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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think that too many people rely on Tax Credits?

268 replies

workhardplayhard · 09/01/2011 20:48

Reading many of the threads on Mumsnet it seems that a large proportion of contributors rely on Tax Credits to top up their incomes.

I don't know anyone who claims Tax Credits IRL but if I did I don't think it would change my opinion - I think people should be fully responsible for providing for their own offspring without any benefits.

I have stated on a previous thread that I DO believe that people should get some assistance if their circumstances change ( Redundancy/Ill Health) but only for a set period.

I don't think the government should pay for people to have multiple children that they can ill afford to provide for.

I would be interested to hear other views.

OP posts:
Stase · 09/01/2011 21:03

You really don't know anyone who claims tax credits? You need to vary the circles you move in; perhaps that will widen your world view a little.

northerngirl41 · 09/01/2011 21:04

OP - I have to agree.

My MIL raised 2 kids by working split shifts with FIL so there was always someone home with the kids and sleeping in their kitchen coz they couldn't afford a bigger flat and walked everywhere and still don't have a car. I cannot fathom how they managed to live like that, but they didn't take anything out of the welfare system and there is an honour in that which I truly respect.

I'm not sure how easy it would be to recreate that situation when everyone else is sticking their hand in the communal pot and getting better housing, a car, freebie cots/prams/clothes for their kids. It just didn't happen back then because people would be ashamed to claim. Yet they managed without it.

Imarriedafrog · 09/01/2011 21:04

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

cantspel · 09/01/2011 21:04

i am sure there are plenty of people who are working 50 hours a week and still need tax credits to get by but i also know people who have given up f/t jobs to take on lower paid p/t work in the knowledge that their tax credits will go up to cover the difference.

I would like to see tax credits scrapped and a fiar system of taxation where the lower paid get to keep more of the money they earn rather than it being taken away with onehand and given back with another.

southeastastra · 09/01/2011 21:04

wtf? have you ever worked at a real life job op?

Shakirasma · 09/01/2011 21:04

2 working parents here. We don't like being reliant on govt help but whilst wages are so low and the cost of living so high what can we do?? It's not as though high paying jobs are readily available is it, at th moment anyone who has got a job is blooming lucky to have it.

My Dh works on average 45 hrs pw and I do 20 to fit in with the kids, we are not lazy, we are not spongers and we slog our guts out to provide for our children. It bothers me that people begrudge us a top up to an acceptable level of income.

usualsuspect · 09/01/2011 21:05

I haven't had a holiday in years ...we have one old car ...hell, we don't even have a flat screen tv ...but we do get a small amount of tax credits so shoot me

Original poster
workhardplayhard · 09/01/2011 21:05

For the posters who have mentioned that their circumstances have changes due to spouse leaving I absolutely agree their should be substantial help and assistance for you, that's a massive change in circumstance and it must be a very worrying time. However the government should be better is assuring that NRP's pay their share and I know sadly this is not always the case.

To make myself clearer I am referring more to the two parent families who chose that only one parent work but are happy to take money from the government

OP posts:
gordyslovesheep · 09/01/2011 21:06

well in 22 years I have also donated to the communal pot ...

I'd love to give it up and go on benefits - then some of the people here (and in the Daily Wail) can throw stones at me for being a single muvva with my hand in the pot 8)

blimey you can;t win really can you!

pours a sloe gin

bubbleOseven · 09/01/2011 21:06

If employers had been paying people a living wage in the first place there would never have been any need for tax credits.

If your gonna protest about anything protest about the huge gap between the minimum wage earners at banks and the bank bosses, the cost of fuel, housing and childcare.

coldtits · 09/01/2011 21:07

When the minimum wage is high enough so that a couple can afford to have two children (nil population growth, nil population shrinkage) and a safe and decent home, without tax credits, then, and only then, will I agree that they should be abolished.

WikiSpeaks · 09/01/2011 21:07

We claim.

DH works 50 hours a week minimum wage.

I work 22.5 hrs - 22.5k per year.

We have 2 kids.

