To be gutted that I won't be getting tax credits for 3rd child?

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I'm just wondering what people's opinion is really.

We are trying for a 3rd child and I won't be getting any tax credits for this child as the government has changed the rules so that from next year tax credits are only paid for up to a maximum of 2 children.

I currently receive around £1k of TC for the kids and I would have received £4k for the 3rd if the government hadn't made the changes.

That would have meant an extra £250 a month. It's a lot of money for us. My DH works and I'm a SAHM. We have a £100k mortgage on a small house in a deprived area of town. We get by. We don't have much money left each month and I need to save literally for everything. I'm really really gutted. I really wanted 3 kids and this has meant that I'll be financially alot worse off now.

Of course I don't expect the government to "pay" for my children but it would have really helped, that's all. It would have eased the pressure off.

Just for the record we have never received any other benefits apart from JSA when DH was made redundant last year which was a godsend as we would have been homeless otherwise.

Do you think AiBU to feel/ think like this?

God this thread has made me feel like shit. I'm a young single mum and I'm currently studying full time at university. It's took me a year to find a job that will work around childcare and uni but it's part time so I now receive WTC. I was really chuffed but now I know I'm still seen as 'scum' and a drain on society.
The long term plan is to have a career which will take me over the threshold for any benefits but that won't happen overnight. I have a couple of years of study left plus it will take time to work my way up the salary bands.
I don't feel like I can win on MN sometimes.

Well, you're being slightly dramatic, Iggle :) No one is claiming that tax credits shouldn't be used at all but that to use benefits as the basis for ones family size is unwise and also unfair on those who don't have that as an option and have to limit the number of children they have accordingly. Best of luck with your studies.

What? You were claiming child benefit and you didn't even need it

You don't seem to be aware that up until recently, CB was a UNIVERSAL benefit, one paid to the mother (generally) to ensure basic necessities for the child could be met. It was paid to all, regardless of whether they worked or not. It was a laudable side of a caring society; investing in the future of its children.

How entitled of you!

Indeed, as was everyone else entitled to claim on their child's behalf.

All those childfree adults funding your lifestyle choice and you didn't even NEED it?

I assume you are too young - or too ill-informed - to understand the genesis and application of this benefit before the Tories used it as another stick to beat society apart. I do hope you enjoy the way English society is apparently breaking apart and let's hope you never find yourself in the position of needing to ask for help. It simply won't be there in another few years.

Gosh, no wonder we are in this pickle

Are you for real here, or just channelling your inner governess?

And no, I am not a new poster, merely had to re-register.

It was sarcasm. I was highlighting the hypocritical thinking in Eddie's post. I should probably use the smileys.

It was sarcasm

Then I apologise for the forthright response. I did not read it as sarcasm, unfortunately.

I have a question for those who say that they only have children they can afford and if their dh upped and left they would manage fine?. Certain expenses involved in running a household do not vary that much whether the household is made up ozone or 2 adults. Plus childcare and mortgage or rent is fixed. So are all these people sho aren't currently relying on gas credits or child benefit so sure they won't need them in the future.
We have 3 DC and I work very part time self employed. 3rd was a happy accident. For the 1St time since the changes we qualify for maybe 20% child benefit.
We are in an enviable posit it ion where we have paid off our mortgage but dh is in poor health. So we are just one step away of needing support. So much can change. Yet the government has decided that if we fell on hard times our 1St two children contact but our 3rd doesn't. This is wrong.

Tax credits not gas. One or two adults. Phone auto-correct fail

Count not contact

I agree also because some working class men pissed their wages up a wall after a night out drinking rather than handing money to the wife for food for the children.

But just the working classes, eh? Naice people are never financially abusive, just the lumpen proles?

It was sarcasm. I was highlighting the hypocritical thinking in Eddie's post. I should probably use the smileys.

No, it was obvious enough

That's alright Pinnie. And I agree with what you've written. In fact. I'd go as far as to say that the slow erosion of one benefit after another has worked to intensify the fractures in society where, bit by bit, people slip from a legitimate claimer into a benefit sponger. (Which is what I was trying to say earlier)

Highland. That's unfortunate but the way it is. I'm disabled but not registered and could only get benefit if I agreed to get formerly NHS diagnosed (I'm privately diagnosed) and then I'd be forced to see a psychiatrist. My illness is neurological/physical according to the World Health Organisation but not the NHS. I'm happy and together and 100% positively don't need to see one. I know people, who've gone down this route and were quickly signed off from the psychiatrist but have also heard about others and it wasn't pleasant. It's also unnecessarily demeaning. We unfortunately have to deal the hand we are dealt. Hopefully your DH will recover or is suffering from a societally acceptable illness and can get benefit.

