Working tax credits changes hit 200,000 households.

[carernotasaint]

www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/may/01/working-tax-credit-changes-200000?CMP=twt_gu

It was always grossly unfair on single parents that they were required to find a minimum 16 hours work a week to qualify when a couple only had to find 8 hours work a week each.

CES you know, that bit never occurred to me .

I have no idea what I will do when it effects single parents, I only work 18hrs and struggle with that. Although I earn a bit over minimum wage so maybe it won't be so bad.

I've been trying to read that Guardian article on my mobile but will have to do it on my laptop later.

The changes don't affect single parents and I haven't seen any suggestions they are thinking of upping the hours for LP's.

But Cogito is right. It was unfair to single parents but also to the taxpayer in general. Why on earth were we giving working tax credits to couples whom only work 8 hours each or 16 hours between them. Given a full time job is typically at least 35 hours, how can it be right to expect a couple to work less than half between them.

Can I just use this thread to mention the following?

If you were previously in receipt of WTC and therefore were not entitled to free school meals it maybe that following the changes you are now entitled to claim them. If you are no longer in receipt of WTC but have a low income (below about 16K) do apply.

@Meglet. The working time restrictions only changed for couples, not single parents. Couples now have to work for 24 hours a week between them... 12 hours a week each.... still not one full-time job in total. Single parents have to find a 16 hour a week job. It's still skewed but slightly less than before.

Sagar, sorry but even with an income of less than £10K before tax credits, definitely NOT entitled to free school meals or equivalent of EMA payments for 6th formers.

Couples have never been able to work 8 hours each to get WTC, one of them has always had to do 16 hours minimum.

The rules now are that single parents have to do a minimum of 16 hours as before and couples have to do at least 24 hours with one doing at least 16 hours.

AFAIK single parents are going to be made to work 24hrs from next year.

(If this has changed I will be very relieved).

There has been no announcement about next year yet. From what I've read about the Universal Credit (DWP white paper), the ambition is that singles will be able to work a little less than 16 hours a week and still claim something.

isnt the point of WTC that it is an 'in work' benefit? if between 2 people, you are only working 16 hours, its not really an 'in work' household.

24 hours between two people

But one of the two must work at least 16 hours. We lost our WTC as I work 22.2 hours a week and my DH is unemployed. 24 hours is not a standard 3 days at most companies, where 7.5 hours is a normal working day. I wish they'd taken that into account.

Sagar, sorry but even with an income of less than £10K before tax credits, definitely NOT entitled to free school meals or equivalent of EMA payments for 6th formers Why happy?

In England, children are eligible to receive free school meals (FSM) if their parents are in receipt of any of the following benefits:

Income Support
Income-based Job Seekers' Allowance
Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
Support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
the Guaranteed element of State Pension Credit
Child Tax Credit, provided they are not also entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual gross income of no more than £16,190, as assessed by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs.

both dh and i work in 15 hr a week jobs. although i have managed to get extra elsewhere.
15 hours seems to be the magical number for employers. i wonder why that is?
so how are we sposed to ask for a further 1 hour? when we are clinging on to these jobs as it is.

Sagar - as per your underlined sentence - 'provided they are not also entitled to Working Tax Credit'

Family earning 10K and receiving working families tax credit but totalling around the 16K mark do not receive free school meals - whereas those not working with an income of 16K do receive them. It is an unfair anomaly

Yes- that was the point of my post happy. I said if you are no longer entitled to WTC because of the changes you may now be entitled to FSM.

but i wonder really how much fsm saves? and i dont think, at senior school my dds would like them

School meals are approx £10 a week so worthwhile especially if you have more than 1 child. Also being receipt of FSM means you can get a reduction on some types of school trip, usually anything with a residential element.

erm... except the Government is still considering what new income limits may apply for FSM, taking more time as it's not as simple as they thought.

These are cuts. Cuts mean people lose out. Teachers are also worried since FSM cuts mean schools budgets get cut further. In case I'm starting to sound a little partisan, I acknowledge that people of this country voted for cuts, so we have to expect cuts, and I also can't see these being reversed even with a change in Government, if there's much left to salvage in a few years.

So is the thread just to tell us that we're getting what we voted for?

I managed to up my hours to 24 (lone parent to 3) thinking that I'd need to to keep my WTC and help with childcare. Have now been informed that with the new thresholds I'm not entitled to any WTC. With the extra day commuting to London and extra childcare I'm worse off than before

Teachers are also worried since FSM cuts mean schools budgets get cut further

Yes - that's one of the reasons why I want more folk to apply

katef so you're earning just a little too much now to qualify at all?

thirdhill I didn't vote for this lot as I knew what they'd do to everyone.

Yes meglet, I'm a whisker over the threshold now. I'm trying to look on the bright side that I'm no longer affected by whatever shenanigans they pull regarding lone parents and WTC but it's galling to actually be worse off for working more. What happened to "you'll always be better off in work"?

what i dont get is if the universal credit comes in next april isnt it cutting it fine for the blardy goverment to set the hours / rules in stone

it seems they havent a clue

also if at the moment say a single parent cant find more than 16 + hrs say only work 15 does that mean that they recieve NO child tax credit at all even the basic rate if so how the heck do you manage

You still get the child element of tax credit, just not the working part if you don't work 16 hours a week.

In reality most single parents if only working 15 hours a week would find they're better off on benefits and probably not work.