To ask a benefits question and hope it's not controversial?!

[YoshimiBTPR]

I am job searching just now and realistically am not going to be paid a great deal. Salary and child maintenance will cover mortgage, bills and wrap around child care (maybe). So I'd be living on tax credits - food, fuel, clothes etc.

But everyone always stresses that you can't rely on benefits. Which I understand. It's a huge worry. What are the actual chances of tax credits/universal benefit going and there being nothing to replace them?

I feel clueless. In the past would a single parent have had to make it work on whatever they earn?
I'm trying to assess the realistic possibility of having to do this. No idea how I would.

If tax credits were not there, then you would not be able to live, I know that on my wage, I would be able to afford the rent, but not be able to afford to pay my gas and electric, or other bills and food would be scarce.

Oh and neither would you be able to afford childcare if you had no tax credits on my wage x

If you have no other choice then you have no other choice. Could you go on a list for social housing instead of buying? And be doing what you can to not rely on them in the future.

If your on a low income you can apply for working tax credits and child tax credits.
I'm on maternity leave at the moment and due to my partner being on a low income we get £80 a week in WTC and CTC. When I went on maternity our yearly income dropped from £33k to £13k so you can imagine my panic but we get by and still manage to pay bills on time and have some disposable income.

When you know how much your yearly salary is going to be, phone the tax credit helpline and they will go through it with you and send you a claim pack.

From what I understand (from talking to CAB) they won't be scrapped with nothing to replace them but they may be 'reinvented' and be a bit meaner with how much you get and who gets them

Hope things are ok yoshimi?

Aaah just realised your already claiming.

Don't worry, they won't pull the plug on tax credits just yet!

You crack on.

My tax credits stopped without warning in April. I was scared.

I picked up a couple of extra shifts a month and try to pick up overtime. It's hard, I have depression and some days want to crawl under a rock but somehow you just keep going.

And the more I hear about universal the more pleased I am that I won't have to deal with it.

Eventually, they may go. However, in the immediate it's unlikely that such a measure will ever pass a hung parliament, so you can be sure of about 5 years minimum. I think it highly unlikely that they'd be removed entirely but it's completely possible that they'll move the goalposts, again. By that point though, you'd hopefully find your wages rising and your childcare costs falling.

There will always be benefits for those who need them; but streamlining, removing, changing, getting rid of, and introducing new benefits will continue to happen perpetually.

Thanks for replies.
Sounds like expecting cuts/changes is more realistic than thinking they'll disappear altogether.

RedStripe getting there thanks. Hope all is well with you.

Great name Yoshimi. Do you realise was my wedding song 😂

UC Is a nightmare but you shouldn't lose out in tax credits as you transfer over but there can be delays so try and out but aside just in case - I know unlikely. And try go for a job that pays best possible or where you can maybe get overtime. Assuming you don't have more than two kids as Tories imposed cap on two children so that could make it hard.

We're having to cut back on everything to make one wage stretch further. One thing I've found useful was to switch all utilities & mortgage over to cheaper deals. You need to be vigilant about it and keep your eyes open. We've saved £150 monthly by switching to a lower interest deal.

www.moneysavingexpert.com

Write down all your expenses for a month & see what you're spending on & where you can save.

I remember before the current tax credits (Blair gave tax credits to parents earning up to £60k although I never got any). Family credit came in in 1986 when I was working first with small children but we never got it.

It was family income supplement that was around when I first started working. FIS was means tested and introduced ni 1970. I never got that either. It got you free school meals and payments (and was brought in by the way by the Tories - Edward Heath). There was also family allowance from about 1945. That was before Child Benefit. My father always called it family allowance not child benefit as that was the terminology of his day.

"Over the 1930s, growing evidence showed that large numbers of children were born into poverty, with 47% suffering five years or more of malnutrition. Higher wages would not effectively target these children, as the majority of male workers had no dependent children. A White Paper of Family Allowances was published in May 1942, giving costings for various levels of family allowance. These were not immediately adopted, and following the publication of the Beveridge Report, which called for subsistence levels of payments, uprated with the cost of living, the Family Allowances Act 1945 was passed. This provide for a five shilling per week payment for each child, after the first. This was designed to support large families, and was set well below the nine shilling a week subsistence level (further devalued by inflation) recommended by Beveridge.[3] In 1952 the rate was increased to eight shillings per week. In 1956 the rate for the third and subsequent children was increased to ten shillings per week, and the maximum age for payments for dependent children was increased from 15 to 18.

