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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

£35k tax free for working 20 hours a week....

775 replies

BitchyWitchy · 22/10/2010 23:42

In response to the 'Benefits' thread, I thought I would post this...

We took the decision to reduce DHs hours a few months back as we realised we are better off with him working part time than full time and this is what we get WEEKLY (4 DCs):

Wages (20 hours per week) £209
Housing Benefit £188 (leaving £7 for us to pay)
Council tax benefit £19 (leaving £3 for us to pay
Tax Credits £196
Working tax credits £13
Child benefit £60.50

Thats over £35K tax free! DH's fulltime wage was £34k before tax.

Also get free prescriptions and dental care, discounted kids activities and leisure centre membership. DH is home 5 days a week and I am loving having him around to help out with the DCs and doing stuff with them which he could not do when he worked 50 hours a week! 3 DC are at school so we get quality time with the youngest.

We are also doing free OU degree courses so we can get better paid jobs in a few years.

Wish to bloody god we did this earlier when we were BOTH stressed out working fulltime and brought in LESS that what we get now after childcare.

We shall enjoy this until 2013 I can tell you! I don't give a monkey's what anyone thinks of us. DH is still working after all and who would really continue working fulltime knowing they get all this? It may not be right but while it's on offer, should we refuse it?

OP posts:
MaMoTTaT · 23/10/2010 00:49

you're figures don't add up with a 34k income last year (before tax) and an income of 14k this tax year anyhow

now off you fuck

MillyR · 23/10/2010 00:49

I agree about the tax credits thing. They are based on yearly income so your DH reducing his income half way through the financial year wouldn't entitle you to high tax credits.

Original poster
BitchyWitchy · 23/10/2010 00:51

Oh no Quattro. Dh still watches Jeremy Kyle and enjoys it, complete waster that he is.

OP posts:
MaMoTTaT · 23/10/2010 00:52

nope - still doesn't add up - your tax credits are based on last tax years income - so in April you'd have earned 34k

Even 14k (which is £250 - £209 after tax a week) last tax year you figures still don't add up.

I suggest you go back and check your figures on the LHA website and entitled to again before you continue being a fuckwit.

expatinscotland · 23/10/2010 00:52

yay! another divide and rule thread!

vodafone had £6m worth of tax it owned written off by Gideon, folks.

yes, it's TRUE.

that is £1bn less than the cuts on all these 'scroungers'.

hip hip, hurray henry!

yes, it is about entitlement: white, rich, male entitlement.

and the dish ran away with the spoon.

bloody hell.

the axe hasn't even fallen and this is what everyone is like?

daggers drawn?

MillyR · 23/10/2010 00:53

I think if people were going to play the system, the sensible time to go on to a low income is just before your children go to University. That way your children will receive some state money to go through university and not start out life in debt. If you are intending to reduce hours for a few years only, it doesn't make financial sense for those years to be when the children are young.

izzywizzywoowooo · 23/10/2010 00:53

is'nt it? Hope you don't use that spelling in your OU TMA's...

Smile
usualsuspect · 23/10/2010 00:54

Can't ....cope...any...more

Original poster
BitchyWitchy · 23/10/2010 00:56

WRT tax credits, if you know what your income is going to be for the current year, they take your estimate. They do not work on last years income if this year is going to be significantly lower. Ring them and bloody ask if you like.

I am not a troll. These figures are real. This is not made up unfortunately for some!

OP posts:
expatinscotland · 23/10/2010 00:57

i'm going to play the system, too.

why not? if it's good enough for Gideon, whose £4m trust fund is safely offshore so he can draw on it tax-free, then why not for the likes of me?

no one's in this together, just a few hours on here will tell you that much.

so stuff them and their 'society'.

i'll play it like a harp from hell and better than that, ship my kids off as soon as they can so they don't have to lick da masta's boots.

Hedgeblunder · 23/10/2010 00:58

Well the conservatives have done it again.

Original poster
BitchyWitchy · 23/10/2010 00:58

Ah but MillyR, our DCs probably won't want to play games and go out with us when they are at Uni.

OP posts:
MillyR · 23/10/2010 00:59

Yes, BW is right. We just had a big drop in income and we were told our tax credits would be worked out on this year not last year. Our drop was mid financial year so we will not get high tax credits like BW.

