to be pissed of at the news saying the cut in child benefit is an attack on SAHM's. - AS IF ALL SAHM'S PARTNERS EARN ENOUGH TO PAY HIGHER RATE TAX....IF ONLY......

[ssd]

if only dh earned that much we'd be laughing

how about all the sahm's who's partner earns less and is paying lower rate tax?

does the media just assume to stay at home one of you MUST be earning £44k or above

what about those of us who struggle by on a lot less but want to be at home for our kids?

am sick of hearing how SAHM's with a partner earning higher rate tax will be hardest hit, some of us WOULD LOVE TO BE IN THAT POSITION

Bubbleymummy - my point wasn't aimed at you, or even this thread really, reading back through.

Why do SAHMs need an "excuse" to not do paid work? What a strange idea?

There's me falling into the trap - and me with a DH who's a SAHD!

Looby I didnt mean it to come across that way I am willing to work but childcare is alot sometimes it makes you worse off, different factors affect different people.
And i'm sorry but Im not being slated for being a sahm I am simply saying It would be easier for me to work if I had help from family which alot of people I know that work have :) I am not saying I cannot work because I dont have help, just it would be easier.

Roseability thats my point exactly some people want to work but dont have the choice I think the comment geek made was out of order, Its not excuses its personal reasons and these are different for everyone

Imarried - nah, I didn't say that everyone should get a job in the evening,s just that (sometimes) it is possible to do.

I think SAHMs have been royally screwed by this, as have single parents.

I have nothing against sahm, especially those who admit they stay st home through choice.

Its just the excuses I find amusing. As though they need to justify the choice they made.

Tbh I couldn't care less one way or another. Your choice, nothing to do with me or anyone else.

Two salaries use two tax free allowances
That's worth a few bob to double incomed folk
I can live without CB but am livid about the unfairness.
ESP if as alleged they then give a tax credit back to married higher rate taxpayers
Effing farce
And as the threshold for paying higher rate tax is coming down to £42, 250 it means a wider net for loss of CB and they are talking of it going down to £40k

But no one can pretend shock at this
It's what Tories do

The main complaint about this cut - is not that the people who are losing out can't afford to lose out, but there is another group of people that they feel should lose out also. So - it isn't the cut, so much as the feeling that Its Not Fair.

Well, let me welcome higher-rate tax payers and spouses to the wonderful world of benefits - the way they work Is Not Fair!

It isn't fair that if you work less than 15 hours, you don't get working tax credits, and that one hour can make a large difference to your income.

It isn't fair that, if you work 30 hours instead of 31 you are not entitled to 'full time' tax credits.

It isn't fair that Pension Credits have a 100% taper, so if you have some pension income, you can't benefit from it as every pound in income is a pound less in credit.

There are a million and one ways in which the benefits system is arbitrary, unjust and incomprehensible. But that's how it is.
For people on a high enough income for this most recent dose of unfairness to apply to, this must be annoying. But they really ought to imagine just how annoying that kind of unfairness is when it makes the difference between a low income and an even lower one, insted of a high income, or a slightly higher one. In fact annoying is the wrong word - at that low end of the scale it can be devastating.

My position in this?

Currently a low-wage household reliant on CHB/WTC/CTC. Dh is being considered for a 45k per annum job. If he gets it, fuck the child benefit.

Perhaps the theory is: support your own kids with your own money?

I used to be a working, mortgage paying Single mother
It was hard and every wftc, chb payment helped
I am fortunate to be secure I truly know that
I got done over by banks, employer, dss etc when I was struggling
The difference in the way you're treated when you are part of a higher earning couple is obscene and it pisses me off
Say nowadays
If we were about to go overdrawn without prior arrangement due to an oversight or overspend...
We would get a text from a bank flunkie
Who would offer emergency overdraft
By text
When I was working poor I got charged £35 and my card stopped

As I posted yesterday elsewhere I fall EXACTLY into this trap.

With unsocial hours, full tiome, my wages will just creep over 44k.

I am not claiming to be poor. I know I'm not.

But we have 6 kids between us, so CB is nearly 5k.

So I envisage cutting my hours to 30 per week. As a result, our household income will be largely the same as it would be were I to work full time and lose CB, yet I get an extra day at home.

This is not, I am sure, the intended consequence. But it seems madness for me to work a day a week effectively free. Especially as two of the six have ASD so require more than the average care...

EdgarAllInPink - great post which makes some very good points. The thing is, at least prior Govts had the sense to be slightly subtle about the anomalies - which we have fallen foul of I might add. The fact that this one is so blatant makes me worry about the current Govt's capabilities and/or ulterior motives.

retiredgoth2, it's a similar situation with lots of families not just high earners. If I worked 5 days I would get slightly less than working 4 days and claiming CTC/WTC so obviously I work 4 days. I would do the 5 if it meant having more money.

Crazy system that I've been stuck in for a long time. Mind you will miss the benefits in a couple of years time and will have to work 5 or find a rich man

WRT to thread title it's affecting a small amount of SAHM's as it is Single parents but its being described as an attack on both.

Also single parents might or might not have child care costs as they might or might not have child maintenance. I know the saying 2 can live as cheaply as 1 but it isn't really the case IME of being a single mum and co-habiting.

yanbu op, i think journalist types can't conceive that a family could survive on less than 44K. that's why they only write those supplement articles for very rich people for some reason.

Firstly, I had to turn the radio off this morning at all this blether about SAHMs. There are SAHDs too, one of which had to share the kitchen with me this morning while I was shouting. Bloody Radio 4.

More importantly, although I am a higher rate taxpayer so will have our CB cut even though our income is less than other couples who wont, I agree with EdgarAllInPink - the benefits system is never fair. Life isn't fair. But I am happy to take my cut, if only I could be confident that the tories would use it wisely to support the neediest in this country, and to keep universal benefits like the NHS, good schools, universities etc going while we pay back the national debt. But any government that sacks the tax collectors that bring in more income to the taxpayer by catching tax defaulters than they cost... are a bunch of upperclass twit scumbags.

Sorry, rant over.