What are tax credits for

[Bugsareinthebrook]

My BIL has just changed his job to something with less Responsibility (so less pay) and dropped to 4 hours a week purely for more family time. This allows him to claim tax credits to ‘top up his money’. His partner is a sahm so it’s not for childcare. I can’t but help feel that is not what tax credits are for and that basically as people who work hard and always have our tax is going to him while we work our guts out. .
I’m happy to be flames but I don’t think it’s fair.
What are working and child tax credits for?

Of course they aren’t . But think mumsnet is good about having opinions on others that they shouldn’t lol

@Bugsareinthebrook

I don’t know. But why is that relevant . Why should I pay for him to work less

You pay him directly, do you? Your salary directly gets diverted to fund his "lifestyle"? How lovely!

We all chip in who can afford to. We all contribute. That way nobody in our shitshow of an economy should fall below the poverty threshold. I believe so strongly that we are encouraged to see benefits as an easy option, to push us to resent and dislike those who need to use them. I also believe that the benefits system is a safety net that is vital, particularly at a time like this.

If you genuinely begrudge another family, either connected or unconnected, being entitled to top up their income to ensure they don't fall below the poverty threshold, you need to reassess your life choices.

I am trying to point out to you that the number of days he works isn’t relevant, the number of hours is what counts and you have no idea. It also sounds like you have no idea if this was his choice or something that has happened because his company have changed things around, there are going to be many people who have to change their work hours over the coming months and many who will have no job at all.
You don’t like him and are bitter that they receive some benefits.

You don’t know he wasn’t experiencing MH issues through his “more responsible” job @Bugsareinthebrook. You don’t know that his SAHM wife isn’t struggling with poor health. You don’t know if his kids are needing some more family time or are struggling post lockdown etc. You don’t actually know the details of their life. Tax credit top ups are not going to ensure a life of luxury- they will enable a decent standard of living. Don’t you want that for your niece/nephew at least?
If you’re unhappy in your job, change it. Reduce your own hours and claim TV if you think it will improve your standard of living. Just stop being mean and bitter.

Just a thought op - have you considered that BIL is spinning you a line about deciding to reduce his hours and responsibility to spend more time at hime? Rather than current economy has meant that to remain employed he might need to do this? That it might not be his choice? That he’s trying to look at the positive and make it sound like his decision so as not to lose face?

Just a thought.

I sit here from a perspective that your taxes are currently paying for me, to be furloughed which is not my choice at all.... so perhaps think outside the lines.

You can't make a new claim for tax credits unless entitled to SDP (severe disability premium). So either you're trying to get us all to slag off someone disabled or caring for someone disabled, or you don't actually have a clue at all what you BIL is claiming.
If he was already claiming tax credits then there was already a need there and they are not the 'benefit scroungers' you're making them out to be.

You sound very bitter.

Tax credits allows huge companies to pay less because the tax payer tops up to a reasonable level.....the issue is pY is too low

YOU are not paying for HIM to work less. Your taxes pay into a system that funds many many varied things and is administered from a central point. Your taxes are paying for lots of things for lots of different people, you don’t get to pick and choose and rightly so - your biases are not a fair basis for benefit allocation.

You don’t have all the details of the situation, you have no idea what might not be being shared with you on the reasonings behind this change. He might be working the same amount of hours over 4 days instead of 5. His work might actually have reduced his hours to save money (as my DHs company have done the last 6 months) and he doesn’t want to tell you. He might be unwell and struggling on 5 days. Ultimately what state help he has isn’t your business, and in fact what’s offered in this country is pretty crap compared to many

as people who work hard and always have our tax is going to him while we work our guts out.

Do people who work four days a week not work hard? You don't even know how many hours he's doing.

This idea that people claiming benefits do not work hard is crass and ignorant. I can sit at an office desk for five days a week, and easily work less hard than someone in a physical job doing four days.

You sound like a Daily Mail reader. Making sweeping assumptions and entirely lacking in critical thinking.

Wow nasty reply’s - keyboard warriors.

Don't you claim child benefit OP?

keyboard warriors

So says the person using a keyboard to slag her BIL off to a bunch of strangers on the internet

Pot. Kettle.

Op, blame the system designed to force both parents out working 40hrs+ each week just to survive. Blame the government for allowing corporations to pay such poor wages that the above is necessary. Blame society for educating people to bust their guts for corporations who only care about the bottom line. Blame the government for the divide and rule mentality that you seem to have adopted. Then mind your own business and leave your BIL to do what’s best for his family.

4 days a week could still be full time hours if his shifts are long. You seem to be unaware of his hours. My DH is full time in a managerial position. I work 16 hours a week. We still claim child tax credits.

Great benefit bashing post OP.

I work 3 nights a week. You sound bitter about your BIL and sister.

