im so anxious about threats to cut ctc...

Possibly not Geek. Those who stay at home but aren't entitled to claim benefits (ie mostly women) means lots of jobs available for those who are currently claiming.

Exactly stretch.

Suspect many will be in the same boat as you.

We may end up dh being a sahd. We both work at present and would like to continue but we have to seriously consider finances.

Surely if lots of people have to give up work then there will be a huge loss in income tax?

They really ARE trying to keep women out of the workplace aren't they?

I mean, we earn 21k and I planned on going back to work when DC4 was at nursery, but that would take us over the threshold and would probably make us worse off, after nursery fees.

They won't reduce/cut tax credits straight away, will they? It will have to be next april??

We're not married and don't have childcare so we will feel it.

Who is Nick Clegg to say families over 30K don't need it,he who is earning a fortune.

Try paying a wacking great mortgage on my dp's wage then come and tell me what we do or don't need.

Those on a 25k with mortgage and a few kids will be up shit creek if the reports are correct.

Is it likely they will stop the childcare element for combined income of 30k? If so then I suspect many will stop work.

We only get the minimum anyway (£10 a week). As long as they do this at the same time or later than increasing the tax allowance to £10k, we should be better off.

We're only just over the threshold, but our sharp shock was this April - the previous tax year I'd been on maternity leave and DH had been in a rubbish job, so we'd been getting £40 a week. Then last tax year we were both working in okay jobs, so this April we got a sudden cut of £120 a month in what we got.

That was fun :-)

Lots of people talking about this at the school gates this morning.

General consensus was that they and/or partners would stop doing the overtime etc that they were previously doing and drop their income just under the threshold. The money that they could claim in CTC was more than the lost income by far.

What happened to all the promises of the threshold being for £50,000 and over . Everybody said their numbers didn't make sense and to save the money they said they could it would have to be dropped after £30,000, but they kept on saying no after £50,000.

And we all just have to lump it or like it. Where does NC and DC get off telling us we don't or shouldn't really need this money. WTF do they know about needing money for anything. People have built these CTC into their budgets, however meagre the amount people think it is, lots of people rely on this money every month.

As I understand it, the married couples tax allowance idea has been scrapped? Maybe I've got that wrong.

I'm sure I've also read that the £10k threshold will be introduced in phases, over a number of years.

So if that's correct then the cuts to CTC will make a big difference to those on earnings of around £25k.

Add to that the propsed NI increases and the possiblity of stopping child benefit at age 13 then those on a fairly low income with a couple of kids will be taking a massive hit.

I agree that to phase it out would be best for me as I dont mind losing it over a period of time but for it just to stop would be horrendous.

I wonder if these changes would not happen though until after April next year as could you imagine the headache for all to have it done immediately and if they are phasing out the £250 over a period of time it would only make sense.

I suppose I will have to wait until Tuesday but for now buy all the school clothes needed for next year this week lol.

I am highly anxious too. The one thing I was worried about with this new government was that they were out of touch with reality (what with them being all rich) and really have no real idea of how much it is to just merely exist in the UK. I rely on child tax credits too and if there was a cut to 25k then I would just have to reduce my hours to reflect that as we would not be able to pay childminding fees. Yes I know that tax credits cost the government billions of pounds but surely it is better to support those who are actually contributing their taxes than to force them to stop working etc. I eagerly await the budget next week

profscooter I'm self employed and my DH is in sales so we never even looked into tax credits. For the amount we would have got it just wasn't worth the hassle.

And we are just under the threshhold and we are quite comfortable, despite living in the SE with a big mortgage.

Also, it depends whether they mean just the family element of tax credits (£545 a year up to £50K+) or the entire tax credit where the family element is phased out around £25-40K depending how many kids you have. That is worth £2000 ish per child a year. So several kids at the lower end and you loose far more than £545. Then, people may think they are better off on lower income and get free school meals, tax credits etc...

If they do scrap it, then gradual reduction is the only fair way. It is obvious that people will be relying on what they have had for the last few years.

