In not having much sympathy with a couple on £45k plus per year having some benefits cut?

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There is loads of this on the news just now about how "middle income" families will be having some child tax credits cut and might be paying more tax. They news are showing what to me looks like comfortable off families having to do with a bit less. Is this really so bad? I know an income of £45-£50k per year might not be much in central London but will keep you in style in parts of the north, but how bad will it be? So people might have to change jobs/give up the second car/holiday at home instead of Spain every year? SO WHAT? There are plenty of us living on less than £25k a year who have had to cut back since having kids and take this as a fact of life.

I know MN is made up of mostly middle earners and I'll get pelters for this, but I don't really care. Anyone I know on a middle income can afford to give up some things _ its called life.

of course if you like it then its WORTH paying the childcare! seriously i just wondered given some comments on mumsnet thats all.

not trying to say i do this so you should do, i am aware that everyones family circumstances are different adn you do what suits you and your family

and yes i am aware you cannot jump back in to the same job, same career level etc, but for now i am happy to give that up and i will work hard when i do back to work, probably after re training.

Don't become a teacher if you think it'll be family friendly though.

Apart from the school hols it's not at all family friendly.

You'll never see a sports day or a carol concert. You'll not be able to take a day off to be there on there first day at school. You'll never be able to pick them up. You'll need to give over a lot of your weekend to planning and prep....

I loved my job but gave up because I had missed my eldest two's first days, I'd missed DS's sports and Christmas concert and I would never be the Mum who could help on school trips. Not once, ever.

For some of us, it isn't even about career level- for me, it's the fact that things move so fast in my field (vet) that if I had taken 8 years off to have all my kids I would be clueless going back in. Even after mat leave each time (where I took 6 mths) there were so may new drugs etc on the shelves when I got back, and I needed a lot of extra CPD courses (to be fitted in over whole days/ weekends/ at nights) just to keep up to standard. I would be doing my patients an injustice otherwise.

It just seems barmy that this new government is all about wanting people to get out and work, and then seems to want to take away all our incentives to do so! They also talk about the need to repair the economy, then plot to cripple the would-be spenders. I don't claim to be well-versed in politics but this seems strange to me

I dont want to work and will work for nothing for the next 3 years due to childcare. BUT I feel I cannot leave work as I dont think I'd be able to get a similar job back, particularly with all the cuts in the public sector.

oh i know that brogan, two of my best friends are teachers, and before i had kids i did volunteer work in school. tbh i am not sure that i will do it, purely because i disagree with a lot of gov guildlines, surrounding education.

hence why i home educated for a few years before sending mine to school, they dont need to be at school at 4 or 5!

but dp will be able to do the things that i cant do once i am working hopefully. i feel hugely grateful to have spent the last ten years staying at home looking after our children and hopefully in 5ish yrs i will start working, he can go part time and he will get to spend a bit more time with the kids.

Almost everyone I know earns more than 45k. seriously. o.k correction, has an household income of 45k. do i know anyone ? who i work with, socialise with, playground mums ? answer, having thought about it ? earn less than 45k ? NO. but the comment at the beginning of the thread about capaccino spanish holidays twice a year types. just goes to show how out of touch with reality you are. we are overdrawn. my playground mum friend is 5 months mortgage in arrears.
life is not tickety boo, you know, in certain areas of the country, i.e se england here. on 45k do you think they are all living the life of reilly, becasue let me assure you, they , not all of them, are not.

thanks for answering my quiestion and re joolyjoo, i know teachers that have said similar, they have taken time out to raise kids and now feel they have extra training etc to do before going back, i guess the same can be true in lots of fields of employment.

and yes the gov is very keen to get people out to work so its crazy to cut support to that, especially childcare vouchers, i know a lot of people that will suffer with that.

i do think that cutting some benefits etc to high earners may need to be done, but its trying to work out WHERE the threshold should be i guess? glad i dont have to do it, or maybe i should be an mp, paywise at least!

the issue is really that the tories dont care about hitting low and middle income familes, its not them that support the tories, or pay for them etc. i swear most of them have NO idea what its like to live in the real world.

furious27, I feel somewhat the same. I had always hoped to take a career break after having a baby but I don't think if I walked away from my job now I'd get another one.

Like TheGoldenRosette I CBA to read the whole thread, basically because it's just the same old 'They deserve to be targetted' With the 'they' being anyone who earns more than you do, the public sector, the private sector (depending where you work yourself)and so on and so forth.

As somebody said earlier up the thread, it reeks of bitterness and unpleasantness.

Everyones circumstances are different, some families on £45k plus have less disposable income than a family on 20k - you really can't judge from just a salary figure.

