Tax Credits = benefit-dependent society?

Mumblechum if your Dh has any vacancies pls email me. My Dh is in his 40's, and we live in hampshire And he earns less than 16k working ft. He also could claim disability allowance for himself, but out of stubborness won't. Forces himself to work, when the dr wants to sign him off and have him admitted to hospital sometimes even.
We have 4 dc's. We pay our own mortgage, no housing benefit. If it weren't for tax credits i don't know where we'd be.

happymumofone: my opinion, much more eloquently and less smugly put.

Sorry, to clarify 'my life now' as in now that I have a partner, we both have a good income and I have support from him which i didnt have any of when I was a single mum.

Daughter is a bit older and so not so much hard work. Still work a 50 hour week. but its easy than when i did it when she was 1 & 2.

Jolly pirate, no worries, I get riled about things to!

In answer to the OP, yes I believe that Labour introduced tax credits and other benefits purely to gain votes and make people dependant upon the state.

If tax credits had just helped with childcare costs, then maybe they would have been a good thing if done correctly. However all they appear to have done, in many cases, is allow people to not work as a choice or to work min hours whilst tax payers top up their wages. Very wrong and very damaging for the country.

The election seems to have brought our peoples sense of entitlement recently, seen lots of "why work when I can get the same amount/more from the state" or "cant work full time because I may have to take a child to the doctors" etc. All mums have to take a child to the doctors at some point, they dont need to be on state benefits to do so.

'very difficult' vinegar tits, yes it is. But so are a lot of things in life.

I did this for two years and it was blodly hard but no where near impossible. I loved my life then, and I love my life now.

Some people see problems use them as excuses, others take them as something to be overcome.

Thats just life, I have friends and family members who take both routes, and I love them all dearly.

CordonBleugh- could you say why you cannot work fulltime?

Apologies to you foureleven - get a little riled sometimes.

Are Tax Credits benefits anyway? Surely if someone is working and their minimal wage is topped up to bring them up to what an avwerage person needs to live on then it's not a benefit.

Employers SHOULD allow time off for doctors appointments etc but are not always accommodating. I can remember having to ring the head office of a large company to make a complaint one time for a young pregnant Mum who was being refused time off (and being threatened with dismissal)for having an antenatal check with me.

an employer cant stop you taking time off for you child, but you have to take it as holidays or unpaid leave, it is very difficult for a single parent to work full time, unless they have and excellent support network of family and friends around them

"I am completely on my own with DD, I have a house to run, and a degree to complete" Me too.

Haha to your comment about my Ilk you jolly old pirate! Of course I 'beleive in ADHD' you wally. Im not talking about people who have children with problems like that.

Jees this ALWAYS happens on here.. You give your opinion about a subject and suddenly you are against every mother with a child with a disability.. It makes NO sense!

It's a ridiculously inefficient relief to administer. What's wrong with making the first £10k of income not taxable? Much easier and probably fairer to non-parents too.

Please find me an example of an employer who wont let you take time off to take your child to a doctors appointment. I run a company that helps people get back into employment so if I have missed the fat that most employers wont do this I willl be very surprised!

TheJollyPirate, then your circumstance is not 'the norm' your child is having problems so you have had to adapt. Fine.

Im talking about people in an average situation with healthy 'normal' kids who use excuses like 'what if my child has a docotrs appointment for a cold' to not graft.

My son has ASD (Autistic Spectrum Disorder) and ADHD (which no doubt foureleven and her ilk don't believe in). My son is 7 and I will work part time as long as I need to in order to support him. If that means other tax-payers supporting me to do so then so be it. I can't and won't feel guilty about doing so.

Without tax credits I could not work.

single parents who work part time are grafters! just because they don't work full time, doesn't make them lesser people, or lazy, or taking the easy option!!

And if they are out working 16+ hours a week, clearly they are earning the money to put food on the table and providing a warm place for them to sleep!

Part time workers also pay tax and NI you know.

Would you rather all single parents stayed on income support and full HB then?

I know some people have no choice but to work full time, but that doesn't give them the right to look down on part time workers.

I can't work full time, I am completely on my own with DD, I have a house to run, and a degree to complete.

Enjoy yourself foureleven.

I am a grafter too - I have ALWAYS worked full-time until my son was having so many problems in school I needed to reduce my hours to ensure I took him to school and picked him up. I now work part time and get tax credits to help top that up

I think that you grow to depend on whatever your income is, whether you have earned it or received it as a government benefit.

A lot of employers don't let people take time off for doctors appointments! And when would I make up the time .

The problem with the workings out/ case studies above is they only take in to consideration the present. Maybe the family would only be £5 a week better off.. but they are building a career, a future, and contributing! Its not forever. When I had my daughter 4 years ago I was probably in the same situation, well maybe I had about £80 extra a week than if I didnt work full time... but I have been building a future so I was happy to do it.

mumblechum, a very, very different planet to mine. I earn £40kish (but £32k as part-time) and I am in the top 5-10% of earners in my profession.

I too am a lone parent and not out of choice, so get £10 a week tax credits. However, what is really valuable is that I am senior enough to organise my working day around my needs and have a PA to do that for me. If I couldn't come in early/late and was strapped for cash, my life would be immeasurably more difficult. I may well not work and what sort of role model is that for my DD?

Oh and I'm in my forties too with degrees etc. It's not age or the south east, I think you're priviliged.

Mumble you must know that is not normal

"foureleven Working full time isn't practical, I need to juggle my time and have free time in the week to take the dc's to doctors apts when they are ill, which in the winter months is pretty often. There's no way an employer would have me coming in late / leaving early if I was on 9-5 mon - fri. I will be able to work more hours when the dc's are older and at infant school."

What??! you need free time int he week to take your children to doctors appointments.. Umm ALL kids have to go to doctors appointments and of course employers let people take time of to do that! Why should you get to have your wage substadised so that you can have days off with your children and others dont.

I have to juggle my time, as do most of my friends and family, its hard work but thats being a parent for you.
Time off for doc appointments, never heard of anything so ridiculous!

cordonbleugh - because strike me down, I am a grafter and I think if you want food on yours kids tables and a warm place for them to sleep you should be the one out earning it not every other bugger!

I do agree that it would be crazy to pay someone £305 per week in tax credits for them to end up being a fiver a week better off.

I wonder what will happen to TCs if DC gets in. I don't believe he'll leave them alone for long.

mumblechum, we'd like to emigrate to your planet please!

Lou, I've got a 3 yr old on my knee so difficult to concentrate but wondering if those figures take account of tax/ni paid? Also the creation of additional work for the childcarer?

I'm obviously living on another planet.

None of the people who work for dh earn less than £70k, none of my friends' dh's earn less than £100k, tho' that will include bonuses.

Maybe because we/they are all getting on now, mostly mid to late forties.