I'm starting to get scared now.

[stuffedauberginexmasdinner]

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/britains-poorest-hit-by-25bn-stealth-tax-6281832.html

"Tax credit cuts: how they will hit

Couple with two children, dual earners working a total of 42 hours a week
Net annual income 2010-11 £44,798
2013-14 £38,281 (-£6,517)

Single mother with two children working 32.5 hours a week
2010-11 £33,666
2013-14 £28,410 (-£5,256)

Couple with no children, one working full-time, one part-time
2010-11 £17,183
2013-14 £17,406 (+£223)"

norris, we earn £25k a year

we pay full for everything, we have a morgage same as you

stop crying and get on with it, it could be worse

I was just a bit pissed off that's all - sorry. Of course it could be worse but when i look at people who don't bother to try and whinge about it it gets mne down. I rarely feel like this and appreciate loads of people are worse off, so please don't be rude.

I have been scared for ages. just have a look what they are doing to disabled people and their carers

I'm not being rude just realistic

What I don't get about that 3rd one is why is one of the couple working part time when they don't have DCs?

I can kind of see the sense in not subsidising 'lifestyle' part time work- ie if it's not necessary to fit around caring.

Requiring people to spend 3 hours a day commuting to a nmw is ridiculous though.

Absolutley. My motheer cares for her neighbour who has been her 'companion' for 12 years.., and gets little help as she simply can't understand the process. We have been though everything with her, ss, doctors, carers etc, but as long as she lives there and does things for him, they say she is his carer. What should she do, just let him fall over, poo himself and wander around in a state ? She's 82 he's 84. It's madness. :(

ssd me too.

I had a double-take at the third one too. No children, one person part-time and better off?

smokinaces, I don't reach the low earner threshold either so I am worried about what will happen.

I reajusted my tax credits claim recently due to changing jobs and salary and my estimated for next year is barely different from this? Maybe we earn so little we aren't going to be affected professor?

Tax credits are far too generous for the majority of families. Obviously it's different for families where there are disabled family members, but I think they should be provided for separately because they clearly have higher needs than an average family.

We are only just over the threshold so we don't get tax credits. But we live comfortably on the same income as those that do claim tax credits. Yes we have to budget and save hard for things we really want, but we are by no means poor. We would struggle with a 6k drop in income, but it would just about be manageable. That's the way it should be, the government shouldnt be giving out money to make people's lives any more than manageable.

I hope so smokin, I rely on the tax credits to get by.

I was scared before the shits got in - I saw all this happening.

I wonder how long we will have to put up with the c*nts?

I am terrified. I have a long-term health condition which fluctuates, but is currently bad enough that I get DLA. I am hoping against hope that I will get better this year, and yet, if I do I will be rewarded with a whole heap of stress, in the form of trying to get a job with a blot on my CV that makes me pretty much unhireable in the current market.

It makes me so angry, too, that in the midst of all this genuine fear for the future, the politicians can sit back in their nice houses with their massively inflated salaries and just coast by without even once considering that they should maybe set an example for what is probably going to be a UK under austerity measures soon and freeze their pay, cut back on expense claims, or just anything that makes them look like human beings.

Even a token gesture would be nice. But no. Blindly defend their changes which will destroy a lot of lives this year, and ride out the bad times in their safe, warm houses.

I feel so powerless at the moment. I have no income, and my husband is my full time carer. If they take from us, we have nothing.

ami, I can see your point but what I get back is more than I pay in tax as I am on such a low income. It would work for a lot of people though and does seem like it would make more sense.

I am not from the UK but how much tax as a percentage would a person on 30k pounds pay generally? If they are raising the threshhold for income tax, it means that you only pay tax for each pound over that threshhold even if you earn more than the threshhold. In all probability, incomes will be about the same. If they didn't raise the threshhold and you still had to pay the same amount of tax but now received no credits, you would certainly be worse off.

On £30k gross salary, you'd pay around £4500 in income tax and £2700 in National Insurance. Net wage £22,762 i.e. take home is 76% of salary. A household with an income of £30k is entitled to no Working Tax Credit and around £600/year CTC. Someone earning £15,000 pays around £2500 in tax and NI but can potentially top up their take home to nearer £20k by claiming WTC and CTC. So doubling salary doesn't necessarily double disposable income.

When tax thresholds are raised it doesn't necessarily apply to all taxpayers either. It is proposed that the personal allowance - the amount that can be earned before tax is paid - is raised from £7,475 to £10,000. However, those who pay tax at the higher 40% level will not benefit from this increase.

Most people get back a lot more in tax credits than they pay in tax. It's madness - the government is subsidising massive companies to pay ridiculously low wages.

Mimi I think it's somewhere around 25% in tax and national insurance on £30K.