Quattrocento · 23/10/2010 00:59

Expat, the Vodaphone case has been widely misunderstood. If that case had been litigated to the final courts, I would have backed Vodaphone to win on points

Now I don't like Gideon. In fact he is a tosser of the first order. But the Vodaphone thing - y'know, it would've cost the taxpayer more

MillyR · 23/10/2010 01:01

BW, that's fine. It isn't about money for you. You are happy for your kids to get into debt and think it is worth if you to spend more time with them now.

Lots of people want to be at home when their kids are young. Why are you making this thread some boast about having a higher income than others, when really what you value is time?

MaMoTTaT · 23/10/2010 01:02

Expat - your family work hard, and all the hours you can get you bloody deserve the benefits - you're not playing the system - you're using it as it's designed for those that can't earn enough to live on.

expatinscotland · 23/10/2010 01:06

that's nice, Quattro. nice to know i'm so thick i only misundertood that despite all that i've read. how thick of me. of course, this is expected from the likes of me and my kind, my husband earns a bit under what LL's husband vvvvvvvv does and i have suffered for 7 years from what is now chronic depression.

it makes me feel so much better, when i can't turn the heat on till tuesday when he gets paid, to know it is a result of my thickness that i misunderstood.

grand.

i shall take out my whip and flagellate myself for my ignorance whilst prostrating myself at the feet of my betters.

do i blame benefits claimants?

well, i'm thick, so i lay the blame where i see it belongs: on those who never had to worry about a bill in their entire lives.

that is no crime.

what is is that they chose to dictate the parametres of life to others.

so i wish them an eternity in whatever hell there is, and a bad death.

and any other misfortune that could possibly befall them.

because it all i can do. they have stripped me and my kind of mostly everything else.

think that sounds hateful?

study history.

mark twain put it best, 'history doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme.'

MaMoTTaT · 23/10/2010 01:08

Milly - the figures still don't add up - even taking that into account.

expatinscotland · 23/10/2010 01:12

MaMo, I begrudge benefits claimants nothing. What little I have and they have, we share.

These guys wouldn't know share if it bit them in the arse.

Again, that is no crime.

What is deplorable is that they chose to go into a position to dictate to others and took no time to understand, much less to care.

I find that sickening.

expatinscotland · 23/10/2010 01:18

I'm sure some clever clogs will come along to tell us all how big business is doing so much for us all, how stimulating they are to the economy, how we can't do without them, if we don't bribe them with our monies, they'll go somewhere else.

We'll crumble into the ocean, surely, without their amazing expertise that has seen us through our darkest hour!

Lead, follow, or get out of the way.

And these folks, they aren't leading. They are compelling.

Any dud student of history can tell you, that doesn't bode well.

Quattrocento · 23/10/2010 01:19

Hey, Expat! What's going on? The Vodaphone thing has been widely misunderstood because it's been widely misreported. The reason I know the minutiae of the case is because corporate tax is my job. I do it every single day for around 12 hours a day. Don't you dare get grouchy with me (and you know I am your biggest fan and I am sorry for coming over all patronising). Qxxx

expatinscotland · 23/10/2010 01:21

Grouchy? I am shivering with cold just now, and I'm lucky that I am still relatively young and incredibly strong.

How is it misreported? I've read over 12 reports of it.

expatinscotland · 23/10/2010 01:23

And I can have no respect for people who deal in divide and rule because I think this is a weak option taken by lazy cowards.

And I am neither lazy nor a coward.

MaMoTTaT · 23/10/2010 01:25

I know you don't expat - and I agree with you mostly - but to choose to claim benefits when you have the option not to??

Especially when you earning 34k (before tax) but taking into consideration CB and CTC which would add up to 10k - so 35k in total £2900 a month - rent of £845 a month, council tax around £100 - that's nearly £2000 left for bills, food and other stuff. Even with a family of 6 that's a hell of a lot of money.

Yet instead they choose to be reliant on benefits.

expatinscotland · 23/10/2010 01:25

You are never patronising, Quattro, and so I have always had much respect for you and, if you were closer, would gladly work for you as secretary were there such an opening.

So please, if you will, expound further on the matter.

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