To think that too many people rely on Tax Credits?

[workhardplayhard]

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.

bupcakesandcunting - 70" TV? - you will need to tell me where Im going wrong, I can only afford a measly teeny weeny 69.5" flat screen with my tax credits lol!!!!

SEA - when I started work 25 years ago, my starting salary was 6,300. Same job, same grade, starting salary now 24,000. However, 25 years ago, I could have got a mortgage and bought a 1 bed flat in London for 3 x my salary. 3 x 24,000 won't buy you a 1 bed flat in London now.

I bought my first flat in 1991 for 80K - put down 20K deposit, mortgage for 3x salary....you are right. Still plenty of people around on that sort of money.

sajaruss,

Bloody good for you, you can have some of my taxes any day of the week!

newgolddream there is a special shop that only serves people on the Super tax credits. You can get 70" plasmas, waterbeds filled with champagne and killer dogs with diamond teeth.

PM me for details!

I imagine Xenia will be along soon to agree with OP, tell us we lazy fuckers should work f/t from 2 weeks after giving birth, and that had it not been for her £1m divorce....

Theres a few others missing that usually tell us we should have worked harder/made better choices blah blah blah ...I expect they will be along shortly

I bet the OP does know lots of people who claim tax credits. The threshold is a household income of £58,000 .

I really want a killer dog with diamond teeth - so wrong but so so right!

I could set it on Daily Mail readers

Or that your children shouldn't have been born, usual.

Or that you should live in a shack (never mind that, due to this little thing called progress and times moving on, it's actually illegal for a landlord to rent a bedsit for a family of 4 to occupy in every council I've heard of).

But of course, it's all your fault.

workhardplayhard you know YABU. You just started this thread to piss people off.

My DH earns £12k a year. We get the same back in tax credits a year. I'm a SAHM by default, as in I can't get a job and now it's been so long since I worked no one would want to employ me. If I did work full time like my DH I would probably earn a little less than he does. My wages would then go on childcare, leaving us with just £12k to live on.

If we didn't get tax credits we wouldn't eat and my kids would have any clothes. As soon as my DH's wages go in the bank every month they go straight back out again on all the direct debits to pay the rent and bills. Literally there's not a penny left after paying all the bills for anything else, especially not frivolous things like food and clothing.

workhardplayhard get a grip and try living in the real world for a bit.

I imgine 50 Cents has a killer dog with diamond teeth. All of us pikeys on WTC will be walking them round the park shopping precinct soon. I am going to teach mine to smoke. Imagine the fury that a diamond-toothed killer dog with a fag hanging out it's mouth would invoke in the DM types :)

I just wish, for once, people would truly understand Tax Credits

1. They are not simply a refund of tax paid. For many low-wage earners, they give much more money than is paid in tax. (DH pays around £1700 in tax, and receives around £12000 in TCs)

2. They were advertised by the government as our right. Not a benefit for people who are out of work, or even on a low, low wage, but for the majority of workers. Up to £66k originally, IIRC.

3. They not only deal with low-earning waged families, but also include premiums to overcome the disadvantage disability brings.

NO AMOUNT OF 'TAX BREAKS' WOULD REPLACE THE TAX CREDITS. If you took away TCs, our family alone would be down around £10k pa.

I would use my childbenefit to keep my killer dog in white lightning and kappa dog wear so he looked dead classy like

How incredibly crass and vulgar to have your income sources as a topic of converstaion with your friends OP. Do you have a written check list that stipulates which sort of income is acceptable in order for someone to become your friend?

The house I grew up in was a disgrace ...a lot were knocked down because they were slums to make way for council houses ,you know for low paid workers to live in ...along came thatcher ,sold them off
didn't see that one coming

Oh and I haven't had a holiday abroad since I was 15 and went to Spain with my parents. The last holiday DH and I had with the kids was in a caravan in North Wales for 4 days. That was 2 years ago because we couldn't even afford to do that last year.

