to think that too many people rely on the Tax Credits for their income.

[IdRatherBeInBed]

Bit of background first

My sister and her boyfriend has got back together after they split up last year. She was then claiming income support.

He has moved back in with her so her benefits have all stopped. she works 13.5 hours a week, he works over 30 hours. They earn £17k between them. Which lets be honest in this climate is not alot of money.

Shes just called Tax Credits to let them know hes moved back in and wanted to know what she would be entitled to WTC wise. Due to her HB/CTB stopping. Her rent is £500 per month, CT £100 per month. She is entitled to £4.90 per week.

I am sad for her because after all rent, ct, bills have gone out shes isnt left with anything. her food bill for the month has had to be cut to £200 per month. She has a car on finance (through my dad) which is shagging her tbh due to engine size (she got it when still with partner before splitting up and he had to get a 1.8 sport^^) her insurance with just her on it is £115p/m. - (she isnt 25 yet)

Anyway she called them last week to ask how much she could be entitled to, they told her £80 per week so she was like
"ooh we can afford this, we can afford that" so went out and spent £100 on clothes for her, him and nephew. I told her not to rely on what they have said because it could be wrong but she wouldn't listen and was saying 'it will be right'. Today she rings me bollocking me as to why she is only entitled to £4.90 per week.

FFS why bollock me - i dont work for them.

WIHBU to have said to her 'cancel your £24p/m gym membership, get rid of the car or change it if you can, stop getting things from catalogues that you cant pay for and get your arse of a boyfriend to stop spending money you don't have on shit like £5.50 magazines each week, stop getting shit for the garden you dont need, you don't need so many fucking flowery things to make a garden look nice.

Or what i come across as a complete and utter bitch.

She is one of these who says "oh i have no money" but yet has enough for new clothes or go out for a meal, or takeaway"

its the way your life goes i guess,
i would of loved nothing more to have a husband or partner who would go out and work so i could stay home with my baby but it turned out different im not going to live of benifits till they r 5 ..not a chance so yes i do rely on working tax to pay my childcare and proud to be able to say i am a working single mummy whats wrong with that really

That makes two of us teaforone but in essence I am agreeing with you so there is no need for the rudeness if you don't mind.

You are welcome xstitch, been there and yes, it's terrible. They do tend to advise more children which is bloody stupid. My friend has a child with ASD and ADHD, always injured, he needs more space and they are in a flat meant for an elderly person. What is she supposed to do? She can just about cope with the child she has and is SENSIBLY not having others.

The main problem with any discussion about tax credits and benefits is that there are the FEW who take the piss. My ex husband had a GF who had her first at 15. Fine. It happens. Then she met exH and had two in quick succession within two years. Then met another man and had three more. She is now thirty and has had another two. I saw her in town and she berated me for taking ex husband to the CSA for my DD because, "well I don't want his money!"

"But you want mine", I said. And it did not register at all. She has no idea where the money it has taken to raise her family of eight has come from.

These cases are few and far between but so shocking that it has a knock-on effect I think, in terms of rational people's views

8 children at 30 I'd have a nervous breakdown.

the council do not adviced have more children i really do not know where you are getting these comments from...
xstitch-
If you are on benifits the council will not house you stright away as you will be getting housing benifit to pay your full rent
they tend to house low earners first because they are struggling to pay the price of renting privite i know i was i was paying 125 per week for a 2 bedroom house when i applyed they housed me quite quickly because i was single with one low wage coming in so the fact my new rent was only 55 per week in a 18 year lease house was a move that was approved
If that makes sence??
But they will rehouse you , you will just be abit further down the list afraid untill you get a job

o and ninxy sorry but do not see where i was being rude?

I went to visit a few years ago at Christmas because two of the DC are my DD's half-siblings. There were two adults and six children in two-bed with a two-bar electric fire in one room because the rules changed about housing benefit and since the money was going directly to her, she preferred to rent a house smaller than the needs of the family and pocket the difference. Nice.

But most people are not like this. They do the best that they can for their children and t sickens me to think that we are all lumped in with the feckless few.

The council as an organisation don't but some individual employees come out with complete rubbish. I do not have my rent completely covered by HB, another reason not to top up the gas. I prefer not to be evicted. I have no intention of having lots of children in attempt to get a house I am not that stupid nor irresponsible.

sorry where about in the uk do u live?

To have my rent completely covered by HB I would have to find somewhere for £240PCM.

i take it you claim JSA then if your not working

I am in Scotland.

Do you claim job seekers?

No I have a Saturday job which was all I could get when I lost my job. Doesn't earn enough to live on get CTC but not WTC because of my hours.

Don't worry teaforone I don't need an apology and don't want to argue either if that's okay.

It is Friday and late after all and I have spent my ill-gotten gains on trashy food which needs eating!

You can claim child tax credit who ever you are as long as your a parent working or not working and hours worked does not effect it
Its working tax thats had rules like that

And if you have one child and yourself your rent allowence would be 105 per week
Depending on your wages which i cannot imagine to be much at one days work if you earning more than 90 a week your housing benifit will go down if not your would get full housing benifit
Sorry i worked in the housing office last year
I think you should get them to relook at your claim does not sound right to me

i love chips :( im on a diet though i have to make special fat free chips with horrible fat free frying spray YUCK! lol

I said I get CTC its WTC I don't get because I am not entitled to it. Not sure I could get them to look at it again it was so humiliating the last time. The previous tenant had done a midnight flit so hadn't given council new address so she could pay CT they wanted me to tell them where she was to prove she didn't live with us but I didn't know who she was never mind where she was. It was horrible. They were even funny when the LL wrote to them explaining about the previous tenent.

o sorry read it wrong Well your local council sounds horrible
Ive never had promblems with my good luck job hunting im sure one will turn up soon maybe try and speak to your boss about doing extra shifts for now to help abit

:) good luck

Oh I have done that tes there is a hiring freeze which includes extra hours :( I think she may be fed up with me. Mind you the girl due to work spring bank holiday is off long term so volunteered for her shift so can go to lidl for a few things that week.

