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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:
Nousernamesleft · 16/09/2015 08:41

I think we're going to be about £1700 a year worse off. The worst of it is, we only just break even when dh is working, we're about £10 a week better off once we take into account the loss of school dinners, the extra petrol etc. And that's when dh works a 45 hour week. Ridiculous that he has to work 6 days a week just to break even.

iamaboveandBeyond · 16/09/2015 08:46

The bloody stupid thing is that they're supposed to be for 'hard working people' but if you dont work at all, you wont be any worse off (unless you are above the new cap)!!

Although i do wonder if that is intentional, to get the poor working people hating those who are fully benefit reliant even more... Hmm

iamaboveandBeyond · 16/09/2015 08:46

(Oh, or are in wrag group of esa)

OneBreathAfterAnother · 16/09/2015 08:48

People should realise what they are going to lose. Its been covered everywhere. I don't have children yet and work full time and I know how families will be affected and how to calculate the change.

I don't think this will cause the Tory hatred that is expected, though. It will from people affected by the cuts, obviously, but they probably didn't vote Tory in the first place. Almost everyone I've met who did vote for them, back in May, believes that's it's time the country stops paying so much in welfare.

It might not make a difference to the National Debt, but it looks good for the Tories if they pull it off, and it could well keep them in power in 2020. Especially against Corbyn.

Viviennemary · 16/09/2015 08:50

I don't think people realised the cuts might affect them. I still don't understand this £4K limit. Surely somebody earning a lot more than that still gets tax credits and other benefits. However, I don't think people should be subsidised to live in very expensive areas. Most people have to live somewhere they can afford themselves.

bloodyteenagers · 16/09/2015 08:51

I bricking it.
I am already on slightly higher
Than the new proposed living wage.. It's not enough hence I get tax credits and housing benefit. My tc will be cut to zero. So a loss of £160 a month. I have nothing left to cut back on.
However after talking to some advisors housing benefit will increase and more people will be eligible and see an increase. So not sure how the cut saves money. Hence a lot of LA's going through every account and chasing old debts that slipped through.

iamaboveandBeyond · 16/09/2015 08:52

Oh and a quick note to the person who blamed scotland voting snp (cant check who). Iirc, snp and labour seats would not have been enough to form a coalition as the tories have a majority government.

Please someone correct me if that is wrong, in Beyond-land it is still very early Grin

cosytoaster · 16/09/2015 09:04

I know that I'll be £100 per month worse off, I will be working to live in poverty

ThisCantBeRight · 16/09/2015 09:13

YANBU

rollonthesummer · 16/09/2015 09:23

link

Is this where we are heading?!

Exoticpurple · 16/09/2015 09:37

I knew we'd be worse off with a Tory government. I didn't vote for them either but surely people should have realised where the further cuts would come from.

We will lose £1600. Dh works split shifts day and night on minimum wage. I don't work because with a child at primary school and a toddler I would be paying to work and be very much worse off. Currently we live frugally, we have few luxuries - no car, no holidays, no flat screen tv or tv packages. The cut in ctc and wtc will wipe out most of our food budget.

Babyroobs · 16/09/2015 09:38

I guess the ones worst hit will be those with their own homes who don't claim any housing benefit as there will be nothing for them to make up the shortfall . No doubt this will contribute to some losing their homes especially if interest rates rise too. Does anyone know if the childcare element of tax creidts are affected?

harrasseddotcom · 16/09/2015 09:42

IAAAB yes you are correct. Regardless of if the whole of Scotland voted Labour, the Tories would have still got the majority. Bloody nonsense blaming it on the SNP. The real 'blame' lies with those who voted Tory, and the election clearly showed us it was those in England that voted them in. (They as a country voted the Torys in a democratic election so they've got a hard neck moaning about it now!) As a SNP voter i find it a bit grating when the ills of the Torys are blamed on the SNP. If anything, blame Labour/Ed Miliband for such a shit campaign. And this is my main reason personally for wanting independence. Because no matter who Scotland votes for, at the end of the day, it's England that will get the deciding vote for who is in parliament due to the sheer size of their population.

