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

[BitchyWitchy]

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?

Litchick - my OH is a taxpayer - maybe I can cut out the middle man and just claim the money from him. Then I wouldn't have to claim from.....oh, hang on a minute, that would mean I wasn't a drain on society. Better bin that idea.

litchick It's their right to take money bound for your children!

domestic I love him to bits and I'm lucky in that I have a horse + gym so I can get some time away from him. But when we're both home he wants to "talk" to me (the selfish git! ). He's a golfer thank god but we're living in the wrong country right now for him to bugger off all day.

I suspect the OP of being a front for a right wing think tank or similar, designed to foster a sense that the benefit system is unduly generous (and doing a pretty good job of it to be fair, if those figures are anything like accurate).
But am I right in thinking that this lifestyle choice would commit you to never ever building up significant savings, for fear of means testing? Maybe that's why she's having to get a plasma screen for Christmas?

well yes - I've told a similar story of how I'll get over £100 a week more if I start working than I currently do on benefits.

The OP is simply taking advantage of something that helps people in low paid jobs survive

"I read that as as long as 24 hours are worked between them, eg one works 24+ and the other doesn't work, or one works 16hrs and the other works 8 etc then they will still get TC"

Yes, that's how I read it too. What happens to families who currently work between 16 and 24 hrs if they cannot find additional hours or an extra p/t job? Do they lose all their TC's?

This is true. The figures are correct.

Hard as it may be to believe it.

I posted it as even we are still in shock that we can get that much money. We got the idea from someone else who is doing the same thing.

DH's employers are a massive 'family friendly' company so had no problem with him reducing his hours and he can increase them whenever he wants. His fulltime wages were around £500 per week after tax to whoever asked about that.

kungfupannda, feck off. I am not taking anything out of your pocket. You must be mightly dumb to think that.

MaMoTTaT I say again, I believe you do not work at all. What makes you think you are any better than us? What is your excuse for not working? Single parent, studying, childcare? If you felt that strongly about this issue, you would be working yourself whatever it took. At least we are bloody honest! Pot, kettle, and black springs to mind.

But (if the OP is a real person) it doesn't seem hugely fair that one person can work 2 days a week and get all of these benefits and another person working a 45 hour week could earn the same amount and get the same benefits.

Surely there should be some reward for working more hours?

Yes MrsVP that's the sort of thing I meant! Wouldn't be surprised.

Btw what's the "entitlement brigade" you keep mentioning Alpine Pony? Do they all dress up in uniforms and march to the jobcentre while playing a jolly tune (I'm thinking gimme gimme gimme by Abba?)

Of course OP - and the band (maybe the entitlement brigade one Alpine Pony mentioned?) played "believe it if you like".

"DH's employers are a massive 'family friendly' company so had no problem with him reducing his hours and he can increase them whenever he wants "

In the current economic climate? Good Luck!

I can just see the employer rubbing their hands in glee at the fact that someone has volunteered to help cut their wage bill and so saved them the cost of redundancy payments!

'I think the new rules regarding working tax credits are despicable with both partners having to work takes no account of child needs.'

This is what was so pernicious about working tax credits being introduced in the first place...when ds was born in 1995, these weren't around and I wouldn't have claimed them if they were, as we worked.

Nice for the OP to be so sanguine about her husband being able to increase his hours when he wishes. I don't think it will work like that; even those with a wide ranging and very professional set of skills will be finding it hard to get work, so don't hold your breath.

I have no problem with those who truly need benefits getting them; but this does stick in my throat.

You are lying, you have little work ethic.

Why don't you work 20 hours and your hubby work 20 hours too. That way you always have just one stay at home parent AND not be scroungers.

My DH and I work so very hard and it's shocking we prop up people like you.

OP's situation applies to a vanishingly small number of people.

The reality is that these benefits are there because:

Too many jobs don't pay enough to actually allow people to put food on the table and a roof over your head. Which is really rather shocking.

So, the biggest winners are UK capitalism plc, who are getting a large, hidden subsidy, to permit them to pay low wages (presumably to reduce cost of goods and sell in a global market??? Who knows what the rationale is)

and, indeed, the insane housing/renting market.

Who's paying? Well, I guess lots of us. Not just through taxes, but now lots and lots of us are going to subsidise UK capitalism, as money is drained from the public sector (all those, huge, council cuts, with no ability to raise council tax). Libraries closing, services for the elderly, disabled, and poor, etc., etc., all going.

'kungfupannda, feck off. I am not taking anything out of your pocket. You must be mightly dumb to think that.'

You must also be mighty dumb if you think that the money to pay for your freeloading benefits comes from the magic money tree. It comes off the backs of those who earn and pay their income tax, NI and council tax in full.

(Thank you to Zepherine, for pointing this out.)

You know what DH and I both worked very hard too until recently. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt love! And we will again!

Still do not feel any shame or disgust at myself unfortunately. I would reserve that feeling for hurting someone or stealing something and we are doing neither.

I can assure you DH WILL be able to increase his hours again when needs must. His company has to use a lot of agency workers which costs more than permanent employees.

scary - do you think that if we did not claim this money, it would go back in your pocket? How dumb is that?

I do enjoy your endearing way with words OP, and your over use of the word "dumb"

Are you in fact a 90s teenager who has escaped from Bill & Ted?

Another one here chuckling at the idea that OP's DH is SO valuable to the company that they'll increase or decrease his hours at his demand!!!! Look love, if he were that valuable he'd be earning a darn sight more than 500 a week. Methinks he's being spun a convenient line and they're rubbing their hands in delight at the easiest sucker to be in line for redundancy!

Wonder if OP will name this wonderful family friendly employer who lowers peoples hours on a whim, with a promise to increase them again the minute it suits! Then we can all rush to get a job there lol. Or perhaps they only do that for OP's dh cos he's special!!

Yep, I'd like a job with them!

This week I'd like to work 50 hours as I need to buy some Christmas presents. But next week I'd like to work about 5 as I need more time to paint my nails in front of Jeremy Kyle (on a widescreen TV, natch)

I know it will not go back in my pocket, but it might pay the deficit off earlier - it might save some of those whose jobs are being cut because of the huge mess that we are in. In the long run, it might bring income tax down or take some out of tax by allowing the tax free allowance to rise.

I love it when people 'assure me'; they are inevitably wrong when they do that.

You are stealing, from those who work to pay the benefits bill and from those who genuinely are in need; you are also hurting those people. You are setting your children a bad example and contributing greatly as others have said to the mindset that benefit claimants are freeloaders when many are genuinely in need or cannot work due to illness, or being single parents without support.

I hope your 'needs must' comes round very very soon. I feel shame and disgust for you; don't you worry about that, just like I contribute to your lifestyle.

I find this gutting - just checked figures and they add up. We actually would be no worse off if dh gave up his reasonably well paid full time job and I just worked at my part time teaching job. It is gauling to be paying tax so that people on benefits can have a higher standard of living than me. I don't mind paying tax for schools, hospitals etc, but this takes the piss. I am having to go back to work when my ds is 6mo because maternity pay is so low - it is not fair that someone else can stay at home and claim all these benefits.
I'm so glad that they are caping the benefits people can receive.