to be incensed by this

[TheStripyGruffalo]

The government is right to press ahead with cuts to tax credits - despite claims millions will be worse off - because the UK must become as hard working as China, Jeremy Hunt has said. The health secretary said the cuts - combined with a higher minimum wage - would send out the right "cultural signal" to low paid workers. And he said he did not "buy" claims people would be left out of pocket.

(source BBC politics website)

I am furious about this, I work for the government and don't earn enough to pay income tax so will not be better off by the tax allowance rises. My employer can't afford to increase my hours and I am paid the same hourly rate (give or take a few pence) that I was when I started the job 10 years ago but my working hours are less as there have been major cut backs. I earn over the living wage but only just so won't benefit from the increase. I will lose over £1500 a year when the tax credits cuts come in.

Jeremy Hunt is being so offensive and downright unpleasant.

Jeremy Hunt is rhyming for ......nasty cun.......

The new living wage is fine but doesn't make any difference to those already earning above it but who still rely on tax credits to afford rent
But the living wage and tax allowance will make it all better

I do think wages should be enough to live on, instead of tax credits being needed, and I don't think part time work should get the same income as full time. But what jerkoff hunt doesn't seem to realise is that it's a bit fucking impossible to
a) work in a job that doesn't exist
b) Magic a wage/ hours increase out if your arse because some overpayed twat thinks you should.

Before sharing his pre-new deal depression era bullshit on peoples work ethics, the fuckwit needs to abolish zero hours for 99% of so called jobs, make social housing available for all those who need it, and actually raise the wage. Cunt.

of not if

I love it when a poster who talks openly about spending £200 a go on a dinner for 6 tells someone on a low income being squeezed until they're ready to pop to calm down when they're being squeezed even harder and told by someone in government to whom £200 is probably a reasonable amount to spend on a meal that they need to work harder to make up for the loss of income that has happened over the years..

Why can't we aspire to be more like, say, Denmark? They have a decent wefare state and work-life balance, and tend to top surveys for citizen happiness.

Living costs in Denmark are astronomical.

It's vile rhetoric because some people cannot earn their pittance through employment because they are bringing up disabled children. And to say they somehow have less dignity is just disgusting.

People who have disabilities to deal with in themselves or their immoderate family should be supported through disability benefits, bit through tax credits that are available to people who are perfectly healthy, have never contributed to the system, or who don't work at all.

I can't really see what's so offensive about the bit of what JH said that was quoted earlier in the thread. Of course it's better for people to earn their own money rather than be given it by the state.

No one said that loving costs in Denmark aren't high. But the surveys repeatedly show that they are one of the happiest nations on earth. Maybe the Danes value free time over spending lots of money?

*living

The Danes do a lot of things differently to us. We aren't really comparable.

The infrastructure of Denmark is however vastly different to that of the United Kingdom.

For one thing, they aren't anywhere near as densely populated as we are. They have roughly 5 and a half million in their country - compare that to our 64 million! In many ways, that discrepancy speaks for itself: with fewer people, resources can be shared and welfare can be generous.

However it still comes at a cost - a high one. Denmark has one of the highest taxation levels in the world. They also discouraged asylum seekers recently by slashing benefits previously available to them.

It is all quite complex but is by no means as perfect as it seems.

I work part time and I am disabled. I do not need to claim tax credits as my wages are topped up by PIP so I don't feel the need to put a claim in as we get by on this.

I can see how the sudden stopping of tax credits could affect people however I resent the fact people are able to choose to work the bare minimum because the government, and by extension people like me, fund the shortfall.

People shouldn't be able to have this choice if they have no reason to work part time beyond choice especially when many people like me get out and work just shy of full time or actual full time. It does grate on me because of course I'd love to spend time at home catching up with people or the housework whilst my kids are at school but on the same token if my kids are in school why shouldn't I work? If we needed the extra income DH has the capacity to increase his work and earn more.

