be. Think yourself lucky. For a supposed austerity budget this was a very good one with few losers considering! I also think its about time those people without children should stop being screwed in the tax system.

miamoo

The problem with Avon is Tax credits will only count work that you are actually getting paid for (or expect to get paid for)

This is a very grey area and lots of people have been working like this, and then 12 months down the line the tax credits are getting back in touch, asking for full copies of accounts and then making them repay all the tax credits.
The problem will come if in the next 12mths you make no/little money, they will then question if you are 'actually working'.
I dont mean to worry you, but lots of people have been posting on here with this problem and its mainly people selling avon or with an ebay shop etc

I dont think that delivering avon leaflets could be considered remunerative, as you dont get paid for it unless someone orders, and you cant be sure anyone will.
A better alternative would be mystery shopping/leaflet delivering for payment something where you actually get paid for the work you do.

jellyhead

ok, I didn't realise that. I'd heard that they assume you earn minimum wage for self employment, but for 2 hours of work it would still be worth it even if they didn't get minimum wage, as even on weeks where there was no profit it would be worth the loss just to get the extra tax credits.

Ok, what about a paper round? Mine (for the free paper) assumes 100 houses per hour.

Sixer

miamoo wrote: »

The problem with Avon is Tax credits will only count work that you are actually getting paid for (or expect to get paid for)

This is a very grey area and lots of people have been working like this, and then 12 months down the line the tax credits are getting back in touch, asking for full copies of accounts and then making them repay all the tax credits.
The problem will come if in the next 12mths you make no/little money, they will then question if you are 'actually working'.
I dont mean to worry you, but lots of people have been posting on here with this problem and its mainly people selling avon or with an ebay shop etc

I dont think that delivering avon leaflets could be considered remunerative, as you dont get paid for it unless someone orders, and you cant be sure anyone will.
A better alternative would be mystery shopping/leaflet delivering for payment something where you actually get paid for the work you do.

Yes, but the compliance checks are for people whose ONLY income is from self-employment and who declare incredibly low profits (eg £2k per year concurrent with the 30-hour element of WTC).

If someone is employed but doesn't quite make the 16/24/30 hours for tax credits thresholds and so decides to add in a little bit of self-employment - such as an Avon round - to get them over the threshold, they are much less likely to trigger a compliance check because their employed income isn't at all suspect.

In fact, this is the actual POINT of these reforms. Rather than sit on 22 hours and claim tax credits accordingly, they want people to try to earn more. So someone who is employed for 22 hours and takes on an Avon round to get themselves bit more money is actually doing exactly what the government intend them to do.

Don't take the spate of posts about low profit self-employed income being questioned as evidence that ALL such income will be questioned and/or disallowed. It really all depends on the household (single or a couple with another income; only self-employment or a mix of self-employment and employment).

artichoke

Icequeen99 wrote: »

. If they are getting help with childcare costs they must be either working 16 hrs each (i.e. 32) therefore not affected by the change or one of the exceptions to childcare applies to them which means they will also be excepted from the 24 hr rule.

IQ

Can i just ask a queston about the childcare element?

Is the above quote correct? ie to get childcare costs payed back a couple must be working 16 hours each ... is this still the same or has it gone up to 24 hours each?

thanks

Art

miamoo

I'm not saying that its a no-go. I was just pointing out there could be a possible issue in the future.
If everyone just says ok I'll do avon for an extra 2/3hrs a week, then I'm sure they will put a stop to it (the same as they have now with the S/E) and you dont want to get caught out in the future.
I would look at another option where you are actually doing remunerative work, such as Mystery shopping, leaflet drop, cleaning, paper round as suggested, then you can be sure there is no come back.