Our joint income is £2500 pcm

Childcare bill of £640pcm
rent £950pcm

Then everything else (we have no debt btw) adds up to just over 2k pcm. So £500 doesn't stretch for food, fuel etc.

If it makes you feel any better we don't ever have a holiday, neither of us smoke and we only run one car.

gordyslovesheep · 09/01/2011 21:07

I get £900 a month TX for 3 kids - my childcare bill is £650 a month - I spend the reamining £250 on diamonds and drugs

ilythia · 09/01/2011 21:08

YABU.

But I am dying to know where you live that noone uses TC. Seriously.

southeastastra · 09/01/2011 21:08

counting down days until they re-introduce the married tax allowance

ReindeerBollocks · 09/01/2011 21:08

I'm happy to take money from the Government by way of tax credits - they pay me a paltry amount compared to the nurses wages required to look after DS.

Have my first Biscuit.

I'm in full agreement with expat, you're not really after opinions just a chance to moan about others not working as hard as you do.

pointythings · 09/01/2011 21:08

Charliesmummy, none of the people I know who claim/claimed tax credits had luxuries, gadgets or multiple cars. Apart from a brief period duringt he recession, inflation was always so much higher than pay awards just about anywhere that people's disposable incomes have been eroded over the years. Threads like this get right on my wick, just like threads where it is assumed that families with two parents working must be materialistic and only after gadgets and luxuries. Life is very, very expensive right now.

What would you consider a luxury item? Internet access, perhaps? Try job searching without it, and with local libraries set to close during the cuts, the outlook is bleak. Most of the people I know work to keep their rent or mortgage paid, food on the table, clothes on thier backs (and not designer gear either) and the heating on at least some of the time in winter.

MrsMooo · 09/01/2011 21:08

Yab vvc unreasonable. How wonderful for you that you don't know anyone on minimum wage, or struggling to live in SE with exorbitant house/rental prices and the very high cost of living in the UK

How dare those of us that don't earn £50k+ dare to have kids eh

Maybe if people spent a bit less time criticising those on low incomes and a bit more time trying to bring basic wages up we wouldn't need tax credits to survive

And FYI peeps, tax credits are to those in work who will also be paying income tax, so it's our own money we're getting back/giving to others in need

Stase · 09/01/2011 21:09

northerngirl not really relevant what happened a generation ago is it? When the ratio of earnings to cost of living was probably quite different.

I think the problem is exacerbated by nurseries who know that Tax Credits contribute to their fees, so hike them up to ridiculous levels. I work four days a week, have the kids in nursery three days a week, at a cost of £1200 a month. Wages are £1400 a month after tax and NI. Maybe I should become a SAHM and cost the govt something instead of being a net contributor as I am now, even with the 'handout' to help with rip off childcare fees?

smokinaces · 09/01/2011 21:09

I'd have to live in my car if I didnt get tax credits.

scrap that, I wouldnt be able to afford the car.

I was married before I had the children. I apologise that my husband decided after two kids that he wasnt man enough to be a family man and walked out on us. So sorry for working and claiming top up benefits and tax credits so my children and I can eat, wear clothes and have a heated house. I shall duly go and give myself 20 lashings and find an Irish WorkHouse immediately.

Twat.

TheSecondComing · 09/01/2011 21:10

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

bubbleOseven · 09/01/2011 21:10

"To make myself clearer I am referring more to the two parent families who chose that only one parent work but are happy to take money from the government"

tax credits are merely a replacement to the married mans tax allowance that men used to get.

cobbledtogether · 09/01/2011 21:12

Here OP have a no-brand Biscuit. I'd give you a chocolate hob nob, but I'd hate you to think that my tax credits were being spent in a reckless manner.

gordyslovesheep · 09/01/2011 21:12

yay Smokinaces - lets go and put ourselves in the stocks

honestly we must confuse the Daily wail readers of this world - we work - bad bad working mothers but if we didn;t - bad bad single mums on benefits

Maybe my children should get PT jobs up chimneys etc to support my expensive diamond habit

huddspur · 09/01/2011 21:13

YABU Tax credits are vital to many people on low and middle income because house price inflation has increased much faster than wage rates.

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