Is it possible?

omas

Hi, I'd like to ask is it possible someone who is married with two kids, working full time and earns £16.5-17k/pa can reveived over £700 benefits a month? His wife doesn't work, older kid is in school and he doesn't pay for any childcare. I wondering is it possible, cos me and my wife earn £1680 after tax a month and receive only £354 (CTC+CHB for two kids in same age). How's that possible person who lives on benefits and says his partner is not gonna go to work, cos they will loose benefits can have only £200 less a month than we do?
My mate gets:
£420 CTC + WTC
£170 HB
£134 CHB

zagfles

CTC & WTC look low if anything. On £17k 2 kids they should get about £6250 a year. HB is possible.

Marginal deduction rates are very high for families on below average incomes. They have to be because of child poverty targets. So it's no surprise that earning a lot more doesn't actually benefit you much.

BigAunty

You can identify their likely benefit entitlements by modelling various scenarios on the Turn2us online benefit calculator. You could also see how much you'd get if one of you stopped working.

Couples with kids only have to work 24 hours between them (with one working at least 16 of them) in order to qualify for Working Tax Credits - currently more than 200,000 couples do this because they have worked out that most of the extra money they earn is lost to transport, taxation and childcare costs, plus very steep benefit withdrawal.

On this thread, you can see that a couple with 3 kids earning 35k only gets to enjoy a 10% greater disposable income than another couple earning 9k if they had the same council tax and rental costs. Yes, they earn more than 3 times more but get perhaps an extra £60 or so more each week than a couple who might only have one of them working part time for not much more than the NMW.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4203305

The benefit and taxation system, coupled with high transport and child care costs, can actually punish couples that achieve national average salaries or higher.

omas

Thank you guys for explanation. I think it's really not fair for people who work. You supposed to work to have better life rather than to have equal life to the person who spent most of his time at the front of TV.

princessdon

omas wrote: »

Thank you guys for explanation. I think it's really not fair for people who work. You supposed to work to have better life rather than to have equal life to the person who spent most of his time at the front of TV.

you'd think so - Have a look on the Discussion Time forum - there is a thread linking to statistics that show anything over a certain amount is basically taxed at 90% - Ie you only get 10% of that income as opposed to benefits.

Crazy world isn't it.

omas

princessdon wrote: »

you'd think so - Have a look on the Discussion Time forum - there is a thread linking to statistics that show anything over a certain amount is basically taxed at 90% - Ie you only get 10% of that income as opposed to benefits.

Crazy world isn't it.

Hi, thanks for your reply. Could you give me a link to this thread as I can't find it.

ALIBOBSY

I guess this is why they are bringing in universal credit, the aim being to even things up.

Ali x

princessdon

omas wrote: »

Hi, thanks for your reply. Could you give me a link to this thread as I can't find it.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4203305

Here you go