Redlocks28 · 16/09/2015 09:48

DH works for a council in IT in the city-they were told yesterday to expect lots of job losses. The papers keep talking about interest rates rising and now big cuts have been made for working people's tax credits.

What will actually happen to normal everyday people?

Will we all lose our houses? How will that help the economy? Honestly, I want to cry!

Babyroobs · 16/09/2015 09:49

I guess also some people will be able to absorb these cuts moe than others. I'm sure for many these tax creidts literally pay for food and heating but quite a lot of people I know who bought their homes years ago and have very low mortgages use them for days out/ holidays etc. A colleague I work with has virtually no mortgage and uses the couple of hundred pounds a month she gets for foreign holidays.Another lone parent friend came out of her divorce settlement with a mortgage free home, gets hundreds in cm a month ( ex is a very high earner) and hundreds in tax credits for 3 kids. She will be ok when her money drops .Obviously this group of people will cope better than others who have high mortgage or childcare costs or who live in an area where rental prices are extortionate.

TaliZorahVasNormandy · 16/09/2015 09:53

I'll survive somehow with DD. I do worry about where the extra 7 hours of work will come from to meet the minimum 24 hours a week. I cant find a child minder as it is.

hattyhatter · 16/09/2015 09:54

.Another lone parent friend came out of her divorce settlement with a mortgage free home, gets hundreds in cm a month ( ex is a very high earner) and hundreds in tax credits for 3 kids.

That kind of situation could have been dealt with by capping how much CM is ignored.

Samcro · 16/09/2015 10:02

"hattyhatter Wed 16-Sep-15 07:32:09
To be fair samcro a lot of people believed that being pro "hard working families" meant all "hard working families" not just the well-paid."

really so they sat back and watched the disabled and sick being targeted, yet now its them they are upset.
can't say if feel sorry for people who are like that(disclaimer that won't be most people on this thread)

iamaboveandBeyond · 16/09/2015 10:05

harrassed - haha, yes in Wales i'm very aware that neither us nor Scotland, as a country, voted for the tories!!

hattyhatter · 16/09/2015 10:09

Exactly samcro; they thought they were voting in their own interests. But the 'hard working' rhetoric was just that. The low paid aren't part of the club.

I'm not crying for the Tory voters who've been stung.

MissEeerie · 16/09/2015 10:22

Everybody I know who voted Tory (not many thank god) didn't think it would affect them, only the 'scroungers'. Now they're shocked that they are going to be worse off. I don't want to say to them I told you so, but I TOLD YOU SO.

scifisam · 16/09/2015 10:23

I think some people, when they heard the rhetoric about cutting the welfare bill, didn't realise that included tax credits. After all, those people are working, right? Some people think welfare is all about lazy unemployed people when unemployment benefit is actually a tiny fraction of the welfare bill.

I know a couple of people who are going to be so much worse off from next April that work will not pay any more, because they have to pay for childcare and travel to work so will actually end up out of pocket compared to being on unemployment benefits. They don't know what they're going to do.

Warning them wouldn't have helped, like someone above wanted - they can't exactly save up a buffer for a few years' lower income.

Original poster
Weathergames · 16/09/2015 10:51

Interesting point about capping child maintenance. I don't know how I feel about it. I used to receive CM and WTC and was able to pay my mortgage over some very lean yrs (as was unable to claim HB).

OH pays EW £500 in CM but she also works, gets CTC, WTC and HB.

OP posts:
Samcro · 16/09/2015 10:52

it hasn't just been out of work benefits that people have been happy to see cut. look at the cuts to benefits for disabled/sick people and carers.
people just swallowed the spin that benefits= lazy and that they were ok, cos this wouldn't affect them, yet now it has they are crying.

Original poster
Weathergames · 16/09/2015 10:54

Bullshit propaganda like Kyle and Benefits Street don't help either...Hmm

OP posts:
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