Tax Credits = benefit-dependent society?

[Chil1234]

Seems that the scariest thing facing many people on these boards about getting rid of the Labour government would be the prospect of a drop in tax credits and other benefits.

Being cynical, I'm now wondering if Labour didn't deliberately engineer the way tax credits work not solely to help those in genuine need but also so that the maximum number of people receive a portion of their income from the state. If it wasn't in part to create a culture of dependency and entitlement why else set the ceiling for receipt up as high as £50k?

And, personally, I worked part time and was in receipt of ctc and then I changed to full time and it has worked out ok. I did not think I won't work full time because my credits will get cut. And yep, sorry but they help with some of the childcare I pay which is more than my rent and just over half my salary. It is only my salary that comes into my home and I have two children.

My vote is not purely on ctc, it is on education for my children, how safe myself and my children are, our housing, what their prospects and futures will be, their health will be and of course the access to all these things.

Sorry haven't caught up but just saw foureleven's post.

It reminded me that I was wondering the other day why they don't just have one dept for everything. So everyone fills in one detailed form and they dish out whatever they are entitled to. Be it state pension, winter fuel allowance, tax credits, JSA, whatever.

This method of having loads of different depts and loads of different forms and making it all terribly complicated is enormously expensive and puts off some people who really need the benefits.

DH says they make it hard to apply to discourage fraud but I'm not sure how that works TBH I think he may have gone a bit random on that one. Even if they did get a bit more fraud they could cover it with the huge cost saving in admin, printing forms etc etc etc.

That's what I reckon anyway.

At the moment it seems to cumbersome, with all these different agencies collecting the same information over and over, never sharing it and then losing it on the bus etc.

'It reminded me that I was wondering the other day why they don't just have one dept for everything. So everyone fills in one detailed form and they dish out whatever they are entitled to. Be it state pension, winter fuel allowance, tax credits, JSA, whatever.'

Because some of these count as taxable income and others do not.

Also, for things like housing benefit/local housing allowance, these needed to be turned over to local councils so that rates can be adjusted for local markets and needs.

expatinscotland - "Because some of these count as taxable income and others do not." but that SHOULDN'T be the case. Agree somethings need adjusting for local conditions, but that doesn't need to be done by councils. Or councils could administer everything else. If www.entitledto.co.uk can do it why can't the government.

The whole tax and benefits system is too complicated and deliberatly obfuscated.

imsonottelling; defo. A simple points system and one benefit. Soooo much easier. But then there would be less pens to push!
Why any benefits are taxable is beyond me.

Income-based JSA is also taxable, ooja, which is ridiculous as you can't have any other income besides perhaps some income support or CA from a partner to get it.

Oh, and a pittance of income from work.

We need to ditch the whole current system and start again with a clear idea of what we are trying to acheive.

Just got back.

Yes oojamaflip that's what I'm getting at.

The easiest thing for any government to do would be to scrap tax credits and raise your basic tax allowance. This would not apply to the better off because if you earn over £100k you do not receive any tax allowance at all.

Would be easier to administrate and a damn site cheaper and would mean that working actually did pay.

Yes I have friends who get more back in tax credits than they pay in tax. Their tax credits pay their mortgage.

I didn't know that tax allowances were removed for people earning over £100K, I thought the banding etc was the same for everyone.

'tax credits are not 'benefits' either and I was under the impression that once your children were of age you stopped getting them?'

Yes.

ISNT, no, that came in recently, so my dh for example is taxed on every penny. We're about £7.5k a year worse off from this year.

There was little or no publicity about that little tweak.