Middle earners punished

[Eucalyptus321]

I am feeling so disheartened and frustrated by how middle earners are constantly suffering at the hands of ridiculous government priorities. My husband and I have a greater household income than other families we know but have less cash in hand due to increased taxes coupled with the fact we receive zero benefits like child benefit or tax free childcare etc. ZERO. If they want middle earners to fund the country thought tax then at least support us with childcare costs. It’s a joke that two parents earning £99k each get childcare funding but parents with one £101k salary and one £25k salary receive nothing. I just need to speak to people who understand the burden of raising a family amidst the current financial climate and then the potential of further tax rises!

And if that earner is a GP, and fewer appointments are available as a result - does that make sense for the country?
This is why the cliff edge doesn’t make sense, if it was a gradual reduction as earnings increased people would be less likely to make drastic changes

Best comment

Families here can afford to go on holiday every half term, have new cars, etc. Perhaps I’m looking forward to my children not being in nursery so we can afford that too!

So you're not really hard up then, are you?

It certainly was still the case even during the Tory austerity years

If they can’t afford it then they work their arse off to afford it like a lot of people have to do. It’s called taking responsibility for your choices. And your “leaving the kids to die” argument is not washing at all

It’s not the case. The people saying this on the thread are being disingenuous. You can’t just ‘say’ you don’t want to work over 16hrs a week. I work in government in this area, and most of this thread is absolute bollocks and i think @mnhq should consider whether there’s bad actors at play here

I think you should not be in that role if you think it is OK to share confidential information on SM in order to smear your clients.

Whilst I agree about the squeezed middle, a system that makes financial sense for women (let's be honest) to stay at home isn't good for women, or the economy.
My brother and I have similar household incomes, his is 80% him 20% his wife who works part time, ours is around 60/40 to me, we take home more as the tax is split more and I pay back less child benefit than he does. It also means dh and I pay more tax and NI overall between us which is good for public services and we are both financially independent so are together because we choose to be neither of us feels trapped.

The cliff edges need tapering and the threshold need bringing in line with inflation

That’s awful. So you want middle earners who already work hard and contribute to have more children?

The system is not fair. It needs reform.

What if they don’t want to?

Of course you can! I know numerous people who have said this. Just because you haven’t come into contact with them does not mean they don’t exist

But the stats are skewed. The top 1% or 5% earners are those paying PAYE. So many people are outside of this tax regime. They are through dividends, through investments, though ownership, not earning a salary.

How do you think there are rows and rows of multi million pound houses? People who send multiple children to independent schools? 3 children at school in London or Surrey could easily cost over £100k a year.

You are duped into thinking people earning £100k or thereabouts are at the top of the pile. They are not. There are people earning/receiving millions a year.

I hear you. I worked hard, incurred high levels of debt, toiled 12 hour days for a decade to climb the greasy poll and have worked without break for over 20 years paying my (large amount) of tax. Yet people have the nerve to call it ‘luck’. There is nothing lucky about it. It takes, time, dedication and choosing the harder path every day.
Now I have two kids for whom I have received O help.
Productivity in the UK is at rock bottom. The number of NEET’s is on the rise, the benefits bill is soaring. So thank god that some people still keep showing up or who pays for it all?

I think rather than remove the 2 child benefit cap they should give kids of those on low incomes (decent!) breakfast, lunch & tea & free places in breakfast/after school clubs as long as both parents are working a minimum number of hours per week - we have to incentivise people to want to work and make it easier for them to do so.
On a separate note I understand what op is saying - dh has been made redundant, with the jobs market as it is things are precarious for us…have only ever paid into the system yet will be entitled to zero of any sort of help.

Then that is down to the parents who should be prosecuted for child cruelty and the children would have to go into care environment where they would hopefully be looked after and fed.

To pay £40k in tax means you earn £150k roughly

I agree with this

While I am pro higher taxes etc I do very much agree that it is unfair that two parents can earn 60,000 each with a combined income of 120,000 and are not penalised (yet a couple with one earning 62000 and the other nothing is). At least this was changed recently as it had been set at much lower for many years. But they didn't address the combined income discrepancy.

On average childcare and school dinner costs for a primary school child is £15 a day. If you add on more children and school holiday childcare costs then it means lower earners can't afford to work/won't work for no financial benefit.

Oh, is it dawning on you? Life doesn’t work like that. Thousands of kids in the care system that we have to pay for….this is the issue people spout off, but they don’t ’think’

I think there’s a conversation that definitely needs to be had about why there are so many people having children they can’t afford, but perhaps not one for this thread.

Isn’t it something like a third of children living in poverty, and 44% of children in larger families? That seems to speak to a broader societal issue that won’t be solved by throwing money at individual parents / families.

What's the incentive to save hard for a pension? They'll tax you on everything you earn extra and if before you retire you need to access support then you'll get virtually nothing for a few months.

I’m not interested in arguing my viewpoint with you. You don’t agree with me well that’s tough. Your opinion is not the only one and is no more valid than anyone else’s.

otherwise you’ll spend 20yrs poor? When you could be living your best life? Fucking he’ll, do you have no ambitions or goals?

You wouldn’t unless his salary exceeds £113k. Anything between £100-113k and you’re better off sticking the excess in your pension and getting the free childcare.

And here we go again.

Trying to wrap my head round someone complaining that they can’t claim benefits because they earn over 100k.

Amazing.