To ask about child tax credit cuts.

[yellowbird11]

Is it inevitable and if so will it affect everyone? what a massive worry to all of you who are going to be affected.My DD works 16 hours a week and has 1 child. She'd love to do more hours as her child is at school but isn't able to. Can anyone give me any idea how much she'll lose, and when? I'm so worried for her because I know without these tax credits they'll be barely able to eat and keep warm. How can these Tory bs sleep at night?

He's intelligent, has nebosh quals in h&s, good employment record but he can't do really physical things now and he's in his late 50s. Both go against him. It's trying to find a job when you don't know where to start looking or what you can do. Job centres used to help but now they only deal with claims.

I am ashamed of the fact that this shower of shits got in.

Agree Backforthis They are worse than shits Cannot believe what they propose, so glad I didnt vote for the bastards

I've never heard of family credit - I was made a single parent in late 1990s when my DH left me for OW with a 3 and 5 year old - at that time I was not well enough to work and was claiming invalidity or incapacity benefit (can't remember which)
That gave me £0.80 a week too much to be eligible for income support as had small amounts of maintenance which helped toward mortgage
There were no free nursery places, contribution to child care, tax credits, any child maintenance was taken off you penny for penny and if you didn't provide ex DP or DH details you were virtually criminalised
I got down to a size 6 due to near starvation, and only managed to survive by very creative means until I was eventually able to get back to work p/t then eventually full time as DC were old enough to be left home alone
Now in my 50s with a huge mortgage, no pension, and still trying to support young adult DC who after helping them through university are now trying to get established in the world of work themselves, so I help where I can
I also have elderly parents who need support, and will soon be struggling even more due to austerity measures affecting local authorities which will impact on adult social care
When will it ever end........?
I fear for my own future - my children - even future GC and lastly my parents
And I don't get tax credits, I earn around the average wage, and have never voted conservative,
Someone voted them in
I don't know what the answer is btw - but am tired of life being an endless struggle

Wow, what a difference in the attitude of people claiming then and now.

I mean the attitude of society then and now.
Then it was accepted as your right, now you are a benefit scrounger.
What a turn about.

Wow, you lot are harsh.

The Tories have pursued a 'divide and rule' strategy since 2010, and it seems it's working.

The answer to the deficit is NOT to hammer working people on low salaries. And it's also not to make life so hard to improve - for someone on 10-11k or so, they will not only be losing upwards of a grand a year but will also be subject to 80% marginal tax rates - i.e. for every pound they earn in work, they will only be 20p better off.

Address the real issues - why is inheritance tax reduction a priority? Why was it a priority to lower the 50p rate of tax? Why are families with children targeted - is it not fairer to just put an extra penny on income tax?

And don't pretend that the government didn't deliberately mislead the public before the election. Cameron said, categorically, 7 days before the election, 'Tax Credits will not fall'. Michael Gove said categorically, 'Tax Credits would NOT be cut'.

They are total liars, and are cruelly targeting the most vulnerable. And I speak as someone who doesn't receive a penny in tax credits, and already lost child benefit. And don't let's forget the MPs themselves are getting an 11% pay rise.....paid for by......the TAXPAYER.

It is even more offensive that you think you have some kind of right to judge those of us who may be making these decisions and indeed, you seem to feel you have a right to additional information about our lives so that you can decide whether or not the loss of £200 to our budgets will cause us genuine hardship. You imply we are all either liars or unable to manage our households as a result

Carry on being offended then.

I have plenty of empathy for people who are struggling and trying their best to improve their lot. I really do.

I'm as entitled to my opinion as you. And, for the moment, I continue to be in support of TC cuts as I feel they needed cutting.

You can huff all you want about how I dare to ask for further details or examples but I am curious as to why no one will provide them and why no one has commented on the example I did a while back. If the cuts leave you so in poverty that after essential bills you literally cannot afford to eat (as is being alleged often on this thread) then why not back up your point with facts? To prove to all the Tory Cunts just how much the Government have fucked you? You've (general 'you') already told everyone on mn that you're skint/struggling/in poverty so it's hardly like you're protecting your privacy by not posting a few facts or figures.

Its the change of narrative NewLife. The rhetoric.

This spreading of hours over several days is the employers way of making sure employees are available but not necessarily giving you the hours.

It seems to be ok to have employees "on call" but not pay them for this when its a job lower down the socio economic scale. Jobs higher up the socio economic scale pay their employees for being on call.

This is another reason why tax credits need to exist. This "on call" availability abuse (and it is a form of financial abuse because it prevents ppl from trying to earn elsewhere) needs to stop.

And if extra hours are offered they need to NOT to be intermittent and inconsistent which they often are.

SummerNights maybe ppl dont want to put financial details on here. This site was hacked over the summer and lots of others have been too.

Summer

I can't give you a personal example because I'm not on any benefits so I will not be subject to any disadvantage.