In 1968 the rates were increased from 8 to 15 and then 18 shillings and from 10 to 17 shillings and then £1 respectively,[4][5] but this was paid for in part by a reduction in the value of child tax allowance, so that the poor would benefit, but the middle classes did not.[6]

In 1975, the rate was increased to £1.50 for each child after the first.[7]"

tax credits have allowed big companies to pay low wages however. So it may be if there were fewer tax credits (and we have very high numbers of people in work and perhaps skill shortages at the moment) and perhaps may be less immigration we might find employers have to put up wages. Perhaps it is fairer that employers pay a higher wage rather than tax payers (many of whom are working mothers) pay high taxes to enable the state to pay tax credits which effectively subsidise minimum wage employers to keep wages low.

Like King my tax credits were suddenly stopped so I've also picked up more shifts. Tbh I'd rather not have them and have to transfer to UC, a friend went 5 months with no money when she transfered and the whole system is not fit for purpose. Brace yourselves if you do rely on them!

Hi OP: I work in welfare rights. I think "welfare reform" has pretty much run its course and what we have now is what we'll have for some time.
Even the Tories list patience with Ian Duncan Smiths expensive tinkering with the system in the end!
Teresa May has announced that "Austerity is over", everyone will be too busy with Brexit and the next government may be Labour. There's every reason to be optomistic.
Quite honestly, I've been hearing about the end of the welfare state since I was 7 years old (Thanks Dad for your terrifying pronouncements about what Thatcher was going to do for us ) 30 years on and I'm not only cheerfully collecting tax credits but also making a living helping others to claim!
I hate that Mumsnet thing about "don't rely on benefits- they might get taken away". I'll informed sactimonious scare mongering from people that are lucky enough not to have to.
Crack on OP.

unlimited that's a really encouraging message! Thanks.

There is always a teeny chance I get back to earning better than I think I will. Fingers crossed.

Ah, travailtotravel do you realise makes me sooo sad, can't listen to it anymore. Lovely wedding song.

Spending on tax credits or the benefits that came before them (family credit, child related income support etc) has ballooned since the 90s from around 5BN a year to around 30BN a year.

To put this into perspective the DUP deal with the tories is 1BN over 2 years and the cost of the labour manifesto according to labour was 48.6BN.

I wouldn't expect tax credits to go away but they certainly wont increase under the tories and will as PPs have said, be reinvented in such a way that you may end up with a bit less each month.

My mum was a single parents in the 70s even she got a Dss top up she did work p/t but there was benefits about. We live in a welfare state we will always have working benefits to fall back on with different name however we still have families/people in poverty sadly

Yes, the 5 - 30bn is the huge thing. Even though tax credits are not paid on incomes up to £60k any more they are still costing us 6x what they were, not least because parents often limit their working hours to 16 hours a week as that's easier (and why would you not if the state tops you up?) and because employers have no incentive to increase wages when they know the state tops people up with housing benefit and tax credits.

It is one reason the Tories are increasing the single person tax allowance to £12,500 a year as what was the point in paying £2k tax credits to a family and then they pay £1k income tax. You might as well net it off. So higher tax free sum each year means fewer tax credits but a fairly neutral impact presumably but less admin for the state in giving money they then get back in tax. Very blunt instrument however.

I think the problem is that in the 90s, pre tax credits, benefits weren't generous but then living costs weren't as high.

I also think there are more lone parent families now ... not sure though.

One of the things that make me think that capitalism is fucked as an economic system is spending billions on supporting people who work because wages are so low.

Not knocking the workers, mind, but it's crazy that a full-time worker can't afford to eat, pay bills, rent a home and pay childcare because all these things are so expensive relative to wages. Imo it's employers who pay low wages who get their corporation tax cut while the people who make them rich are on a knife-edge financially because of austerity measures.

I just wish I could think of a better system.

I work 18 hours a week and my partner 40, I choose to work PT as it wouldn't be worth me working if I had to pay childcare for 2 children for me to work full time, now that pre school is on horizon and school I will increase my hours when I need paid childcare less not because I don't want to work full time or because I'll lose our top ups

I don't think they'll completely go as people literally would not be able to afford to live!

The issue comes to the decision of whether to work FT or PT. At the moment, the system is generous and allows single parents to only work 16 hours whilst still being able to afford a reasonable lifestyle with tax credits making up the difference, sometimes more than what is earned.

My understanding is that with Universal Credits, even single parent will be expected to work more hours once the youngest child goes to secondary school.

I would say your concern should be dependent on the number of hours you plan on working and age of your children.

Also depending on the age of your children, the concern is not just about the benefits you might lose in the next couple of years, but what you will definitely lose when they become adult. The chances of finding a decently paid FT job that will mean not a drastic change to lifestyle will be lower for someone who has only worked 16 hours for many years than someone already working FT even if on minimum wage.