@Bugsareinthebrook you’re right, it’s a bonkers system that people can deliberately work fewer hours, or keep themselves under employed, working in an easier (but lower paid) job than they are capable of. Tax credits were always a shit concept - it’s crazy that someone can choose to work less but end up with the same amount of money in their pocket as if they worked more. It would be far better to have a higher NMW so that the more you work, the more immediate financial gain you have. Plus of course, more affordable housing which would make life better for everyone.

But here’s the thing. Tax credits are no real alternative in the long run. They are, literally, just money in your pocket in the here and now. By deliberately remaining under employed, you aren’t making full pension contributions. You’re probably scuppering your chances of progression in the workplace. It’s taking the easy option in the short term but you’d probably regret it when the kids grow up, your tax credits dry up and you realise you’re stuffed in your older age.

I’ve seen people do what your BIL does... a friend of mine (capable woman, graduate, loads of experience in various jobs) dropped to 3 days a week, purely because she didn’t want to work full time. She was a single parent but to only one child, school age, so there were no child care issues, and in fact she had a great relationship with her ex and he had their child alternate weekends anyway so my friend had loads of time to herself. She was completely upfront that she was choosing this as an easy lifestyle choice because tax credits topped her up instead of working 5 days. I’m very fond of my friend but honestly, it was a disastrous decision. She’s now turning 50, her dc is mid- teens and my friend is realising that she has absolutely nothing behind her financially. She’s going to be getting poorer at a time when most of us want to be stepping back a bit and looking ahead to when we can draw our occupational pensions.

Tax credits have become a necessity for some people which is awful - wages should be enough to live on. For those like your BIL where they aren’t a necessity but a lifestyle choice, it’s a really daft route to take if you stop and think about it. It does nothing to secure yourself financially. Your BIL working part time and his wife not working at all... yes, tax credits will enable them to get by day to day, but that’s all. It’s not a sound financial foundation to build a family on.

@Bugsareinthebrook

Wow nasty reply’s - keyboard warriors.

Well that's somewhat ironic

This is exactly why the system changes to Universal credit, which has a lot more requirements to work full time. They will be moved to Uc in the future and he will need to be looking to earn at least 35 x nmw per week.

[quote Caelano]@Bugsareinthebrook you’re right, it’s a bonkers system that people can deliberately work fewer hours, or keep themselves under employed, working in an easier (but lower paid) job than they are capable of. Tax credits were always a shit concept - it’s crazy that someone can choose to work less but end up with the same amount of money in their pocket as if they worked more. It would be far better to have a higher NMW so that the more you work, the more immediate financial gain you have. Plus of course, more affordable housing which would make life better for everyone.

But here’s the thing. Tax credits are no real alternative in the long run. They are, literally, just money in your pocket in the here and now. By deliberately remaining under employed, you aren’t making full pension contributions. You’re probably scuppering your chances of progression in the workplace. It’s taking the easy option in the short term but you’d probably regret it when the kids grow up, your tax credits dry up and you realise you’re stuffed in your older age.

I’ve seen people do what your BIL does... a friend of mine (capable woman, graduate, loads of experience in various jobs) dropped to 3 days a week, purely because she didn’t want to work full time. She was a single parent but to only one child, school age, so there were no child care issues, and in fact she had a great relationship with her ex and he had their child alternate weekends anyway so my friend had loads of time to herself. She was completely upfront that she was choosing this as an easy lifestyle choice because tax credits topped her up instead of working 5 days. I’m very fond of my friend but honestly, it was a disastrous decision. She’s now turning 50, her dc is mid- teens and my friend is realising that she has absolutely nothing behind her financially. She’s going to be getting poorer at a time when most of us want to be stepping back a bit and looking ahead to when we can draw our occupational pensions.

Tax credits have become a necessity for some people which is awful - wages should be enough to live on. For those like your BIL where they aren’t a necessity but a lifestyle choice, it’s a really daft route to take if you stop and think about it. It does nothing to secure yourself financially. Your BIL working part time and his wife not working at all... yes, tax credits will enable them to get by day to day, but that’s all. It’s not a sound financial foundation to build a family on.[/quote]
Exactly this. They could potentially be in a very poor position when the kids leave education if he continues to do this long term.

Wel I like to give you all something to vent your venom to on a Sunday morning .....

@Bugsareinthebrook

Wow nasty reply’s - keyboard warriors.

How typical when you begin with "happy to be flamed" when secretly you're hoping for a benefits bashing thread.

Walk away now OP because you're not going to get what you want here.

@vodkaredbullgirl

Great benefit bashing post OP.

How is it benefit bashing to suggest that people actually work a decent number of hours to support their families? I work with benefit claimants, mostly people who are too ill to work even a few hours a week, people with life limiting conditions and terminal diagnoses. These are the people the benefit system should be supporting, not people choosing to work a few hours a week to spend more time with their kids when the kids already have one full time parent at home !

This is just you bored and after a benefit bash isn't it you are "paying"for thousands of people's tax credits why pick on your family why not go the whole hog and call everybody out?

yabu
keep your nose out