AIBU about Tax Credits cuts,

[Weathergames]

Commons back Osborne plan for tax credit cuts
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-34260902

I don't claim anymore because I now earn enough to support myself - because I could work and progress my career as well as my life while being a single parent.

AIBU to think this is a total travesty and so many single parents are going to have their life's devastated by this - and what about people in domestic abuse situations who will now be more unable to leave?

Maybe I some benefits scrounger - but the tax credits enabled me to be a good parent and role model to my kids - without their feckless father affecting that .... AIBU?!

Re Swapping childcare, two woman were charged a few years back for looking after each others children. They were not registered childminders.

It is quickly becoming like rents with HB, they can charge what they like because TCs will cover it.

The maximum Childcare Tax Credit Element payable is 70% of £300 pw childcare for two or more children. So £210 of £300+. So that can't be the reason on its own, can it? I mean, there's a pretty clear ceiling there.

Re Swapping childcare, two woman were charged a few years back for looking after each others children. They were not registered childminders.

was overthrown very rapidly by the government leaning on OFSTED. [[http://www.theguardian.com/society/2009/oct/12/friends-childcare-legal-balls]] OFSTED interpreted the legislation crazily rigorously. It wasn't ever meant to be the law and they were made to back off. It's completely legal to have an informal reciprocal arrangement.

I do think childcare providers know they have a captive market of financially squeezed parents who have to work regardless of anything, though.

Bollocks, sorry, link fail.

(And that ceiling is why people get stuck in PT work, for sure)

And all the while, the press reporting has been about Corbyn not signing the national anthem today.

I think it says all you need to know about the media, frankly, that the headlines are on such petty trivia on a day this serious a change to the finances of millions of people is passed in the Commons.

Thanks for the link sleep, I couldn't remember the details.

"And alll the while the press has been reporting about Jeremy Corbyn not singing the National Anthem,"
Well of course they have. It's seemingly all that's going on in the world plus it helps take the focus off any wrong doing from our glorious Tories, I guess.

I only know myself because I thought it was illegal, and someone on MN a couple of years back told me it wasn't. I may have googled to prove them wrong, and found they were right.

When my 3 DCs were under 10 and I found myself single I got a term time only job 18 hrs a week (to fit in with school - had no family to help). I shared a school run with another mum (kids at 3 different schools 9 yr old had to walk 1.5 miles there and back independently until another kind mum took pity and took him for me) so I did morning drop off, and she collected giving me an extra half hour to work before I needed to be home for them.

I earnt £700 a week and my mortgage was £750.

I lived on tax credits, CB and minimal maintenance - sometimes I went without food so the kids could eat.

I could not have done this without my tax credits. I would have lost my house and ended up in (non existent) social housing or renting on HB.

How is this even fair? I did not choose for my relationship to break down, I didn't choose for my ex to walk away and leave me to do everything.

What will people in my position do now?

Well the problem with registered childminders was the old Labour government insistence on interfering in everyone's life. However, unlikely as it may seem to many on this thread, 88% of households do not receive WTC, so it is a small minority who will suffer.
I doubt many voted for the current government.

not even in London does childcare cost 100/day. this is again similar to housing benefit. childcare costs need to be addressed across the board, not just for those at the bottom

It does if you have 2 kids needing it. It does if you have a child who has a disability, it costs lots more if you have more children.

I have two children with a CM that cost me £120 per day, I have other children with a nanny with additional needs training and experance,she gets paid more than the CM.

Carol. It was ed balls who stopped the interference in none payment baby sitting.

However, unlikely as it may seem to many on this thread, 88% of households do not receive WTC, so it is a small minority who will suffer.

Have you not heard of Child Tax Credits? There are around 18 million families in the UK, and around 3.5 will have a big chunk, if not all, of their CTC removed. By definition, those will be working people with children - those solely dependant upon benefits won't be affected unless the income cap hits them. I don't think around 1/6 of all families losing some of the money they need to make ends meet is that small a proportion, personally.

needs it was the old Labour government who introduced the rule that all child minders are registered.

sleep There are 26 million households in the UK, but even on your figures 1/6 is a small number. 1/3 of voters voted Labour, so twice as many as the affected.