So my opinion is that this is going to be hard for everyone, and I don't think that any cut is 'deserved'. What I do think though is that we would do alot better as a country if, instead of attacking every group that doesn't include oneself, we all showed a little compassion and solidarity.

adn thats another thing, HOW do you redress the balance in the north/south divide, or areas where living costs, particularly housing costs are so much higher?

i am in norwich and it is causing problems here as well, i read today in the independent? that 1 in 10 houses in norfolk are second homes! thats a lot of people with what i consider to be a reasonable income (if you can afford a second home) i am guessing the cuts wont affect them

I'm a teacher and dh is public sector. We earn above that £45K bracket, and I don't mind them taking money.

BUT, we have one car (I walk to work), we have never been on a holiday abroad together, our only holiday in the last 5 years was 3 days in Suffolk for our honeymoon. We have a big mortgage, as we bought at peak of market and our parents weren't in a position to lend us any money for deposit etc.

I think it is wrong to assume we are comfortable. I HAVE to work full time, otherwise we can't afford to pay all the bills.

minthumbug i think that is the point i was trying to make actually that some people are asking the gov to help pay towards childcare so they can continue in a job they love etc is that a luxury, tbh i dont know actually?

adn yes i am very bad, but tbh i HATE it when he rides and breath a sigh of relief when i get a txt to say he has arrived safely, plus it cuts into the time he gets to spend with the kids as he has to leave earlier.

BTW just to clarify, my post wasn't aimed at the considered posters of which there seem to be a fair few. It was at people who post comments such as:

'So they'll have to stop shopping in Waitrose and M&S Food and cut back on their Starbucks Cappuchions. Poor things.'

or

'So people might have to change jobs/give up the second car/holiday at home instead of Spain every year? SO WHAT?'

It seems that these people think that other people don't matter if they (appear to be) better off than you are.

of course working is a choice.choice to pay bills,keep roof over family head,maintain career,and pay for fripperies such as clothes,holiday,broadband.

That's a good point, Minthumbug. I think the Government encourage that though as they see it as better for the economy to have MrsA working and them topping her up with CTC.

I'm not an economist but I'd be interested to know if the net value to the economy is greater with MrsA working and her childcare being subsidised than her not working at all. Anyone know?

good minthumbug about the capital gains tax!

what about inheritence tax are they changing that?

we will be clobbered with inheritence tax when my mil dies (if she is anything like her mother that will be anther 20yrs or so) purely because she lives a 20min commute from london, they bought their house 40yrs ago for 5k?ish and scrapped to pay the mortgage off, but its now worth a HUGE amount. but tbh i dont mind that we WILL pay tax on that, i dont feel that her inheritence is something that i or dp am OWED. if we pay tax on it and it then goes back into the system to help those less off then fair dos. we will STILL get a nice lump sum, that we otherwise wouldnt have done. and i cant see the problem in paying a large amount of tax on it.

Minthumbug if people stop working because they dont get help with their childcare then that means that not only do they not pay tax and NIc (usually far in excess of any TC they get) but also there is less money circulating in the economy.

Very bad things for the economy, so your argument doesn't really stack up.

employment has positive health and socio-economic outcomes.impacts upon children educational attainment and potential social outcomes.

But many in the Tory party would argue that it's bad for the country to have so many families where both parents are out working all week.

It would be disingenuous for me to comment on that as I have the luxury of not needing to work. However, I do think we need to strike a balance between supporting the economy and supporting a family. I mean the Government do, not individuals.

scottishmummy i DID say that some people financially HAVE to work and like i said i dont care what people do tbh, iwas just interested in what influences peoples decisions

and also like mint said, should the gov subsidise childcare so someone can stay in a job because they like it or it would be difficult to get back into?

brogan i would think it is better for the economy to subsidise childcare, re having MORE people in employment and therefore putting more back into the economy overall?

and what counts as luxuries do you think? i feel we are okish off at the moment as i can occasionaly treat myself to a new top, or get the boys clothes from h&m, years ago EVERYTHING was bought in charity shops, we are now gradually paying of debt that we accumulated in that time, VERY gradually but we are doing it.

to me buying new clothes rather than second hand is actually a bit of a luxury, especially for the kids, with 4 boys they all have lots of hand me downs and i see no problem with that at all, infact i do still get bits in charity shops

we can now afford broadband and a phone tv package, at one point we had no tv at all then just the basic tv license and dial up bloody internet! that was a nightmare.

is broadband etc a luxury, i would HATE to be without it, but if needs must then i would get rid so surely it is a luxury?