Its ironic that I would be better off if I had just signed on instead of taking this job. People are tight about one thing the system is flawed.

So xstitch who wants a job....it's obviously proving very difficult. What is holding you back do you think? Is it just there are no jobs at all in your area (which is the case in some areas) or you get interviews but not the job?

Have you tried what people try around here - printing a leaflet and putting it through doors on a reasonably prosperous street offering things like babysitting, chidlren's parties, personal training, window cleaning, homework supervision/tutoring for children, car washing, pet care/walking etc etc? Sometimes that kind of thing built up from not much can be better paid per hour than some fixed minimum wage jobs?

Just had a letter from MAria Miller

(Go on someone tell me she is labour and anti tory or summat )

Apaprently disability income will be cut after UC comes in for all but teh HR DLA recipients. Now the only difference is night care: someone on MR care may need total attention and be impossible to get care for but HR only applies to night caree needs (in fact I have one of each). I will lose mroe than I gain by enough that I finally have to apply for housing in the next 12 months.

So- teaching places in Wales cut dramatically beciuase fo 40% unemployment in profession.

SW MA bursary cut so i can;t do it.

Tories- the party of opportunity eh?

I expect by tehn three of my kids will be diagnosed with ASD, plus DH ahs issues that mean whilst he can work his GP has limited it (no his old night shifts not permitted).

I may as well give up trying. I can't take a job paying less than a decent wage as chidlcare costs 100% more for Sn around this way if you can find it (big if). Clearly teh state dosn;t give a damn so why should I, exactly?

Sorry didn't get on last night not ignoring you. There aren 't really any jobs I have only managed 4 interviews or may be 5. Such a long time to renember. I am usually so bad I don't even get a reply. :(

Is it legal to tutor if you are not a qualified teacher? Not sure how well it would work though, not really any affluent streets around here.

Yes, there are all sorts of jobs you can do without qualifications. you could set yoursdelf up tomorrow as a therapist. People have paid me to life coach them.

Plenty of parents want an intelligent person to be there at school homework time to help the children get on.

As I said and you say though it can depend where you live. We live in a mixed area - 2 minutes away if a council estate and a comp with 34% A - C GCSEs and then here where houses are over £1m+ so you have a lot of fairly badly off people who can provide services to those who are pretty well off. In some parts of the country everyone has no money or it's very posh and rural and you can't get a cleaner for love nor money as no one would demean themselves.

I do know some people though who tutor latin by skype with web cam so people can set up businesses on line to tutor children. Obviously the hardest thing with starting anything is marketing however. I was talking to someone at one point when the chidlren were doing grade 5 music theory who could do it over skype although I did it myself in the end and we didn't use her and she was in Spain and rural Cumbria.

So if it's hard even to get interveiws that doesn't sound lke the best route. MNost people dont;' do what I did - move from the NE to London to find work (the on your bike solution) although the world over it has been the soultuion. I'm sure some of my relatives headed over from Ireland for work in the NE because of the potato famine - the route of move to get work is an international one although if state benefits ensure people won't starve if they stay where they are I suppose many will not move.

There are also too many people who rely on their salaries/wages for their income. Fools.

But Xenia, literally, how can we move? DP cannot sit in his chair for +60 minutes. He can't sit up. He can't move his arms and legs. He is over six feet tall. I work out every day and I still cannot lift him off the floor. How can I move him? I can't even put wheels on the bed (have considered this) because I can't get the bed out the door and I can't get him on the bed without a hoist and the hoist needs a ceiling to brace against and the street has no roof. You can't hire private ambulances without insurance and we can't get insurance. You can hire prop ambulances from movie prop companies (have attempted to do this), which do come with prop stretchers, and that should work except again, the hoist issue, and you can only hire them for eight hours so that's a four hour radius, max, which would not get us into London. I can't get a stretcher through the door and must use a carry chair and transfer, but I am not allowed to hire carers to do this and I can't do it on my own and my dad can't do it and the hoists don't work in prop ambulances. Once we've arrived, how do I get him out of the ambulance and into the new place? I'd like to know! I want to know!

This is assuming I can find a new place at all because, for example, there are 12 houses within a four hour radius on the adapted property register and they all cost more than £100,000, which obviously I don't have. There is a scheme to help severely disabled people with specific housing needs, but you can only qualify if you are on Income Support, you can only get a 75% interest only mortgage, and you can only qualify for Income Support if you have less than 16,000 capital. It sounds great, right, but, follow that through, you can only buy a house (all in) for less than £64,000. I can't find any. I can't find a landlord of an accessible property to rent to us and we've been on the council list for 10 years and frankly, we're never going to get one unless we become homeless. DP would genuinely and without hyperbole, not survive homelessness as he has a suprapubic catheter which is a vector for infection (he's nearly died from kidney infections even in our super-clean house).

Granny flats seem ideal but most newer builds are too small, not in a ohdahling way, I mean that there are hard limits on the size of a room to use a full body hoist in and be able to turn round, or to fit a wheelchair for a man over six feet tall. This is why there are 3,000 people in Greater Manchester that are housed in disabling properties (up stairs etc), because the damned flats are too small to get through the doorways, or the ceilings are too low to extend the hoist arms.

The fact is that, yes, my ancestors left Ireland in the potato famine and they succeeded and that's great but also lots of people just died. They just died! Not everyone wins.