Tax Credits?

[Bluesunday]

Does anyone know what the Con-Libs plan to do with regards to Tax Credits now? I know they have already agreed on some issues (no to the illegal immigrant amnesty etc), but when will they make an announcement about TC, will we have to wait until the next budget? I'm a little worried, did they say they wanted to abolish them or have I got that wrong? My family will go under without them.
Oh, by the way, if you don't need to claim Tax Credits I'm very happy for you, please don't burn me for not being so fortunate

The Tory & LD positions were pretty clear if anyone bothered to look. The BBC did a nice comparison, for example, on the areas of policy likely to affect families most. But it's easier to listen to a soundbite, I suppose - which is why they do them

chill - I did bother to look but I fear others didn't.

Fairymum
"This is the basic that everyone gets for having children and is not means tested at all. So this is what they want to remove?"
actually that's not true. THere is a cut-off point at the moment, I'm not sure what it is. quite rightly IMO, super earners do not get any CTC. The only non-means tested money for having children is child benefit (and CTF and health in preg grant).
sorry couldn't reply b4 - was working

I think there's some confusion between Child Tax Credit - means-tested income support - and Child Benefit - universal benefit available regardless of income. No-one as yet has had the imagination (guts?) to suggest they'll be rolled into one and means-tested.

The only mention of tax credits in the Lib Dem and Conservative agreement says: The parties agree that reductions can be made to the Child Trust Fund and tax credits for higher earners. So they're obviously still deciding the new cut off point. At present, you get child tax credit if your household income is up to £66k a year and you have a child under one, slightly less if your children are older. If your household income is anywhere above £30k though, you only get the minimum of about £40 a month child tax credit. So basically the policy is to take £40 a month off people at the upper end of the tax credit scale.

Fairymum to be fair if you are earning over 50k a year or is your hubby doing the earning and you sit at home worrying about the childcare costs, you shouldnt be claiming. unless you are both working then you both have a joint income and can afford to place your children in paid care lets face it you both made the choice to have children and fully aware of the ensuing costs involved.
Children are expensive and it seems to me you have the resources to have and maintain 4 children otherwise you would not of had them without the help of the government, I was a single mum on my own for 6 years my youngest was 5 weeks old when we split my ex-husband left me he was a biomedical scientist I went from the high life to working in a local store to provide for my children and keep a roof over our heads what the government paid me did not help at all and my child care costs where fenominal just to scrape a living, with respect you do not know the half of it and maybe complain about your circumstances and that your care costs will be stopped do you know or even think about what us at the lower end of the earning scale go through less than 10k a year, it was a nightmare please think yourself lucky that you are in a place to provide for your children without the help of the government because what they are giving you they are taking away from me, and if you have a joint wage is it fair that you can complain I would give anything to have your wage comming in. I gave up my chance of attaining my degree because my ex husband was persuing his and by then I was expecting my first child who is now 18 and I had to concentrate on my son. I wish you well and hope that you can understand why the goverment will no longer want to help you after all if you have children we are all in the same boat and we should all be means tested as to our ability to pay connected to our earnings with respect this is not by any means having a go at you for your views but do you not think you should think of those less fourtunate than yourself.
My god you pay nearly 2k a month childcare why do you not employ a nanny it would be cheaper just a thought?????

patience - the "you chose to have 4 kids ... blah blah" doesn't work.

by that logic there is nothing to distinguish between anyone in receipt of benefits, on any income.

"I earn thruppence - I can't afford to feed my child."

"Well, you chose to have the child."

And even

"I earn thruppence and can't afford to live/I earn nothing and can't afford to live."

"Well, you choose not to avail yourself of this nice length of rope. sod off."

It's a slippery slope. Let's not jump recklessly about at the top of it.

And the thing about childcare is that you often end up having to pay a living wage (unless you're employing Anja from the Ukraine in a v. dodgy way, or have a time-share in someone else's Anja) out of your wages - as soon as they're too old for nursery/if you're not lucky with out-of-school care/have many dc. Which it's why it's so darn expensive.
But all that is kind of off-subject.

