I feel stupid for not realising that the change in tax credits would effect me

[pud1]

i have just received a letter stating that I am no longer going to get tax credits. I knew nothing about this. I knew that the child benefit was changing and I was going to loose at next year but missed the whole change in tax credits. I can't believe how this government are screwing us

Niceguy2. I agree with you about the £26k in benefits. Especially as that family will get free prescriptions, school meals etc etc so their disposable income goes even further

"My oh earns 42k with his bonus and he works very hard for it. We bought our SMALL house at the height of the Market and our mortgage is a over £600 pm"

OP, maybe you need to look at budgeting as thats a good salary vs mortgage amount so you shouldnt need tax credits anyway.

You could always work for a wage if you want a "little independance"

EMA wasn't essential?! People like me are unsure as to exactly WHERE they are going to find bus fares to get their dc to college without it - it may WELL mean that we have to chose between DD paying her bus fares or EATING.

She WON'T manage a job as well as college, she has SN, and college is her ONLY hope of EVER being employed. But losing EMA won't afect us, oh fucking no.

DD may end up on benefits FOREVER through the lack of EMA. Her bus fares to college will actually cost MORE than her food for the week. Some choice.

And IMO it is VERY short-termist to take away the EMA that will give her a chance of gaining paid employment, when it will result in her either claiming ESA FOREVER if not, or claiming nothing because she will NOT do workfare, over my dead fucking BODY. In which case, our whole FAMILY will be struggling to stretch food money for 4 people to cover 5 people.

EMA will more than likely be the difference between my DD EVER being employed, or being reliant on the fact that she can either claim ESA forever, or that I will stretch the money for my other dc to feed her too.

The Government are SO out of fucking touch on the difference that losing EMA will make to households like mine. I HONESTLY don't know if I CAN support DD through college without EMA, due to my OWN issues - I don't qualify for disability benefits, but due to my disability, I CAN'T work enough that I will qualify for Universal Credit when it comes in.

My family is SCREWED. But then DC thinks that families where there is a poor, disabled parent are a 'problem family' anyway. Yeah - a problem because we need some support. Apparently we are feckless wasters, and are 'problem families'. Because having epilepsy makes you such an awful neighbour?!

"My oh earns 42k with his bonus and he works very hard for it. We bought our SMALL house at the height of the Market and our mortgage is a over £600 pm"

OP, maybe you need to look at budgeting as thats a good salary vs mortgage amount so you shouldnt need tax credits anyway.

on MN, budgetting is nevered advised to someone on benefits, when obviously budgetting is useful for pretty much everyone.

You could always work for a wage if you want a "little independance"

on MN, this is usually met with 'but there arent any jobs'.

I cant believe your mortgage is only 600 a month and you are on 42k you are loaded even if you dont think you are. Most people I know are paying that all themseleves with no benefit help on 20k less than your on.I think you should see that as quite a lucky position

someone of 42k will pay much more tax than someone on 22k.

and you dont know her family's other costs - e.g. someone who communtes to london can easily spend 4-6k per year just to get to work.

the 42k family are likely to pay more tax than for the public services they use, whereas the 22k family are likely to be relying on other peoples taxs to pay for the services they use.

However usually it is often the people in the low paying sectors that provide all the services eg all the childcare, care for the elderly and the learning disabled etc.

They may pay 'much more tax', but it will be PROPORTIONALLY LESS of their income than that of a family on a lower income / unemployed. The low-paid and the unemployed pay out proportionally more (a higher PERCENTAGE) of their income on taxes, via VAT. HTH.

HuntyCat - i cannot see how that is true:

used www.thesalarycalculator.co.uk/salary.php

family A earn say 100k, take home after tax & ni £64,781.10, so 35% is tax & ni
family A earn say 20k, take home after tax & ni £16,133.60, so 19% is tax & ni

then both families pay vat at 20% on vatable items.

Agree with Niceguy2 comment of "The left wing dig is because it's funny how a family earning £40k is considered to be affluent yet if another family received £26k in benefits (£35k equiv salary) then they are considered to be poor".

With some of the comments you would think that people who are earning don't need to pay rent/mortgages or council tax etc.