If you can't afford the lifestyle full time working gives to you and you don't work full time then either increase your hours or find a second job

I wish I did mrsdevere because it would do wonders for me and my family also

Ok then, so if everyone is expected to work full time then I assume this government is going to force nrp to commit to looking after their children 50% of the time and of course pay 50% towards all the costs involved in raising a child.

Like fuck they will.

According to gingerbread, 62% of nrp pay NOTHING what so ever towards the costs of raising their own chid/ten.

Of the 38% who do a significant proportion of those pay the statutory £5 per week ( whoopie), and many only pay the bare minimum..

You cannot force single parents into full time work until this shambles is legally resolved.

The logistics of the nrp having their children 50% of the time will of course have an impact on the hours which they work and the salary they can achieve.

Having to drop children off at 8 and pick up no later than 6pm will ensure that the top jobs are never taken by any lone parent , male or female.

Perhaps this would cause such an outcry the politicians would be forced to listen to the realities of earning a high wage and the logistics of juggling childcare.

I wonder (genuinely) if anyone knows tne proportion of folk who using tax credits as a "lifestyle chioce" rather than to keep the wolf from the door - not that it would make good argument for this immediate and brutal slashing, even if it was a high proportion. All the Tory apologists seem to cite the "part time by choice" argument, but no-one on here is owning up to taking that route. All we've heard is deserving cases being kicked in the teeth for striving so far.

I don't feel it's quite as cut and dry as that, wasonthelist.

I think we've had a shift over to flexible working meaning that if you do have a job, working part time when you have young children has become the new 'norm' if you like and to a point, this was indulged by the TC system.

That attitude is now shifting and I recognise it is difficult for those who can't work full time but the only real reason for this is disability related and I don't feel it's appropriate for disability benefits to come via tax credits anyway.

I am 'part time'(very nearly full time), but am on my knees with exhaustion. I work in a tricky school where I give my all. I then come come to my children and it goes on. I am barely functioning. if I had to do full time I dread to think what would happen .(single parent)
it actually makes more sense for me to severely cut my hours next april. I get paid next to nothing as it is. I will get more money if i cut my hours and get more tax credits.
Now that is a stupid system.
I work for the CC and people working on a starter wage in Aldi get over a £1 more an hour than me.

I'm not going to comment on individual cases but I don't feel topping up part time wages with tax credits is workable or fair.

I recognise there will be all sorts of reasons people feel they cannot work full time and I don't doubt that those reasons are strong. However I am also a single parent working in a tricky school on my knees with exhaustion - but working full time.

So what do you do if you can't do more hours in your PT job and aren't qualified for anything else? I've worked in this field (science related, not saying precisely what or i will out myself) for 20 years and it's all I'm qualified for.

It's really nothing about incentives to work, because increasing the taper, and the point from which it applies, drastically reduces the incentive to work for some people (like bigbuttons), and because many other people who will lose large amounts of money cannot realistically increase their earnings either because they already work full-time or because they have caring responsibilities.

If high earners cannot possibly be asked to pay a 50% marginal tax rate, because otherwise their incentive to work will be removed, how can it be right to expect low earners to work extra hours, when each hour of additional work may effectively only bring in pennies?

I think there is a good chance that this will turn out to be Cameron's poll tax, if the Tory tabloids start to take fright (the Sun has suddenly realised that its own constituency of low-paid "strivers" are explicitly targeted by this round of cuts).

As I've said, Stripy, there are a myriad of reasons why someone might not be able to go full time.

Unfortunately however, your question could be put to anything:

'What if you lose your job and can't get another?'
'What if you're made redundant?'
'What if your contract isn't renewed?'

The answer in every case is generally that you just have to keep trying to obtain a position (disclaimer - I am not saying this is easy.) I've worked in an unskilled position before when I needed something as a stopgap: it wasn't well paid (20p above minimum wage!) but it acted as a stop-gap and was more than benefits, so ...

I hope that gradually the emphasis will shift away from the 'what can we do' attitude which looks to the government to the more genuine 'what can we do' which looks at some of the options - with the repeated disclaimer that I don't think disability related benefits should ever have come under the umbrella of tax credits.