I hate the way these tax credit cuts have unleashed the spectacle of women/mothers biting each other.

If a woman/mother is saying it's going to be hard if they stop, surely there is another response possible that "count yourself lucky, there are people worse off."

Of course there are; globally, there are people far worse off. But really, people, this turning of people at the lower end of capitalism against each other, surely that distracts attention from the top end?

Contributions towards childcare costs are paid as Working Tax Credit not Child Tax Credit. It is the family element of Child Tax Credit that the government is talking about cutting for high earners.

is there any news on the child benefit being stopped?

'But Fairymum presumeably you decided to have 4 children. Perhaps if you are now concerned about the cost of childcare for those 4 children you should have thought about that before having them' I assume, patience, that you receive no means tested benefits, and have plenty of cash lying around? That's such a non argument and I bet you wouldn't repeat it to someone on the minimumwage with 2 kids being topped up by tax credits?

This thread has got very confusing, I can't remember who's got 4 kids, who's a super high earner, who's a SAHM or who voted tory

DP and I bring home just under 50k betwen us. We have one DD (20m) and live in central london - our childcare costs are astronomical (£750 per month for 3 days per week). We get £35 pm in tax credits, I can't imagine we would be able to claim anything under the current system if our pay increased, even slightly.

The baby element of the CTC meant we recieved approx £80 p.m. - which was a great help when I was on mat leave (and therefore not nearly approaching the 50k threshhold).

So the money is not a huge amount to cut (although it certainly helps!). It is the philosophy that hurts me. I found the CTC system symbolic of a government that supported families, especially women, who were doing their best to provide for themselves.

I believe they're cutting them for households with an income of over £50,000. They're also planning to tax Child Benefit I think.

Our earnings are around the average national full time wage each and we live in London, I earn marginally more than dp.

I'm not claiming to be poor but childcare is 2/3 of my take home pay, and that's with my dad's help or it would be 80%. So CB and CTC (even just £10 a week) do make a difference. DS1 just turned 3, DS2 is nearly 16 months.

What I found bizarre a few months ago was the outrage on here about childcare voucher tax breaks being threatened from people who thought attacking benefits was just fine.

I also think these cuts will hit hard at women who are much worse off than me in terms of going out to work, housing and childcare costs.

According to times today tehre's no plans to change CB but possibly no CTC for joint incomes over £26k; that would hit people hugely.

I just want to know what they are doing rather than hearing scary rumours so I can try and work out how to keep a roof over us. I can't work with hearsay.

And sniping about having children then you should be able to pay is pointless: lives change. We had 4 which we could easily afford until 2 were diagnosed with ASD and DH was made redundant, that hadn't exactly figured in our plans!

Anyway the TC system now encompasses a branch of disability support and the old IS payments for children so is more complex than it used to be.

For me personally, TC's have helped enormously: becuase DH's sector imploded about a year ago he would have had no work available to him so TC's have meant he could start a business and retrain. It seems to me that is an ethos of self support, even if it takes a few years of financial help, which is a positive? My carer role isn't negotiable (sadly) atm, although I am hoping to get a voluntary role for a few hours that might lead me back to work once the boys can cope with the limited childcare on offer to sn kids (if?). So anything that helps Dh not claim JSA, be stuck at home miserable, enable him to claw back that financial independence we enjoyed beforehand and shows the boys the value of hard work is a good thing fundamentally. chances are 3/4 of our boys if we are lucky will work (may be 2/4 dependent on progression of their SN), and I want them to see the very real value of work above simply earning a few pounds.

And if I am still stuck caring for ds3 I will offer to be their childcare aas well to minimise their need to ask for help or expend in a way they may not afford. Just as we now choose not to claim Council tax Benefit despite eligibility. There's pride to be found in working and indeed in minimising ones impact on otehrs within available margins, but all the media seem to see is a group of figures and sums. Work is so much more. And enforced absence of work is so musch more also- DS4 is still pre school so I OK with him to care for but suggest I will go slowly awry once he starts school.