david cameron and tax credits

pinkypoopydoo

BigAunty wrote: »

Tax credits do make up a large percentage of the welfare bill. I think its one of the largest expenses after pensions though I am happy to be challenged on this.

Tax credits really don;t make up a "large percentage of the welfare bill".

http://www.ifs.org.uk/publications/7424

nannytone_2

i think tax credits are part of the reason why many employers pay poorly.
they know that their staff will be topped up bu the state.

its caused a vicious circle of benefit dependancy and low wages, and unfortunately, the only way it will change is if the benefits are withdrawn.
its horrible that people are going to have to struggle, but it is the only way to get back to having an economy where those that make the profits pay the wages of their employees, rather than the employer being subsidised by the state.

mike ashly was one of the biggest earners last year. he is also on 'the rich list' and yet at his headquarters he only has 300 workers ( out of 5,000 ) on contracts. the rest are minimum wage ZHC.
the current system suits HIM perfectly.
the government subsidise his wage bill while he walks away with all that lovely money!

tomtontom

pinkypoopydoo wrote: »

Tax credits really don;t make up a "large percentage of the welfare bill".

http://www.ifs.org.uk/publications/7424

CTC + WTC make up around 15% of welfare expenditure. In comparison with other benefits, that is a large percentage.

BigAunty

nannytone wrote: »

i think tax credits are part of the reason why many employers pay poorly.
they know that their staff will be topped up bu the state.

its caused a vicious circle of benefit dependancy and low wages, and unfortunately, the only way it will change is if the benefits are withdrawn.

I remember the hoo-ha that accompanied the decision to increase the minimum hours for a couple with children to qualify for WTC from 16 to 24 hours.

I think there were 212,000 households with around half a million children working just 2 days a week when the parents had the capacity to work 10 days a week between them.

The increase of just 1 extra day caused a total uproar but I think most of them just got on with it and found an extra day's work or adjusted their budget.

p00hsticks

pinkypoopydoo wrote: »

Tax credits really don;t make up a "large percentage of the welfare bill".

http://www.ifs.org.uk/publications/7424

I'm struggling to pick out the numbers from that article (most of it seems to be percentages) but I'm not sure if it includes tax credits at all - the figures quoted appear to be those for DWP, whilst tax credits are not a DWP benefit, but are dealt with by HMRC...

pjread

Full time hours (35+hrs) between a couple seems a more than reasonable expectation to me.

BigAunty

There is perhaps a more up to date chart but this one from Jan last year indicates that personal tax credits are around £30 billion, less than pensions but more than housing benefit, so it's the second biggest spend.

I don't know if the £22 billion for child benefit paid by the HMRC includes child tax credits or is purely for CB.

http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2013/jan/08/uk-benefit-welfare-spending#img-1

tomtontom

pjread wrote: »

Full time hours (35+hrs) between a couple seems a more than reasonable expectation to me.

35 hours between two people is not nearly sufficient - it should be 35 hours minimum for one person then a reduced number for a second person with caring responsibilities.

tomtontom

BigAunty wrote: »

There is perhaps a more up to date chart but this one from Jan last year indicates that personal tax credits are around £30 billion, less than pensions but more than housing benefit, so it's the second biggest spend.

I don't know if the £22 billion for child benefit paid by the HMRC includes child tax credits or is purely for CB.

http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2013/jan/08/uk-benefit-welfare-spending#img-1

You've misread the figures

CTC + WTC make up the £29.9 billion, CB is £12.22 billion.

BigAunty

This is an interesting document. Some snippets

"between 1983-84 and 2013-14, overall spending on welfare
increased around fourfold in cash terms (from £36½ billion to £211 billion) and more than doubled in real terms, adjusted for whole economy inflation....

spending on cash benefits for families with children has risen by 1.2 per cent of GDP to reach 2.5 per cent in 2013-14 "

http://budgetresponsibility.org.uk/wordpress/docs/Welfare_trends_report_2014_dn2B.pdf