I cannot remember if it was this thread or the other cuts one I'm on, I gave an example of a in work carer who has no option at all of increasing her hours due to her disabled family member, she is personally known to me.

She is losing more than the in work disregard this is the portion of her HB allowence that makes work pay so she will actually be worse off than someone in the same situation as her who does not work.

How does that make any sense?

Still wading through this thread (on page 3) but I do hope that over the 5 pages I have still to read, the likes of Manor and Dark are set straight:

The poor are paying a bigger proportion of their income in tax than the rich

The poorest fifth of the population lost 37.8 per cent of their income to the taxman last year, while richest fifth paid 34.8 per cent - a wider gap than previous year.

Income tax is only one of the many taxes paid in the UK (and most western countries).

big corporations, many of which pay 0 corporation tax, get more money from the UK government than the entire 12 billion DC wants to cut from social welfare

summernights

You really shouldn't believe the tax credits calculators. We earn more than £22k and I can assure you we do not have £2300 take home a month. My rent and childcare costs combined are more than my husband brings home and that's without the rest of the bills.

Unless of course you think I'm lying. Would you like to come and try living on my limited budget for a week?

Some reasoned words from David Davis on the current state of play

www.capx.co/0ChbS

If the cuts leave you so in poverty that after essential bills you literally cannot afford to eat (as is being alleged often on this thread) then why not back up your point with facts?

because....if I live in the South East where rents/mortgages are high, I will be slated for not moving further north.

If my childcare costs are high because I use a nursery, I will be slated for not using a childminder.

If I insist on using a car rather than walking everywhere, I will be slated.

Never mind the court order that keeps me within a couple of miles of my ex, the fact that no local childminder is able to cater for/willing to cater for my special needs child or that the nursery, children's school and my work are all in opposite directions, open very late in relation to my needing to be in work, and that there is no public transport that links the three in any kind of logical way that wouldn't mean a 5 mile journey taking 3 hours. Because of course, I should drag my sorry backside out of bed at 4am to make sure myself and my children are where we need to be by 8am.

Because then when I am begrudgingly 'permitted' to live in the South East, use a nursery and own a car, there will be questions about the size of my house, the age of my car, and whether or not I have investigated all alternative childcare options like I am some kind of idiot who isn't capable of using the internet or picking up a phone.

Because no matter how badly off I may be as a result of these tax credit changes, there will always be someone who believes that it's my own fault and I really am just getting what I deserve.

like I am some kind of idiot who isn't capable of using the internet or picking up a phone.

How very dare you have internet. Know your place pauper. I'd have sold my computer, phone, TV, washer, clothes, children etc before I claimed benefits. Have you no shame

I'm not posting details of my incoming/outgoings for the same reasons. I've seen these threads before

Hahahaha....excellent AllOfTheCoffee

ha! and once we've had that, there'll be questions on why I can't make a value chicken last 10 days....

I watched part of the speech from a women at the house of Lords who talked about a woman how difficult it would feel for a woman with disabled children to recieve a letter stating that she would receive a £3,000 a year pay cut...Thank God someone understands this..

It is not so easy to make up the loss by most Parents in particular those with disabled children and single parents but not exclusively just those people...Childcare generally isn't available outside of Monday to Friday..I couldn't get a job in a shop as they expect me to work Saturdays.. Most the jobs I am trained that would pay a decent wage are team work.

Over 2k a month from 22k a year? I think not.
Starlight, you keep on agreeing with the cuts. Alot of people don't and we are fighting hard to stop them, and hopefully we will win. I always struggle when people appear to have no empathy.

looking at the examples the BBC gave it struck me that of all the groups affected a single parent already working FT had the most problems. Clearly they couldn't up their hours so their options are limited. (I exclude those looking disabled kids in this as that is a no brainer)

Still not convinced by some of the arguments given on here though......lack of childcare - with a bit of imagination and effort i think some of this could be solved - working nights or weekends if your partner does 9-5; becoming a childminder; being a bit more persistent looking for spaces.....

Yeah. Who wants to see their children. Losers. Get more jobs!
Becoming a childminder would push me to the fucking edge.
Patronising much?

I think the whole tax credits thing has been a disaster because it's basically been subsidising employers to pay crap wages.

Where we are all furious with the government for 'cutting people's incomes' with this proposal, we should surely be furious with employers who are not actually paying an income which is reasonable.

It ludicrous that we are all subsidising these employers through our taxes.

I was a single parent for one year btw, and worked 16 hours a week in an office, and a further 15 hours a week as a childminder so that I could spend a little more time with my child. I know very well how hard it can be but I still think employers have got to step up.

Well seeing as it is near impossible to force employers to pay the living wage. We have to go to the 'next best' thing. The government. They could fix some of this mess by instructing employers to pay more now but they don't!

No, they have saving that little nugget for closer to the next general election.