Bloody W**NKing Tax credits! Or Government should I say

[Hai1988]

Just had my new tax credits award and have just found out that my DH's Working tax credits are being stopped as he has already had his lot for this year, £800!!!

My DH does not have a very well payed job at all and after rent and bills we have f**K all left and the weekly income of £140 really helped that is now just over £50.

So angry We need that extra £80 a week, I know it may not sound much to some but it did make a big difference to out life's.

Who ever voted Tory I hope your happy with yourselves that now so many family's are probably gonna struggle now.

Sorry not really an aibu but really needed to vent and wondered if anyone else is suffering with tax credits this year because of the dam government.

That's true Karma!

And yes it might sound awful, but the bottom line is simple; it is about how can be easily one can be replaced...

Fair, or not that is how society works.

Which is why the teacher should get paid more. But, the cleaner should still get a living wage.

I think all the talk about parents living off benefits is a bit of a red herring. Few people would argue that both parents have a right to stay home and expect the state to support them and their DC, but where one parent is working full time (but in a low wage job), they should be valued enough to be paid decently so they can enjoy some of the quality of life that higher earners get.

Ahh, but the living wage on here was quoted £15 p/h that amounts to 30k pa!
Some teacher earn less than that. So as you said the teacher should get paid more, meaning we need but their wage up by nearly triple as in line with the cleaners.

I beleive the average primary teacher wage is about £26k. Again we would all get taxed more to meet the new average wage of £76k per teacher.

The cleaner might end up in the same position anyway as they get taxed at a much higher rate.

Again; robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Thing is - not in a million years will we be looking at £15 per hour. However lots of people around her pay their cleaners £10-£11 and pay cash.... A number of cleaners have a number of jobs every week. Maybe we are not far off paying £15 per hour.

I don't know what an actual living wage is. I certainly think £8 or £9 p/h is not unreasonable. If proper, state subsidised child care was available that would free up people to work outside of school hours and would stop wages being sucked by cost of nurseries etc. People would maybe not need to earn a huge amount more than at present if they didn't have to meet those costs.

Karma- what you describe is a good argument for a flat rate 'citizens 'wage'' for everyone, so that everyone has the means to feed and clothe themselves and have a roof over their head, and employment would then be ADDING to that. The whole system of tax credits was badly flawed, and has to an extent been a DISincentive to work. The op being a classic example- an able bodied woman who thinks its very unreasonable that she is no longer going to be paid £560 every month from govt funds to enable her to not work. I mean, honestly, does anyone REALLY believe that's acceptable?!

As for the argument about the 'hierarchy' of wages, well supply and demand. At the end of the day, some jobs require huge skills, years of training, a lot of guts... Frankly if I were going to be paid the same rate to work behind a shop counter as in my current job, id pack in my job right now and get behind a checkout- because I would have far less incentive to do the relatively stressful and challenging job I do now.

And as for footballers and celebrities being paid extortionate amounts- well, on a moral level I find it repugnant, and I certainly have zero respect for many of our talentless celebs- but if they are generating millions of pounds, then simple economics dictates that they will receieve a large cut. All I can do on a personal level is not watch celebrity reality shows, not buy ok/hello, and not buy tickets for premier football matches or boy band gigs. None of which I do! But clearly not everyone feels the same! You cant blame 'the 'govt'' for everything!

Totally agree on the childcare costs but for everyone please! Paying 4.50 per hour x 2 x 22 days equates to nearly £2k per month. Nonsense. Lets making working pay as opposed to not working.

Janey - maybe you dont sound like me. Saw Take That at Wembley this week - and fab they were too....

Well just over £9 an hour at £9.14 equates to £19k pa before tax.

I think that sounds reasonable.

I agree childcare needs to be reviewed too.

Loving the points from Coco, Rocky and janey68 you guys have said everything that was on the tip of my tongue.

coco I quoted 15p/h when I was still thinking in $ ,I understand that (unfortunately) for a MW in the UK that would be too much.

I said so earlier :)

But then why do you think a teacher should make more,if you accept that they are both vital. It is because (I suspect) that most people assume that MW workers are less clever. Massive changes have happened in the workplace,there are super clever people stuck on MW jobs through no fault of their own. My DH speaks several languages and has other 'clever' atributes,however because he is 52 he is stuck cleaning massive turds from the the teachers room toilet

Do Primary teachers stay on 26k btw ?