Everyone saying it's allowed a low wage culture, well I work full time and also claim.

I worth for a Local Authority.......

Highland, nobody forced you to have three children or work very part time. Those are life choices you made. Faced with change then you'd have to step up and work a lot more.

Lots of people do take into account life changes when planning a family or buying a house. It's common sense. It's why many women limit themselves to small families and continue to work secure in the knowledge they can still provide should anything go wrong.

Something has to change, if you give people a choice of not working, doing the bare minimum or handing them more money for yet another child then many in society will just take. Those that do it right pay for those that feel it's fine to opt out of paying for their own children. Society then gets worse as all those children go on to follow in their parents footsteps as its th only role model they know. Eductation and teachers can try but are limited.

If cb was given because wc mn were pissing the family money away in the pub, then why was everybody entitled to it and not just the wives of the wc men?

Are all those who received cb and had it stopped, and those who lost tax credits through the cuts not happy they earn more than those who still receive them? This, I don't understand.

Also, if a family can manage on what they get from tax credits without finding the need for both parents to work, they obviously have fewer outgoings than those who can't manage, without 2 jobs.

At present, living costs in this country are high.

It's conceded by most that a reasonable amount of living space is necessary to raise children in; that is to say that a family of four living in one room with shared kitchen and bathing facilities would be deemed unacceptable. In addition to this, we do not have a robust system for making non resident parents pay for their children and we have high numbers of marriage breakdowns and lone parents.

We have a number of systems in place to ensure that necessary bills are paid and that no family is left in absolute penury. Housing benefit will pay rent, all or part. Council tax benefit will ensure families don't miss this payment. Free school meals for school aged children and child benefit for all children except those from high earners. And tax credits.

Tax credits were of course meant to lift the unemployment figures - and to a point they were a positive thing. Back in the years of Thatcher and Major, you worked, and got paid, or didn't, and got the dole. If you were a lone parent, you got income support, which you can still get in addition to tax credits.

Tax credits bridged the gap between employed and unemployed - here, the government enthused, you could work, and STILL get them! No bad idea, especially for families who might have worked but led a hand to mouth existence.

Where TCs went wrong was increasing with the number of children, because that took responsibility away from families. It meant they had an incentive to have a large family. It also (especially true as zero hour and part time/flexible working became more commonplace) meant there was a 'do as little as possible' incentive: the more you earn from a job, the less you get in TCs, so it didn't take much forethought to realise that work didn't, actually, pay.

I hate them. The sooner they are phased out entirely the better.

Citizen's Wage. Do that.

Everybody got it because it was cheaper to administer it universally Rather than means test back before computers, remember they would have been posting stuff out to be filled in posted back, assessed and then returns posted back with a book to take yo the post office etc etc .... Plus People didn't claim it if they didn't need it as it was a pain in the Arse to fill out the forms.

Wages are too low, end of story, everywhere else in the world id earn 3 times my salary and tax credits are irreverent and not necessary. Came back to Britain and professionals can't survive without them, madness

Yet there was a hoo ha on here when the conservatives raised the minimum wage and businesses would never cope blah blah.

Citizens wage is an awful idea: inflation would fly through the roof.

Businesses clearly coped. Our profit margin dropped from 26.5% to 25ish but everyone survived 🙄

Wow. I can't believe you're even asking that. I can't believe the government pays that much money. No wonder people don't work.

Yet there was a hoo ha on here when the conservatives raised the minimum wage and businesses would never cope blah blah.

Not from the same people who can see that the current level of NMW (even the scheduled increases) are derisory.

The business lobby, the city and the 1% always scream in protest at the idea of a survivable wage for the poorest.

There were when it was in the context of cutting benefits.

Third child wasn't planned. We are fine at the moment thank you. But no one has a crystal ball and can foresee the future. Yes, I can up my hours if I ever need to. But at the moment things are fine but I appreciate things can change and as a net contributor on a family basis I would like the support to continue.