And now they're introducing a tax break for married couples!

[LadyBiscuit]

So not only do higher earning lone parents not get CB when the couple next door will still be eligible, they will also get a tax reward for being married.

BBC story

They really don't like single parents do they?

booyhoo,

maybe...it is to

1. please the daily mail readers [and many other general conservative voters] who think single parents are majoritively better off, both on benefits and in work!!?
2. to appease [pay] the voters who say "and i've never claimed a penny and been hard working all my life" or, " I didn't need/get benefits...why should they!" [this way those bitter old so and so's will feel like at last they are "getting something back"]
3. or, to encourage people to get married as they think it is the 'right way' to do things

4, or to discourage people co-habiting or lone parents from existing, 5, or to make any couples or families diffrent to one male and one female with kids family seem evil, 6, because they like doing things the old fashioned way like when there was a married persons allowance? 7, because they hate tax credits and all that they stand for [that is childrens' standard of living].

1. to keep women down?

sure others can think of more...

Bloody hell do you think they will cut the CB of families where their income exceeds £44k due to being topped up by tax credits?

it is purely ideological.

booyhoo I don't think it has ever been about benefitting the country financially. Transferable tax allowances have been touted for years, far longer than the current cisis has (at least perceived to have) been in existence.

I had always believed that it was about creating fairness for families where only one parent worked. Encouraging marriage was a by product of that, hence the talk, in the past of it being applied to all cohabiting couples.

I'd be really interested for someone to address the point I made earlier: How is it fair that a family who earn the same combined income are better off than a family where the income is the same but it earned by one person. People are jumping up and down about the perceived inequality in the new CB rules but is the inequality created by not having a tranferrable tax allowance not exactly the same?

BelleDameSansMerci - if you already have childcare vouchers in place by April 2011, you can continue to have higher rate tax relief. Just to be clear, basic rate tax relief will continue as is. And, to keep it fair to the Coalition, it was Labour who announced this change.

Ms Byte, we stand side by side with you. Have tried to sign your petition but it says the petition is missing?

thanks lego, i get all that, but what i am asking is, "what is the official response when asked, 'what is the reason for this tax break'".

they cannot respond with the reasons you have stated, there must be an official line that they have conjured up to trot out when asked the question and i would be gobsmacked if no-one has asked DC or GO that question. i just want to know what the 'official' response was/is. how are they peddling it to us?

Sooooo...a married couple with no children at all, and earning £120k will get a tax break, while the family down the road (probably not the same road, come to think of it) who have lived together for 20 years and have 4 children supported on one parent's income of £44k will get NO tax break AND da da da da da DAAAAA will lose their child benefit!

Nice one dave. Priceless.

stillcrying

I'm so sorry for your current situation, but you really made me laugh.

"On the other hand, as a single mother I have now achieved my life long ambition of becoming a bona fide Daily Mail hate figure. So hurray for small mercies..."

fantastic, me too ooh I could up the stakes by also working for the HSE and banning conkers while getting the NHS to pay for my boob job, the possibilities are endless.

i just thought it was all to do with the pig, oops i mean 'Big society' they are trying to create. they value family and marriage and see it as central to society. is it something to do with family breakdown and that being the cause of all ills in GB [according to them]. Is it something to do with a lot of european countries doing something for married couples in their tax systems and we don't. they think the benefits system encourages single parents and 'broken homes' and doesn't prevent this from happening. They want to 'show' what they value. i think they have just ad hoc dropped it in as they have gone along [like evrything]. I think thats about it. i guess they will say more about the affordability as the days go on. i know what you are saying about an actual direct line-maybe this will come as a rebuttal in the next few days or tomorrow?

Another day - another ridiculous decision by Dave & co. Why o why are they making such a pigs ear of all this. Everyone accepts there need to be savings, but seems to me they are making an absolute hash of it!

ah right, so they thought they would just slip this one in and hope no-one would notice because of the uproar of teh CB cut thing happening at the same time?

i will wait with baited breath to hear the official line on it. very interested to see exactly how stupid they think we are.

booyhoo

They clearly do think we are all stupid if they think they can make this ridiculously unfair decisions and get away with it. Will come back to bite them on the bottom eventually - i'll never vote Tory again.

yy to aperfecthousewife :-)

TaxAdvisor thank you.

I have decided that I won't let this bother me (fume, fume) as it is clearly designed to be a vote winner just before the next election. By then, I believe, one third of those currently celebrating this tax break will be single and thus perhaps may show a little more empathy...

nancydrewrocked,
Hi, it wouldn't be possible to extend it to ALL cohabiting couples.

