Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

513 replies

Hai1988 · 06/07/2011 16:59

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.

OP posts:
CherylWillBounceBack · 06/07/2011 21:16

Nothing wrong with being a Stay at home mum (or dad) at all. It's bloody housing costs that have made that a difficult thing for most.

thirstforknowledge · 06/07/2011 21:24

Good luck with finding a school hours job OP.
As you are discovering, jobs where you work school hours and get all of the holidays and inset days off are rare, not to mention the sports days/assemblies etc.
I think alot of parents who are looking for part time work would love to get a job like this, hence why they are so rare.
Have you considered gaining some qualifications whilst your DS is in school to help in your search?

PrettyMeerkat · 06/07/2011 21:28

This may sound lazy or whatever and I do really do want to work, but I like doing the school run and chatting to DS after school and stuff like that, so if wanting to take care of my son myself makes me sound like a scrounger Im sorry.

I really understand that, I feel the same.

PrettyMeerkat · 06/07/2011 21:32

I know she has been discussed but can someone please explain tax credits to me (I know I am being thick). My DH works, I hardly do (the odd few hours here and there). We have 2 children but don't use paid childcare. So what type should we be getting?

niceguy2 · 06/07/2011 21:32

Let's be honest, tax credit IS a benefit. Doesn't matter what it's called or why you are entitled or not....it IS a benefit.

OP, I've just put the figures you quoted in your previous post into the calculator on entitledto and I'm afraid it does look like they are right. (ie. minimum wage, 60 hours per week. That you not working and assumed you are all otherwise healthy)

In which case there really is no point appealing.

Not sure what your rent is like or what area you are in so it's impossible to say if you'd be entitled to housing benefit as that's another benefit which is nigh on impossible to work out.

One thing to bear in mind about the job though. I hear what you say about not wanting to use childcare but if you need the money then it's a case of tough really. Back when I was a single parent, I didn't want to be on benefits so I had to use childcare to enable me to work. That was a choice I made and no it wasn't ideal but few things in life are.

soverylucky · 06/07/2011 21:39

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MummyTubb · 06/07/2011 21:55

Agree with niceguy2. Tax credits are a benefit. They were called 'credits' to remove the stigma of the word 'benefit', but that doesn't change what they are.

Sadly for the OP I would think that sounds about right. It is unfortunate for her that they seem to have been miscalculated and that she has spent a year's worth in just a few months. Unfair, but tough I'm afraid - them's the breaks.

The OP likes chatting to mums in the playground and to DS after school. Well, wouldn't the world be nice if we could all do exactly as we liked. Sadly though, very few of us can have our cake and eat it, and it doesn't sound as though the OP is one of those few. Time to put aside what you want and to think about what your family needs.

usualsuspect · 06/07/2011 22:20

So what if they are benefits?

MummyTubb · 06/07/2011 22:37

Indeed usualsuspect. Cannot work out why various people on this thread are so adamant that thy aren't.

usualsuspect · 06/07/2011 22:39

Theres no shame in claiming benefits

Mousey84 · 06/07/2011 22:41

I havent read whole thread, so not sure if its been mentioned, but isnt there a bit that says that they will not reduce as drastically if it will cause financial hardship? Im not sure what they can do, but maybe its worth contacting them.

Of course, that will only be a short term help (if any at all)

TrinIsASadSpottyFatRhino · 06/07/2011 22:47

15 to 17k and you think thats low

well bugger me

dp and I have less than 10k a year and we get 170 a week

waitawhile · 06/07/2011 22:51

Other countries do encourage children to have more children to increase the tax base. It will be our children that help support (through taxes) the elderly. Of course I'm not saying sponge off of the government but these tax breaks are there for a reason. I have no problem taking the money. It's bugger all in comparison to what a working family would get in Australia.....

waitawhile · 06/07/2011 22:52

Sorry I meant encourage people to have more children

Alibabaandthe80nappies · 06/07/2011 23:05

I don't understand why people are so determined to say that TCs aren't benefits. Of course they are.

A tax break would mean that you got a proportion of the tax you had paid back (or didn't pay it in the first place under the old 'married man's tax allowance'). But with TCs some people get more in TCs than they are paying in tax in the first place. For example the OP was getting £140 a week, which is more tax than her DH would have paid on the wage she has described.

There is nothing wrong with claiming benefits, but please can we call a spade a spade, and grasp how unsustainable it is in the long term to have such a huge proportion of the population claiming government benefits.

JoySzasz · 06/07/2011 23:10

Here in the US one is given a tax refund each year,taken in to consideration is the amount of children under 18 you have. It works out around $1000 per child.

