Are other full-time working families finding there is nothing left?

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You won't get free school meals on 30k a year! 🤣🤣

For what it's worth I got my P60 which showed i earned £14,800 this financial year. Husband earned similar and we get no UC or extra top ups. Grown up kids though so no childcare or anything.

What other choice do I have, exactly? If I don't care for my disabled child then the state would have to which would certainly cost more than what I currently get in benefits.

Absolutely - every word of this. There'll be no welfare state at this rate as everyone will just sack off working as it really isn't worth it. The gap between working and doing jack-all is getting so narrow.

In my world, yes. The threshold should be for everyone. It is very unfair that someone on a low wage is taxed, and someone who gets most types of benefit isn't.
It's the same money and has to buy the same things.
I can think of no justification why someone earning £13,000 is taxed and someone getting the same amount in benefits isn't.
Can you?

That fluffiness is for the fairies . It’s survival of the fittest now in this country . If working people no longer see value in going to work where do we end up then . This Labour government needs outing and someone else coming in needs to make work pay . When people work and can’t even afford a pizza on a Friday evening we’re in trouble . Going to work these days means paying for an over burdened welfare state whilst we have no defence , shitty roads , shitty health service shitty education and nothing works .
The welfare state needs disbanding and the only state help should be for those who are completely disabled . Companies and businesses should not be paying such low wages the state needs to top them up . If they are they need to revisit their business model . I also think there’s a world of difference between someone being so disabled they cannot do anything and today where any affliction means all types of work is ruled out . When I starting working there were 3 disabled people in my office , a blind lady ran the telephone lines and reception , a Learning disabled man worked in the post room and a veteran with one leg became an office manager . I can’t in later years remember working with anyone disabled .

Well if they did they might have more money.

Those are jobs and are a choice.
Looking after a disabled family member that you live with is not.
I bet my UC that they would rather their disabled family member was not disabled to start wth.

Pensions are a benefit. Just like any other benefit. Read the legislation behind it. There is no difference between pensions and any other benefit. Such a common misperception, made because so many pensioners have a thing about claiming benefits.

No, I’d pay the tax if that’s what it came down to. As would most I suspect. Too many are able to opt out of a tax system others cannot escape.

Haven’t read the full thread but yes I agree.

i would say we are an average income family, with a household income around £75000 pre tax. Two adults, one baby.

Partner works full time compressed to four days, I dropped to 4.5 days and compressed to four days after mat leave. Baby about to start nursery 3 days a week. For me to stay at full time hours with four days of nursery would have meant me paying to go to work and leave my child in nursery the extra day per week. I couldn’t compress full hours to four days and still make nursery pick up.

we live in a totally unexciting small city in the south west in a two bed terraced house. Mortgage is £1000 per month, £600 of which is interest. We only run one car which is very big standard. No holidays. Will maybe go camping once the baby is a bit bigger. One small dog. We don’t have expensive gadgets or jewellery. Theatre maybe once a year. Meal out maybe once per month. Takeaway once per month. No cinema trips. Clothes are majority hand me downs, Vinted or second hand. Hair cuts every 3ish months, no beauty treatments. Batch cooking - mostly vegetarian. Shop at Lidl or Aldi. Very low alcohol consumption.

we do have a loan that we will be paying off for the next two years because we needed IVF and didn’t qualify for NHS help, about £300.

we do manage to save a couple of hundred pounds a month living like this, which gets gobbled up but house repairs/vet expenses on a regular basis.

we are not hard up and I try to take a minute each day to be grateful for what we have - our health, our safety, our beautiful baby. But i would say that job wise in terms of level of seniority and salary we are equivalent to what my parents were earning in the late 90s, and we are living a VASTLY different life.

By this logic doctors, surgeons, nurses and care home managers should all be tax exempt. What about fire fighters? Ambulance crews? You’ve got to draw the line somewhere.

Being a carer is a choice not an obligation

Wow. Yeah @80smonster we all know that legally no one has an obligation to be a carer.

What you don't factor in with your pithy little phrase, is how little it takes into account people's feeling of obligation due to lack of choice (finances, lack of support, love etc).

So yeah, you can pull away all the support for carers if you want, based on it "being a choice", but society would fall apart without the role carers play.

So you would stick your child in an institution then instead of paying the parent to be a carer? It isn't a choice! It is what you do as a parent!

Being a carer is a choice not an obligation. I believe Scandinavian countries do not apply tax if you are handicapped, but other disabilities do pay tax on benefits.

Yep that’s a good idea

You have many different circumstances, what a single person earns may be plenty for them to lve but what a married couple with 3 children earns doesnt touch the side for them to live even with a strict budget.
So should companies then look at each individuals family status and their outgoings?

Many many companies pay decent, above the national living wage but its still not enough.

Many families arent getting topped up with benifits because they dont "earn enough" they are topped up due to many different reasons, marriage breakdowns, childcare, or more children than they can afford.

I think if a resident parent chooses to claim benefits the income of the non resident parent should be assessed and maintenance should be paid into a state account to repay the tax-payer some of what they are forking out. Then non payment won't affect the resident parent but can be treated like non payment to HMRC is treated.

I also think parents that choise to cksim genefits should have to choose a resident parent and if they don't the courts should. This is so the parents can pay to raise their own child to the best of their abilities before asking anything of the tax payer. Rather than the "have them 50:50" so no-one pays maintenance and the tax payer picks up the tab.

@eggsandsourdough yep but you are only paying that level of personal tax if paying both a highish sakary AND dividends on top - many do not - and pay next to no NI as many pay minimum of £12570 as salary -.and pay majority as dividend of which up to 50k are at 8% and no NI - and often then get their corp tax right down by sticking big sums into pension -. I myself am on that position so as stated I know the score - so a lot pleading poverty doesn’t wash with many - a great many are paying very little tax or NI .

I have no family nearby and look after a child who is likely autistic and has never done more than a morning at nursery. I work weekends and school holidays though if you think I am lazy.

If working for a business still leaves you so short of money that you need to top up with benefits then that business is costing us money and we need to recoup it

Yes but thats within the 30k yearly income, I'm not just counting mine and dp wages

But why should they pay more tax? Because they are more sucsessful, because they have worked harder? Wheres the benefit then and why would any corporation or potential corporation start their roots here.

I think approx 48% tax on their earnings and then 25% corporation tax on profits is plenty.

Why should someone that gets even less in benefits have to pay tax? You don't make any sense.
So someone who earns less then £12k - pays no tax.
Someone on benefits but also on less than £12k - pays tax.

That makes no sense.

Personally, I don’t think someone working hard for a low income should pay any more tax. They are already contributing via their work. Those who claim and take expensive services should really pay in some form. Otherwise you are essentially decentivising anyone in a low income job. Why not sit on your arse and let others pay eh?

does it include any benefits though? UC? PIP? Child benefit?