Viviennemary i'm glad you're still posting and discussing your viewpoint, its good to try to understand why there's a lack of empathy. The 2.7million families that are effected by the tax credits cuts we're discussing the majority have a full time worker., All the 2.7 million have a worker. They aren't jobless, they have commuting costs, childcare costs, housing costs etc.
Its frustrating that this is the group that are most effected not those not working but able too that I feel you are alluding too?
I do agree with you it would feel tough to be working hard long hours and see someone else getting the same money or more for sitting on their backside. But i don't think that person is happy (i also think they're quite rare, i've no doubt a few exist but they're a convenient image for benefit bashers). We can only move forwards from where we are. We have such a skills shortage and lack of mobility in some of our potential workforce we need to address.
Those working on minimum wage are very unlikely to qualify for a mortgage and those without tax credits aren't paying income tax on that amount either.
What is ironic about cutting tax credits from low earning people in work is that for some it means they'll be far better off not working and living on benefits. Some already would be but have pride and battle on trying to make ends meet themselves.
When my XH left me with two DC of 1 and 3, i managed to keep my business by using local childcare providers and working strange hours when the DC slept. The tax credits ment we were still technically below the poverty line but we could eat and heat the house for a few hours each night Dec - March. We owned our home - just not outright, we were lucky family helped us out with loans to keep it until it sold. If i'd have given up we'd have received significantly more in benefits and also free school meals etc when the children got to that age.
By keeping me in work, we put back into the local economy by employing childcare providers and i stayed sane able to pay tax as well as get tax credits.
As it happens DC1's disability ment that i had little choice but to give up my business when i married my current DH and moved areas. Had DS1 not been disabled and not coped at school/ school not coped with him, i would have been on my feet self supporting after two/ three years society prop up.
If people fall out of work for many years its far harder for them to overcome the threshold of benefit levels vs money available as an employee and getback into work. This is why tax credits can work. They allow people to go for better jobs, work more hours and it gets adjusted without a big benefits cliff that we see with out of work benefits. This is what is also proposed by universal credit but thats a future thing that quite possibly they're trying to stop many working families from ever getting onto by cutting hard now on tax credits as the computer system wouldn't cope with the numbers.
My personal opinion on why the torries got in is because they sadely lacked any opposition and many people couldn't bring themselves to vote. I also believe others voted against Milliband/ Clegg rather than for the Torries.
I incidentally live in a labour area. I don't think i know of anyone unemployed at present, i know one other full time carer and a lot of hardworking families on low wages who work in the many factories that surround the town we live in, or they're cleaners, childcare providers, supermarket staff, paid carers etc that provide the infrastructure to support the rest of us. We need these people, we need a living wage but as its still some years off what are these people ment to live off in the meantime?