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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU about Tax Credits cuts,

792 replies

Weathergames · 15/09/2015 23:37

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?!

OP posts:
HelenaDove · 17/09/2015 14:07

Frank my dad was in construction too from the late 1950s right through to the early 1990s. Site foreman. My mum worked in a factory. They grafted just like your parents did. My mum grew up in post war Italy and it left her with a real fear of poverty. Its taken a real toll on their health but i wouldnt wish it on other people.

harrasseddotcom · 17/09/2015 14:08

and dont even get me started on dla/pip! Tories dont give a second hoot about the disabled/low earners, all placed in the same bracket as useless scroungers.

frankbough · 17/09/2015 14:12

They won't sort the housing market out because it's still leveraged to ridiculous levels, the banks are still sat on hundreds of billions of potential defaults...

TheHoneyBadger · 17/09/2015 14:15

i'm lost frank - are you assuming that people aren't living like that right now?

that the people who are set to lose another £100-£200 a month aren't already using a crappy second hand oven and living without carpet or nice tiling in the bathroom?

what makes you assume that?

do you think they're all lapping up the life of luxury and just need to accept a second hand cooker?

do you not realise that there are people living as you describe living with small children whilst working and therefore already at the edge with nothing more to cut back on?

frankbough · 17/09/2015 14:25

I've worked on every single council estate in Yorkshire and beyond, so yes I have seen how people live, I've seen some serious misery, my mums side still live on a rough estate in Bradford...
Labour believe in a carrot approach, but it's not worked, it's just created dependency.. Cons believe in carrot and stick and are about to use a stick, if it works the market will correct itself, if it doesn't work, there'll be riots..

harrasseddotcom · 17/09/2015 14:30

Frank, im sorry for having a disabled child and having to 'depend' Hmm upon the state. Cons believe in carrot and stick approach huh? What exactly are the carrot and stick for me, as a full time parent to a severely disabled child living now on a one wage family? Please do enlighten me.

harrasseddotcom · 17/09/2015 14:33

And this is no way confined to parents of disabled children. I know plenty of parents working fulltime (single and 2 parent families) who rely on their tax credits to make ends meet. They are not leading a gold leafed existence. Are they to work more than full time?

frankbough · 17/09/2015 14:45

Yeah, sometimes work is 40-100 hrs in a week and business owners never switch off..

harrasseddotcom · 17/09/2015 14:50

That will be the business owners that reap all the rewards of business then (and i doubt they will be working 100 hrs/week every week for the majority of their working lives). Highly doubt they'd be putting in 100 hours of work for £6.50/hr. And whilst they are doing their 100 hours of work Hmm whom pray tell are looking after the children, specifically in one parent families?

Psycobabble · 17/09/2015 14:52

And who will look after the children when we are working out 40-100 hour weeks ??

Psycobabble · 17/09/2015 14:55

Assuming that there are even the jobs out there to cope with people wanting to basically have the equivalent of two full time jobs ??

Get real . This is not about people wanting to live in luxury it's about a system were the cost of living has risen far higher than average wages have .

harrasseddotcom · 17/09/2015 14:56

FWIW my partner works on average 55hrs/week in a manually intensive job which leaves him incapable of much else once he comes home. Quite frankly if he had to do 100 hrs/week of his job he'd have a mental and physical breakdown within months. And this isnt just confined to his job, there are lots of low paid jobs which do not involve sitting at a desk. Is that what you think, people should just work till they drop because that is what it sounds like you are suggesting?

MyGastIsFlabbered · 17/09/2015 15:39

I can't find anywhere online where I can actually calculate how much worse off I'll be, that would help as I'd then be dealing with a known quantity, at the moment I'm imagining the worst possible outcome.

Dawndonnaagain · 17/09/2015 15:45

Frank. They have messed up my tax credits. We have dhs ESA coming in NEXT week. That'll be about 200 quid for four of us. Nothing this week, and we don't know how long it will take for the tax credits to sort, we've been told a minimum of two weeks, so don't tell me it's not about the disabled, it affects us too.

CatEyeFlick · 17/09/2015 16:44

I have been saying this for ages

when the tax credits cuts come into force benefit fraud will go up loads (ie people saying they are single) and many people will do cash in hand work

and I don't blame them

So many of my "friends" who voted the tories in because "benefit scroungers" and "doleys" are now furious as they are going to lose money and thought they were safe as they worked hard. (LOL. )

Babyroobs · 17/09/2015 17:06

Cat Eye - That may be the case but have you seen how hard they are clamping down on people they suspect could be de-frauding the system by claiming to be single when they are not? Many lone parents are being targeted by compliance teams scrutinising there finances to check they are single and they have to send heaps of evidence off. There have been loads of threads on the subject. This government are determined that people won't get away with de- frauding the system ( and rightly so ! ).