IT makes me very sad. Yes there are people who play the system but IMO that's a price worth paying in order to keep other families afloat. Those who cheat/play the system are small in number compared to genuine claimants.

It was years ago now, but tax credits literally saved me from starvation. I left abusive XP. I had two preschoolers and no family. I had to start over with literally just the clothes on my back and my savings, which were rapidly depleted. I bought a house and my mortgage was less than rent on the open market and I didn't claim HB. Yet despite my earnings, child benefit and tax credits (including childcare element), I was left with less than someone on benefits after I'd paid for childcare. I often sat in the cold and went without food.

Without tax credits I'd have had no choice but to give up work, sell my house, live off the proceeds for a couple of years, then join the ranks of single parents on benefits until both DC were at an age where childcare costs were no longer prohibitive.

As it was, tax credits allowed me to just about scrape by. Albeit miserably, but survive I did. And when my DC got older and childcare costs decreased, I retrained to a higher-paid job and launched a better career that got me off the system. Longer-term I am a net contributor to the country's economy, rather than a taker.

How on earth can it beneficial to take that away from people? Whatever the country would have saved by not paying me tax credits would have been dwarfed in comparison to what I would have claimed had I had no choice but to be an unemployed single mother living in social housing.

needs it was the old Labour government who introduced the rule that all child minders are registered.

And an excellent rule it has been. Speaking as someone who had an unregistered one, in the '80s, who would never have been allowed to operate in a post-registration world. It's a paid role dealing with children. Keeping tabs on who performs that work seems sensible - as has been pointed out, it doesn't affect favours between friends in any way.

And I didn't say households. I said families. By definition, Child Tax Credits are paid to families - because you need a child to get them. As opposed to WTC, where you do not - they were the benefits you referred to. Different benefit, with different recipients.

Always good to read properly - avoids the mistakes you keep making.

Caroldecker
it's a small minority who will suffer
That's alright then

it's a small minority who will suffer

Yes, you've said that several times Carol. What do you mean?

The Tories are no better - their new scheme for tax relief - up to £6k for 3 children can be used by those who use a nanny but you will have to register her. They are supposed to be the party of deregulation and they utterly fail at every turn - far too wet. Nor have they cut anythnig like enough. Even old Labour knew massive cuts were needed if we were to survive. First we have the national debt www.nationaldebtclock.co.uk/ and secondly and separately we have the difference between what we get in and spend - the deficit which rose hugely under Labour and then the Coalition because they all stupidly protected the NHS, education and the old from cuts. We cannot go on like this. Even the £4bn saved on tax credits is a drop in the ocean. We need to think the unthinkable (and that is not Corbyn).

up to £6k for 3 children can be used by those who use a nanny but you will have to register her.

Oh the humanity! Register the nanny?

In London full time childcare for one child under 5 is about £10k a year minimum so if you have three tha is £30k. So a daily nanny is cheaper than 3 nursery places. it's not because you are rich or posh you go for that option and if you have hours where you suddenly might have to stay late or the children need care when tehy are sick and could not go to a nursery a nanny is a better idea. I don't think the new scheme is in place yet to replace the vouchers which only go to employees. The new scheme also applies to the self employed but not very high earners whether employed or not. I believe it is in addition to the 30 free hours for 3 year olds + (although plenty of us have to return to work in weeks for financial and other reasons so a 3+ childcare perk is no use for a very long while).

All of the personal situations that people have posed since I last did could have been significantly helped with free childcare rather than tax credits.

Tax credits shouldn't be enabling people to buy a house, that's not what I'd consider to be a good use of a welfare state. People may have to be supported with housing costs if they can't pay for what they need even if they did have free, full time childcare, but there should be some sort of scheme where if the state is helping pay off a mortgage, then it can reclaim some of the money once the mortgage is paid off or the property is sold.

So you have to use a registered nanny. And? Where's the problem?