Here have a and a

My tax credits dont stretch to a car, it's bus or walk. i don't have a large plasma, have a 22'' combi and that's only because ds broke our old 2nd hand tank telly and I needed something safe that wouldn't hurt him. My parent's paid £100 towards it , me £50. Don't really drink and don't go out. But i'm grateful for what we do have. I have a job that entails helping children, it's low paid but rewarding. Without tax credits most low paid workers couldn't have a family. Your views remind me of hitler!

totally agree with karma. my wages and dare i say housing benefit (don't worry op it doesnt cover all of my rent!) go in for end of month and on 1st all gone on bills/rent every single penny and more!
if it wasn't for tax credits/ child benefit we wouldn't eat or wear clothes- don't worry op clothes are usually ebay, charity shops or half price in the sale!

I love the fact that my wtc pays for my 3 foreign holidays a year (including 1 skiing), a smart convertible car, and a 12 bed mansion in Knightsbridge. I also top your 70" plasma with my 80" bupcakesandcunting

Mind you, if I was paid a luxury living wage in order to keep me in the style to which I've become accustomed, I wouldn't need wtc, would I?

i think a few other posters have hit the nail on the head:

the simple fact is that the average family (say 1 - 3 kids, mum and dad, one of whom works fulltime at least, possibly part time job for the other one) cannot afford to live on the average wage

there's no getting around that.

take my sister and her DH. he works more than full time (40 - 42hrs a week normally, although some weeks are worse than others). he's on just above minimum wage. my sister has a part time job for 12 hrs a week (3 days a week, mornings). mum looks after her 2 kids, so cheap childcare.

with BIL's wages + sis's wages, they couldn't afford to pay their bills without tax credits and top ups. it's literally a case of they couldn't pay their commitments, and they are NOT extravagant. secondhand shoes, no meals out, scrimping for school trips - i genuinely admire my sister's ability to cope how she does, they're not in any non-mortgage debt and managed to get a mortgage to be paying off (just).

they seem to be in a fortunate position, right? well when she's on the phone crying, asking me how to juggle the latest bill that's come in, and in the same call tells me about the damp problem that's getting worse in the kitchen with mold on the ceiling... well that is the face of modern britain. hard working couple, seemingly fortunate because they have bought property....

the simple fact is that your average family can't afford to live on the average wage!

the ONLY people who can, without tax top ups, are those in extremely cheap parts of the country re: house prices/rent and/or the childless, either by choice or not.

this scenario had a huge effect on us delaying having children - in the end we still couldn't really afford them, despite working in our roles for years.

the government talks about how women are delaying motherhood for years and years - is it any wonder? paying off student debt, paying for childcare, thinking about paying into a pension, looking after elderly parents whose pensions are now worthless - it's all these strains on your average family adult that means without these tax top ups the country would be chaos.

i've read that if you're on minimum wage with a couple of kids, the income is actually topped up to 20-22k? I think it was a link somewhere on MN.

so it's massively worth earning your first 10k of wages... worth earning up to 20k... but anything between 20k and 40k as combined family income, you feel the pinch so much that you barely feel the extra value from all that extra study or work. it's crazy.

damnit i wish i could find the link to the post which mentioned how well off a family with XYZ number of kids are in "real terms" (taking into account free school meals, prescriptions, glasses, etc). it was posted in AIBU a month or two ago.

anyway, that thread also discussed what would be a "real living wage" - it was well above the current minimum wage, to something like £10 - 12.

which wouldn't ever be accepted by business or the govt as worthy of implementation, as then they'd have to pay everyone this rate... which they don't want to do. single people, those who are working beyond retirement, empty nesters... so the real reason they work with tax top ups is to keep the people on minimum wage on the breadline, and provide JUST enough if you have kids so that they don't starve.

it's the govt's way of ensuring there isn't mass starvation, but keeping the minimum wage so low as to be laughably unrealistic to live in if you are genuinely "the average family".

YABU. And a twat.

My tax credits pays DS's nursery fees, and yea we do need the, we run our own business from home but very much reaint on bookings, I work 2 days a week and DH works part time also to make ends meet, i am starting a bookeeping course on tuesday and we have been investigating another business opportunoity tonight which if it comes off will be fantastic, but we need DS to be in childcare while we wrork and thnec the vicious circle begins, once he start school in Sepy 2012 then we will no longer claim at all.

Op, I think the reason that you have not heard that anyone you know claims TC is that your head is so far up your own backside it has caused hearing loss. HTH.