I am wondering if Joy has a bit of a chip on her shoulder about teachers and cleaners based on her last comment. The fact is that anyone can be a cleaner. My two DS's can clean. But not everyone can be a teacher.

'If proper, state subsidised child care was available that would free up people to work outside of school hours and would stop wages being sucked by cost of nurseries etc. People would maybe not need to earn a huge amount more than at present if they didn't have to meet those costs.'

But you would get people saying why should they pay for your kids childcare, why did you have kids etc. when they didn't as they couldn't afford it. Some people would still moan about them subsidising your 'lifestyle choice' to have kids.

I think it would be better to increase child benefit. Family allowance was one of the main features of the original welfare reforms back in the late 1940s and if it was high enough then people could choose to offset EITHER childcare costs or allow them to stay home. That gives them the choice. Free childcare would pressure people who don't want to use it to do so. Eg lone parents with young children. I also don't think lone parents (or one of a couple) with young children should have to work outside school hours until the child is at secondary or perhaps in the last couple of years primary. The school day is long enough for many kids.

The teacher should make more as she is more vital in her current role. Yes of course intelligent people with degrees are working in unskilled jobs- especially in this climate.

However the employer is only going to pay for what skills are currently being used.

I am 6 months pregant and seriously considering switching too another job next year as it makes more economic sense especially considering the cost of childcare. I have a foundation degree, a BA hons and a PGCE. However I recognise the clients will only pay me market rates that are sometimes less than NM because that is the particular skills I am using at the current time.

I could be a brain surgeon but if change to a different role I could say I want £70p/h like I did as a brain surgeon as that my skill worth- but no one is going to pay as that is no longer my market value and I am no longer using my 'expensive' skills.

"people could choose to offset EITHER childcare costs or allow them to stay home. That gives them the choice. Free childcare would pressure people who don't want to use it to do so. Eg lone parents with young children. I also don't think lone parents (or one of a couple) with young children should have to work outside school hours until the child is at secondary or perhaps in the last couple of years primary. The school day is long enough for many kids."

That is really good point Jellybeans about choice too.

Oh yes,I have a massive chip on my shoulder you bet !

Made worse by assumptions on this thread.

Thank you microflight

I wanted to go back to the poster who stated that Tesco had made enough profits to pay all their staff £10k last year.

Doesn't this statement just go to prove how little profit per staff member is made at Tesco! And doesn't this just prove that if they doubled the minimum wage Tesco would be out of business?

If most staff (I presume are part time) earn around £10k then if they doubled their wage bill then each staff member would wipe out that £10k per head profit!

I think it's a great idea to either get CB or receive subsidised childcare. Personally,I wouldn't use subsidised childcare at the moment because I want to SAH, but would probably benefit from it in the future (before anyone jumps on me I don't get tax credits ).

I think the teacher will get more than the cleaner because a cleaner will go to work and do their shift, then their day is over. A teacher doesn't get an hourly rate as such but has to work until the job is done, so will be planning and marking after their official working day. It's only fair that a wage reflect that.

Still, a decent wage for the cleaner would enable one half of the couple to be a SAHP, if that was their choice. I think it's important for people to have that choice in life.

Although some people would moan about subsidised child care, I think society has to accept that having children does benefit society as a whole - they are the tax payers of the future, so society as a whole has an obligation towards children (and their parents to a degree).

And actually karma my husband( in his lowly work) is able to support us all :)

Here in the US he makes just over $16 p/h,we don't want for anything we need.

Housing costs play a part, our repayments each month are only $400-our house (3bed) was only $74,000.

So,if wages in the UK don't increase then something has to happen with housing...soon.

joy
The government are focussed on increasing the affordable housing stock. The difference between Uk and US is LAND!

Micro - agree re the land issue. We are in the South East of the UK in the Home Counties, every patch of land is being developed. Houses are springing up at £500k plus with apparently 4 beds and a tiny garden (and 3-4 bathrooms!) what is the obession with bathrooms in new houses!

I think to be honest the frustration that Joy has is that her DH is a cleaner despite being well qualifed and that is irriating her. However nothing is for ever. He is well qualified - keep looking for other roles. Also I think they are based in the US where housing costs it seems are FAR lower than here. She says that they have a OK life but I have not seen anyone apart from Joy who is biased saying that cleaners and teachers should be paid the same!