It's no good. I am trying to pretend it's find and I don't care.

Forgot to say, Fluffy, DH does work full-time. Only 34 hours per week, as he has a day off to help look after DD1, but still 'full-time'. Tax credits help working people on a low wage as well as those who can't/don't work.

Sorry Fluffy - just saw your question

DH earns £1200 per month gross.

We have 3 children (one was under 1 until April) and one of those is counted as 'severely disabled' because she gets the Higher Rate Care component of Disability Living allowance.

So, we get around £23 in Working Tax Credit, £150 in 'ordinary' CTC, and around £70 disability element.

In other words, if we didn't have DD1's disability, having 3 children would give us approx £170 per week in WTC/CTC.

Stretch - errr, think you might want to direct your ire at those that are actually being judgey??

If you read what I said correctly:

"Sorry not trying to stir up trouble, genuinely interested in how you get that much thats a whole person's wages".

you can see it was a genuine question. I was interested because with DP's wages being what they are I wondered if it might be worth us applying. Perhaps you might want to take that chip off your shoulder, no? Why so defensive?

And I can add up actually, but thanks for that. There aren't usually exactly 28 days in a month, hence my rough estimate.

No wonder new people get upset when you can't even ask a simple question without being called 'judgey'.

Well Fluffy, it's actually £880 a month.
DH earns £1200 a month and we get £700 TCs. We have 4 kids though.

DH works 40+ hours a week as well.

Judgey. Sick of the jealousy over TC and people who can't get them.

Orm, I wouldn't be worried. The Tories are on a suicide mission going into office now.

but Orm Labour started the decline, the unions finished British Leyland off, and Thatcher did the only thing anyone could do, she took the power away from the unions. It couldnt have continued could it?

The labour government was warned last time that it needed to show financial restraint, and it didn't, that's the problem they just spend and borrow and that's exactly what they did this time too.

Manufacturing's share of the economy declined almost three times faster under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown - these are not made up figures they're from the office of national statistics.

lou - you get £220 a week in tax credits? So roughly £1000 a month? That can't be right can it? DP only earns £1200 a month and works 40+ hour weeks. Sorry not trying to stir up trouble, genuinely interested in how you get that much thats a whole person's wages.

Normally, I agree with everything expat says. But here, the financial mess we as a country are in was not caused by the City.

It was caused by the Labour government running a huge budget deficit. It ran a budget deficit because it wanted to spend, spend spend. And all the stealth taxes in the world couldn't keep up.

The Labour party blames the global economic crisis. But that's not accurate.

you can google it, it was called the Winter of Discontent 1979

the unions held so much power over the government, strikes, picketing, the country was on it's knees. The labour party were just puppets for the trade unions.

Who else actually remembers all this happening?

Sorry to butt in here, how were unions destroying the country?

I've heard that trotted out a few times but what did they actually do that was destructive?

TIA.

but Orm the unions were destroying this country

Can i sign a petition somewhere to stop this bloody unholy shack-up from happening?

A man who got a laugh out of getting pissed and destroying someone's property and then throwing money at the proprietor to sort it out.

How funny!

Yep, I'm so pleased someone like that is representing the country. It's such a great image to portray to the world, who are already laughing.

OrmRenewed that's not true, a study of figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that manufacturing's share of the economy declined almost three times faster under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown than it did when Thatcher was in power in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Unless you are born and bred there or have lived there a long while, you know FA about America.

But go ahead and rip the piss out of them. They've had the last laugh for a long time and I doubt that will end any time soon with the system you've got here.

It looks like the big fat joke it is to teh rest of the world, and most of them think people here are mugs. They'd never have put up with half of what you have and will.

i'm looking at the stats and i only see national debt percentage of gdp rising sharply as bail out of banks took off. and at least we stand a chance of getting that back.

i think it is capitalism that makes for social divsions, and through eurostat it looks like ours aren't as bad as, no scratch that i don't know enough about politocal leanings of comparitive countries. so it isn't easy enough yet to see if labour tempered the storm recently. i know it feels like it a lot fo people in the cities, as services are so much better in the last 7 or so years.

Did anyone who voted Labour actually notice people in the City making millons for the last decade while driving the UK into financial oblivion while society became more and more divided.

Hear me you people - yes this really did happen under the LABOUR Government you repeatedly voted in.

The Tory party had no part in that.

nicklebabe have you had a look recently at what Labour have done?

'Look at America where you have some people pro fee healthcare and others who say "sod those who can't pay their way - let them die"literally.'

so because it's worse in America that makes all Tory values defensible?