While I agree that SOME -indeed a great many- cohabiting couples are in full-on committed relationships, not all are.
Cohabiting relationships vary greatly in terms of seriousness- not a judgement, just how things are.
Some last a few months; others decades.
We all know this is true.
It would not be practical to assess who is 'seriously committed' and who isn't.

The fact is that marriages DO tend to last longer than cohabitation- simply because cohabitations can range from a non-serious shack-up to a lifelong commitment-marriage is always(supposed to be) for life.
Therefore, out of 50 pairs of cohabitees and 50 married, the chances are that more of the marriages will survive than the cohabiting partnerships.
I think the tories are just trying to encourage/reward the perceived 'good' behaviour of staying together.

Don't particularly agree with this stance, though.

My OWN opinion is that as people work as INDIVIDUALS (in that people don't work with spouse/partner) people should be treated as INDIVIDUALS in the tax system. This won't happen, though. Too expensive.

They should extend the same rights to civil partnerships too.

As for DC & co - whose next for a crazy decision? Maybe any pensioner with more that 5 cardies will have their winter fuel allowance stopped? :0

Why not just give an allowance to everyone with children? Oh no, wait...

<a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=planning.cis.strath.ac.uk/CRIKEY/crikey_logo.jpeg&imgrefurl=planning.cis.strath.ac.uk/CRIKEY/&usg=__dhrJC34HRB4zwvHsBmpUTczDgRo=&h=412&w=747&sz=126&hl=en&start=0&sig2=Y6SSmgturpb_c7J6WdeaNw&zoom=1&tbnid=idWSkfM-5w8OdM:&tbnh=127&tbnw=230&ei=p4SrTKbCG8uTjAfouJXoBw&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcrikey%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1609%26bih%3D810%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=484&oei=dISrTOigE4LKswac9JnMAw&esq=5&page=1&ndsp=34&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0&tx=138&ty=58" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Suffering Sockpuppets!

"The fact is that marriages DO tend to last longer than cohabitation"

where does this statistic come from ?

" A scorpion and a frog met on the bank of a stream and the scorpion asked the frog to carry him across on its back because the scorpion could not swim.

"Well now, Mr. Scorpion! How do I know that if I try to help you, you wont try to kill me?" asked the frog hesitantly.

"Because," the scorpion replied, "If I try to kill you, then I would die too, for you see I cannot swim!"

Now this seemed to make sense to the frog. But he asked. "What about when I get close to the bank? You could still try to kill me and get back to the shore!"

"This is true," agreed the scorpion, "But then I wouldn't be able to get to the other side of the river!"

"Alright then...how do I know you wont just wait till we get to the other side and THEN kill me?" said the frog.

"Ahh...," crooned the scorpion, "Because you see, once you've taken me to the other side of this river, I will be so grateful for your help, that it would hardly be fair to reward you with death, now would it?!"

The frog was satisfied, and they set out, but in midstream, the scorpion stung the frog.

"You fool!" croaked the frog, "Now we shall both die! Why on earth did you do that?"

Replied the scorpion "I could not help myself. It is my nature." "

I don't understand why anyone expected the conservatives to be anything other than the conservatives. They will never change.

Just as under labour the country turns into a nanny state - and given enough time a nanny state turns into a police state.

Regardless their promises, they will never change. It's beyond them.

And then of course once they're in power, all they care about is keeping power.

All of them.

"Hi, it wouldn't be possible to extend it to ALL cohabiting couples. While I agree that SOME -indeed a great many- cohabiting couples are in full-on committed relationships, not all are."

And? How is it the state's business whether anyone lives alone, shares long-term with a good friend, shares long term with partner, shares with husband/wife? Let's keep benefits and tax breaks for those who need them not as a super tool for interference in our lives.

But with a vote of no confidence from the house they will lose power. ITS A COALLITION. They look at mumsnet. They look at facebook. MP's log what you (easily) email to them. The internet has undermined everything it's not the 80's this time. They want power and we can stop that by not voting for them EVER again.
Oooh! Yes the CB benefit is possibly not fair but look! We are offering you......um.....£150 marriage tax rebate!
They are on the back foot. We do not have to take this. Mail your MP
It was ill thought out and can be rethought out.

Taking the money issue out of the equation, I'm offended by the idea of a married couple's tax break. Why is my committed relationship seen as being of a lesser value simply because my partner and I choose not to get married or can't afford to get married? Why are we somehow less deserving or effective as parents? Why is our effort to maintain a stable family home not recognised simply because we don't have a legal contract? I feel like the Tories are saying my family won't make as valuable a contribution to society as that of a married couple.

I feel a letter to my MP coming on......

Oh no it wouldn't be possible to extend it to all co habiting couples but it is easy enough to treat co habitees as couples wrt tax credits benefits etc Double standards.