Most countries have something and there should be no shame in claiming anything available.

If the Government recognize that under a certain income is not enough...then it should be simple to understand for us all:)

I am not talking about work shy layabouts ...obviouslyWink

thursday · 06/07/2011 23:10

i agree that they're benefits, and i agree that its unsustainable and beyond ridiculous that the minimum wage is so low that people need thousands extra to even attempt to make ends meet. what's the answer though? just cut them and bollocks to everyone who can't survive without them? up the minimum wage by about £3 an hour?

NewShooz · 06/07/2011 23:12

My DH and I are in exactly the same position as you. In fact I started a thread a few weeks back myself, because I thought they must have made a mistake. Our WTC have dropped from £89 a week to £8.

I did the online calculator and it seems they haven't made a mistake, and after speaking to them, they blamed the budget for the reduction!

We have no family at all to help with childcare, so I'm currently looking for evening/weekend work, which means I will hardly see my DH now, but we don't have a choice as there's no way we can survive otherwise...

oh, and they still haven't even wrote to me notifying me of the changes either. I only found out because I went online to check the bank balance!

janey68 · 06/07/2011 23:17

It doesn't matter a jot whether they are called credits or benefits- the point is superbly summed up by soverylucky.

It doesn't matter how much any individual bangs on about wanting to do the school run, and not wanting to use childcare, at the end of the day we are all equal. No one is born with an unbuilt entitlement to not work so that they can spend as much time as they want with their children. Why should some parents have to work (thereby spending less time with their kids) in order to fund other people to NOT work?
Because that's the bottom line here. My children are as important as yours. Yours are as important as mine. The implication that somehow some parents shouldn't have to use childcare and work because somehow they think they or their children are more important is absurd

Alibabaandthe80nappies · 06/07/2011 23:18

thursday I don't know what the answer is. Somehow they need to be phased out, in line with the NMW rising and wages rising in general - how on earth that can be achieved I have no idea.

bubblesincoffee · 06/07/2011 23:29

So what if they are benefits?

There's nothing wrong with claiming benefits if you are entitled to them, just don't kid yourself that they're a tax break. They are not.

fromtheotherside · 06/07/2011 23:36

I just want to say-I would love to do the school run and chat to other mums ect, but in reality it's not that simple is it?
I returned to work full time when DD was 5mths old, my OH works full time and we get nothing and I wouldn't want it any other way, I don't want anyone else to support my family, but thanks for making us working mums feel like shit for going to work and supporting our family!!
Enjoy your chat with the other mums in the morning!

fgaaagh · 06/07/2011 23:38

This may sound lazy or whatever and I do really do want to work, but I like doing the school run and chatting to DS after school and stuff like that, so if wanting to take care of my son myself makes me sound like a scrounger Im sorry.

Hmm

Well I like that too. But I can't afford to. Not so much a decision as a straightforward fact. I rather like lie ins on Saturdays, it doesn't mean I get them very often.

And the problem is that this country cannot, cannot sustain itself in the long term where most of the working population is subsidised to such a huge extent. Basically topping up the wage bills of private employers, because their false salary levels doesn't really reflect the cost of hiring employees on a living wage.

This is the root of the problem. We can argue until we're blue in the face about specific family's circumstances, but I cannot say I am unhappy that the government is starting to come to its senses wtr sustainable benefits distribution. I didn't vote Tory, and never would. But regardless of whether the policies of any individual party agrees with my own outlook, I've seen first hand for years the effects of this so-called "minimum wage" and the addiction to tax credits and top ups.

It isn't sustainable, or even logical, from an admin perspective, to continue to do what has been done in the last 10 years.

janey68 · 06/07/2011 23:47

Spot on fromtheotherside and fgaaagh.

The op has now admitted outright that childcare would cost her £3 per hour (for out of school hours only) and she would earn just under £6 an hour. But rather than do that and turn a profit (which incidentally is more than is the case for many working parents of pre school children) she wants government handouts! Some peoples sense of entitlement is unbelievable. I have worked for far less profit than that due to childcare costs, so do many others. Join the real world op.

JoySzasz · 06/07/2011 23:50

fromtheotherside I understand what you saying...

to be fair though op said that she understood your (working Mums) plight too.

I am fed up that one wage is not enough these days...that is what really personally gets me livid.

We all know that it is near on impossible to sustain a family on one 'good' wage ...what about those on MW?

Both parents should not have to be forced out to work (if they don't want to)

Where is the choice for those Mums or Dads who want to stay at home?

some families are not happy using day-care and yet are forced to.