"family A earn say 100k, take home after tax & ni £64,781.10, so 35% is tax & ni
family A earn say 20k, take home after tax & ni £16,133.60, so 19% is tax & ni

then both families pay vat at 20% on vatable items"

The family on 100k will be paying for everything, the family on 20k is likely claiming tax credits etc so whilst they may pay tax on their wage they are likely to be given a lot of it back so not actually contributing that much. So lower earners dont pay more i agree.

As for "unemployed pay out proportionally more (a higher PERCENTAGE) of their income on taxes" - unless they are supporting themselves from their savings then they arent paying any taxes as any money is handed to them from the state so that dont have an income to pay taxes on. Any money they spend wasnt earned in the first instance and its only vat that they would pay tax on anyway and you can choose what to buy and what not too.

Is the limit you can earn based on joint income?

Yes Wed

Cogito, it costs between £1-5K to do a college course you know, never mind the bus fare!

Sorry Hunty, you do seem to have developed a Victim Mentality. curious, what is up with your daughter. is she statemented. I believe you have an autistic son.

perception - not for 16-19 year olds, which is what we are talking about with EMA though? A-levels and IB etc are all free.

Oh I see I was thinking of parents who want to get a qualification.

so EMA has stopped but it has been replaced by the 16-19 bursary:

"Students most in need will be eligible to receive a bursary of £1,200 a year. This group includes:
?people in care
?care leavers
?people claiming income support
?disabled young people that receive Employment Support Allowance and Disability Living Allowance

Other students facing genuine financial difficulties may be awarded a bursary at the discretion of their school, college or training provider."

www.direct.gov.uk/en/Parents/Schoolslearninganddevelopment/Optionsafterschool/DG_067577

this works out at £40 per week based on a 30 weeks per year at college. so £8 per day. so isnt that £1 for a packed lunch and £7 for travel?

I remember seeing somehting about financial help from the school my dc attend. None of us wanted to buy the 6th form cardigan at £25 each when they decided to introduce it when my dd was in Y13.

the qualification to get any financial help was pitched so low. The school is in affluent area so most people are very well off but there are some like us in the middle who do not qualify for any help but still struggle.

ED has a job in a supermarket 2 nights a week which really helps and YD babysits. If ED hadn't got job I don't think I could have funded her as she pays for alot of things now herself.

we lost tax credit last April but I don't pay as much tax on salary. it is a joke when everything else is rising in cost though.

we would never have qualified for EMA.

Alemci - We are currently going through the statementing process with DD again, but this time the school have suggested it, as based on their testng, she will need a reader, a scribe AND a prompt to do her GCSE's - and the outside company they bring in to DO those tests on every pupil in Y9 has raised an urgent query as to why the hell DD hasn't previously been statemented. Which might have something to do with the fact that despite me applying every 6 months since she was in Y2 - neither her prmary school SenCo OR the Secondary school SenCo would support the applcation untl an outside company expressed confusion as to why she wasn't statemented, and they believed it will be necessary for DD to get the most out of her last two years in school. .

DD also has Autism, and she is also partially deaf, she has mild epilepsy, she has GDD, she has hypermobility syndrome/ EDS type II, and she has two leaky heart valves that need replacing again in less than two years time by open heart surgery as they don't grow with her. All of which results in quite severe barriers to her learning and retaining the information she needs.

By the time DD is starting college, I will HAVE to be back at work somehow, despite my own epilepsy, as my HRP from my child benefit will run out, due to me working PT, and under the NI threshold, for quite a few years. She won't get ESA, as she will not get enough points to qualify, as each condition on their own isn't enough to meet the descriptors - but altogether, it causes her MASSIVE day-to-day issues. And as I will be back at work, albeit on NMW, I will still have to claim TC's for childcare for my younger dc, AND I will have to claim HB to help cover my rent. I therefore won't qualify for the additional help.

Without EMA, I will face a choice of feeding DD, or paying her bus fares to college. I won't be able to cover the extra costs, and despite being just over two years away, it IS keeping me awake at night, wondering just HOW I get DD to college when it is her ONLY chance of getting paid work. When it is affecting my sleep two years beforehand - I'd say it's quite a serious issue.

And YES, I have been put on a Welfare-to-work scheme in the past, after being made redundant in the past - but under the previous Government. It's only got WORSE now.