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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

Original poster

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

877 replies

GutenTag · 30/07/2016 07:24

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?

OP posts:
Pisssssedofff · 31/07/2016 20:24

Rental income would be included in declared income to TC before assessment do people realise that ?

lastofthewintergin · 31/07/2016 20:38

Yes of course YABU. This is the reason they made the change - to stop people like you having kids they can't afford.

lordfanny1723 · 31/07/2016 20:46

lastof

Er, no. It's an arbitrary cutoff point in order to "save" the Treasury X Billions of pounds. It's a macroeconomic thing, not a moral point.

thecook · 31/07/2016 20:49

HelenaDove

Another one here that doesn't understand why single people have to work over 30 hours a week to be able to get tax credits. I was out of work due to illness. When I tried to go back to work I was told I had to work over 30 hours to be able to claim tax credits. Due to being out of work I was applying for lower paying jobs then I had previously done. I secured a full time position and claimed £23.00 per week in tax credits for the first year. My salary went up and I wasn't eligible then. During my job search I ruled out part time positions so I stayed on benefits longer. Nor did I claim HB as I own my house.

Sorry you have had a hard time for saying you worked the sex chatlines. Funnily enough some mumsnetters think they are fair game to slag off. Now I wonder why that is (sniggers)

buckingfrolicks · 31/07/2016 20:51

I tell you what I don't understand, is why people go on to have a squillion kids in these situations:

The poster has one DC and then "when my son was 5 I met my now husband. He had two daughters from his previous relationship and we now have five kids between us."

Five.

When I'm PM it'll be the rules that you can only have children with one person, whoever you have your first child by that's it - (rape excepted). See how you like them onions.

CuboidalSlipshoddy · 31/07/2016 20:51

Rental income would be included in declared income to TC before assessment do people realise that ?

I bet the value of the asset isn't.

gemma19846 · 31/07/2016 20:58

Sorry but i we have 2 children and BOTH work. Why should you be given money for your own kids out of our taxes because you CHOSE to be a SAHM. Really annoys me that people expect money for their own offspring but dont want to work!

McSmith · 31/07/2016 21:01

We would have loved 3 or more kids. We don't qualify for tax credits or child benefit as husband earns slightly over the threshold, and there's no way we could afford a 3rd child, so we have 2. Yes, YABU.

Lurkedforever1 · 31/07/2016 21:09

lord and linds I take it you both were against the change in rules whereby lone parents had to go back to work when dc reached 5? You know with 'mother' being such a valuable role?

Cos you know despite being a lp, who would have loved the option to be a sahp, I quite agree lps should work when dc reach school age. So I fail to see why when there are two parents to share the responsibilities of raising children, and running a house, one should be paid to stay at home. They shouldn't be.

Oh, and I never paid anyone to do my job as a mother. I did that job myself.

When it comes to benefits, I'm the first to defend people claiming them, point out the miserable reality, and I don't even judge those who have made multiple bad choices, because there is often a good reason why. However paying benefits to allow couples to choose to have a sahp till their youngest is no longer eligible is the one part of the system that should be ended.

chubbylover78 · 31/07/2016 21:12

Yabu. Government benefits aren't there for people that don't work but want to make babies. If you can't afford to raise another child on the money you receive them you shouldn't be trying to bring another human into the world. They capped tax credits for that very reason. To stop people from having a dozen kids and expecting the state to pay for them.

Just5minswithDacre · 31/07/2016 21:16

Rental income would be included in declared income to TC before assessment do people realise that ?

And?

What about capital appreciation?

Just5minswithDacre · 31/07/2016 21:20

When I'm PM it'll be the rules that you can only have children with one person, whoever you have your first child by that's it - (rape excepted). See how you like them onions.

Yes, dear.

So you'll be recreating communist China in the UK, then? When someone elects you PM? Hmm

Notmuchtosay1 · 31/07/2016 21:22

Rental income comes under "other income" I more than likely won't even fill the forms in next year. But the years when our joint income including my rent has come to £14k and there was the chance of more money i took it. We were struggling. My OH works 7 days a week averaging 10 hours a day. Income has gone up a bit since then. We had a third child but he wasn't planned. I didn't know tax credits went up with another child never thought about it.

FoggyBottom · 31/07/2016 21:24

You are already using my taxes to your credit and I'm glad the government have finally clamped down on it. It should have been done long before they attacked the disabled and single parents

This.

Pisssssedofff · 31/07/2016 21:28

If they realise that capital again it's taxable capital gains, savings and all declarable. Believe me the government is far smarter than you when it comes to wriggling out of paying anything. Do you also know you're children's savings have to be spent before you receive government benefits too

NeedACleverNN · 31/07/2016 21:32

When I'm PM it'll be the rules that you can only have children with one person, whoever you have your first child by that's it - (rape excepted). See how you like them onions.

What about contraceptive failures and abusive marriages where the woman has managed to escape? Children conceived in happier times before the man turned?

twohearts · 31/07/2016 21:32

As an American living in the UK, the whole notion of tax credits for having children is so bizarre to me.

I will admit, I have no idea how it works here or what it even means to get a tax credit but it's just so strange to me that the government would give you anything at all for having kids.

callherwillow · 31/07/2016 21:34

Problem is need that can apply to anything.

My parents had two children. One parent died. The other parents income didn't go up: we just had to cut our cloth, y'know?

user1466690252 · 31/07/2016 21:36

No school places, no doctors appointments ect. And we wonder why. Tax credits needs cleaning up. People csnt go on having kids they cant afford and blaming other's.

PheasantPluckerToADegree · 31/07/2016 21:36

Amazing how things have changed. My husband and I both come from families with 3+ children, both had SAHM's and this was the norm in families in both places where we grew up. We wanted the same but life doesn't work that way anymore. We had one planned child and one 'accident' (contraception failed) and rely on tax credits to make ends meet. No fancy holidays, no flash cars or designer gear or big teles here. My husband even got the snip because we were so concerned that I'd get pregnant by accident again. I really wanted to be a SAHM but couldn't afford it - however I also resent the idea of working full time just so that 75% of my earnings can pay for someone else to raise my child. So we take the 15 hours free childcare the state provides (so I can work) and we take our tax credits with gratitude that we can actually put food on the table.
I just find it strange that people are so aggressive towards SAHP's when that used to be considered the right way to live, and that women paying for childcare so that they could work used to be considered, well, if not a luxury, then a 'selfish' thing to do... Or maybe that's just an old fashioned middle class view...

lastofthewintergin · 31/07/2016 21:40

Lordfanny oh is it really.

SpaceUnicorn · 31/07/2016 21:41

Sorry but i we have 2 children and BOTH work.

Same here. I'd have loved to have been a SAHM of 3. Wasn't financially feasible, so we have 2 children and we work.

user1466690252 · 31/07/2016 21:41

And im a SAHP because DH can afford to pay for me to be. We wont have 3 children and make everyone suffer or expect anyone to pay. Tax credit's are great and meant to help. But they have turned into a lifestyle choice for some people. Time everyone took responsibility for themselves a bit more

callherwillow · 31/07/2016 21:42

People aren't, as a rule, aggressive towards SAHPs.

However when in effect you wish your choices to be funded by the government, by public money, it is entirely reasonable for the public to have an opinion and for that opinion to be negative.

gemma19846 · 31/07/2016 21:45

Same spaceunicorn! Id love more if we could afford it but since we both work and dont get tax credits we cant! So we have 2 kids and pay for them! Simple. If you cant afford to be a SAHM get a job around dads job and/or pay childcare costs like we all have to