Babyroobs · 17/09/2015 17:08

MyGast - Someone posted earlier in the thread how to work out what you will get from Next April, well they explained how to calculate what you will lose.

CatEyeFlick · 17/09/2015 17:14

Oh I know alright babyroobs I had to do one a few years ago

they are total cunts as they are targeting everyone in the hope of catching someone out

its absolutely disgusting

but I still think people will weigh up the risks and many will risk getting caught out rather than be skint

Margaritte · 17/09/2015 17:15

Frank - What TheHoneybadger says is true, we have a second hand oven. I bought it off a guy that sells pre used electric items, and we gave it a good clean. I had problems with it a few months ago; the hob kept giving me shocks. I had to turn it off, and tried every day. We cant afford a new one, so just had to wait. Eventually it stopped shocking me, so is now in use again.

We struggle as it is, and look to lose around just under £200 per month.

feelingdizzy · 17/09/2015 17:21

My marriage ended 11 years ago,(very abusive exh) my children were 1 and 2,I had nothing. WTC and CTC enabled me to retrain as a teacher, paid the majority of my childcare.I now have quite a senior position, I have taught hundreds of children ,hopefully adding to their education.
I would NOT have been able to do this without this financial support, my children would have been worse of, I would have remained stuck, and the children I have taught would never have had me as a teacher.
This money simply saved my little family.

CatEyeFlick · 17/09/2015 17:27

feelingdizzy what an inspirational story

I had an abusive exH too. dc and I would never have been able to have left him without tax credits. it was 9 years ago, I also got a place at university and got a bursary and help with rent etc. but that would never happen now. single parents get the bare minimum and are made to beg scrape and feel guilty for that. then pushed into any old shit work no matter how unsuitable

I am so glad you have done so well and I bet you are a fab teacher Flowers

Babyroobs · 17/09/2015 17:28

Feeling dizzy - That's great that tax credits allowed you to forge a career. Unfortunately for many though it works the other way. I have colleauges who currently won't go for promotion or take overtime or increase their hours because any financial gain from doing so would be wiped out by loss of tax credits, so they don't bother. Why would they take a more senior position which may bring more stress when they can stay where they are and get their wages topped up by tax credits? Maybe when they are cut they will be forced to try to make up the difference themselves. I have one colleuage who has worked one day a week since her ds was born 14 years ago, she will lose all her tax creidts ( her dh works in a low paid job) and she will have to work more hours or go for promotion if she wants to make up the loss.

CookieMonsterIsOnADiet · 17/09/2015 17:29

Cat, so it wrong to try and catch people claiming fraudulently and stealing from the system? I've heard it all now.

Penalties for fraud should be much higher, if caught it should all be paid back with interest, a criminal record and no recourse to public funds again. That would soon stop the majority.

The changes are coming so little point moaning about them. The time needs to be spent wisely, job searching, economising etc. If the changes stop people working part time or beinh a SAHP then it will benefit society going forward. It should never have become an option to do very little or nothing at all and leaving children to be raised on state money. As a parent you shouldn't be able to opt out of financial support, it's neglect at the end of the day. DLA could be tweaked to help out families where its not possible to work at all or maybe the government can put some of the money saved into specialist childcare creating more jobs and opportunities.

Babyroobs · 17/09/2015 17:34

Cookie - I couldn't agree more. most of the household I know claiming large amounts of tax credits have a sahp or one working very few hours even when the kids are teenagers. As somone who has always worked around my dh's hours fom when each of my babies was 6 months old, doing nights, weekends etc for years on end and getting no tax credits, I find it astonishing that people can be given free money for staying home for years on end. i don't understand how this was ever alowed to happen and am glad it is changing. I have no problem with families with pre-schoolers being supported to have a sahp or to get more help with childcare to allow it to pay to work, but the current system has just been abused for way too long and changes are way overdue.

CatEyeFlick · 17/09/2015 17:34

no cookiemonster its wrong to make people guilty unless proven innocent. its just a massive fishing expedition and they are stopping people's money left right and centre and most of them are doing fuck all wrong Hmm

read the concentrix/HMRC threads to see just how much its fucking with innocent people's lives Hmm