So people who are still poor even though they work hard should not be allowed to have children because they are a drain on the state?

Which, if you follow that argument to its conclusion means that only well off people should have children, creating a super, well-off middle class and above race.

Crikey. How fascist can you get?

Yes some people could loose thousands. Say they are on 25K with 4 kids, they could loose hundreds a month (thousands a year). If they cut it overnight then alot of people will be up shit creek. Especially if they are not starting the 10K tax right away...

Also, if the system remains as it is, a family right before the cut off with 3/4 kids will be getting thousands a year yet when they hit the cutoff will loose it all. Surely people will just cut their hours etc. It seems abit silly unless it is lost gradually like it is now in which case they would need to go further than 25K to start the withdrawels.

Being self employed it has proved a nightmare for HMRC to calculate what we are owed and we have ended up being overpaid one year and getting next to nothing the following year. If you've ever had to deal with HMRC on the phone about tax credits you'll know how soul destroying it can be. It's a nice idea if everyone has a steady salary, but practically, it just doesn't work and the admin involved in trying to make it work must be costing the country a fortune. It was doomed once they took away the online application system I reckon. I'd be glad to see the back of it and have it replaced with some simple payment to those who need it most.

You can email George Osborne and Danny Alexander here to complain about the planned cuts to the Child Trust Fund here: www.davidmiliband.net/broken-promises/

The quote on families losing just £545 a year is on the front of the papers the Daily express is the main one, but is is also quoted on Daily Mail online although last night it did state those that earn't over 30k a year but by this morning had been revised to 25k.

I agree that people will drop to just below the 25k mark as my husband has already said he will do this but to be honest is it really worth it.

I cannot believe that the government would suddenly cut (possibly) thousands of pounds from a family's income.

Regardless of whether you think CTC/WTC is a reasonable system or not, the government would be mad to remove that income overnight. Families would be plunged into financial dire straits.

As I understand it (from MN), many, many families on £25,000 and over receive thousands of pounds each year.

I do not receive any CTC/WTC, but I could not take a hit of thousands of pounds on my expected income.

Even the most gung-ho cutting government couldn't do this. Surely? Perhaps they will phase them out over the course of this parliament? I hope that is the intention.

It would be perverse in the extreme if I (mid-rate tax payer) wound up less badly hit by the cuts, etc., than a family on less! Yet, that looks likely to be the case: yes, I'll be hit by employees' & employers' NI rise (though this may be offset by other changes, as I understand it); yes, I'll be hit by 20% VAT; etc. But everyone suffers those increases. I don't receive any other benefits (and don't claim CB), so I won't miss them.

I'm afraid that it does make it seem as though the ConDem government is protecting - consciously or not - the better off (though perhaps not the super-rich, who are paying 50% plus on their income over 150K).

I wait to be corrected on Tuesday, of course.

thing is this is all speculation.

And the reality is that the previous government created a culture that was dependent on the state when the state couldn't afford to maintain it in the long-term.

It is being scrapped for over 25k i think

tink I wondered that too. If you have more than 3 kids, you could get quite a lot weekly at 25-35K. Will they scrap just the family element or all elements? Eventually, i think they will scrap the whole scheme.

Families in the middle will be shafted though. Some people will just drop their hours so they get under the threshold.

'The State has no place in subsidising children'
Barmyarmy Do you claim child benefit?

So excuse me if I am being thick here but according to the news today it is anything from 25k to 30k that families could lose £545 a year in tax credits . If it was any income over 25k my joint income is 26k a year out of that I pay 3000 in tax and NI is 1700 a year, my tax credit that I get is 4100 a year (3 children), so would I just lose the £545 a year or would I lose the lot. If I lose the lot then the government is wrong in quoting that families would lose up to £545 a year as obviously there will be a lot of people earning under 30k a year with more than one child.

This makes me really angry as they are just screwing us left right and centre, with the increase in NI, Possible VAT, Petrol, and then just for fun lets take tax credits away from all those that work. My husband said that after Tuesday he will think about if it is worth him working anylonger or just be a stay at home househusband