im so anxious about threats to cut ctc...

[em83]

god i feel so depressed about the threatened cut to ctc, i have been following the news religiously about this new emergency budget, and have just read an updat which was posted tonigha 22.10 which states that incomes £30.000 or over will not be entitled to ctc

im so pissed off with this and feel so anxious

If the husband doesn't work and the wife is pregnant with the second child nothing to stop the wife going to back to full time work when the baby is 2 weeks old as I did and the husband looking after the children, assuming the wife can find work/is not already in it. If they find it hard to live on the wife's wage obviously it might be necessary to try to find work she is qualified to do which she can do which is better paid than the current job.

I really hate the attitude of some posters re: 'state has no business supporting children'.

In that case, when they grow up, I want my childrens' taxes to pay for no ones pension but my own.

All these childless grumblers who moan about kids being too noisy, too expensive, too inconvenient will presumably enjoy the self sufficiency,

I have no understanding of economics whatsoever - so I am probably totally wrong here but -

My husband and I are about to have our fourth child, we are both self employed our joint income is between £25 -30,000 so depending on which story you believe we could be affected or not. To afford our children and not get into debt we have made lifestyle choices such as 1. not owning a car 2. we use washable nappies 3. we have never been on holiday. 4. we dont use credit cards 5. we buy second hand clothes and I sew alot of the baby clothes (although i spare my older children that shame) etc plus many more.

This has worked for us and if tax credits were taken away we would be poorer but "ok" (although are spending would reduce even more).

If EVERYONE affected by these changes suddenly had to get rid of their car, stop going on holiday, stop buying new clothes, stop buying nappies, stop having children even then surely the effect on business will be terrible?

The government MUST be thinking to cover the difference at least partially?

We are not trying to screw your children over most of us work very long hours to help your childre, we pay out of our own money to help your children, we say "not now" to our own children so we can carry on working for ours. But we are not martyrs.

There is also a problem with getting quality graduates into teaching, quite frankly standards are falling and I have seen some real dross coming into teaching. Do you think this is going to get better if you start taking away one of the few tangible bonuses of the job ( other than childcare in holidays) How is that helping children in the long run?

As I said I have been teaching 12 years and deliberately chose a union that does not go out on strike. I am not someone who supports strikes.

"If EVERYONE affected by these changes suddenly had to get rid of their car, stop going on holiday, stop buying new clothes, stop buying nappies, stop having children even then surely the effect on business will be terrible?"

We're already in a recession. High Street takings have been down since the end of 2008. ALDI is the biggest growing supermarket. Big ticket consumer items are being put off in favour of essentials. And it's likely to not improve whichever way you deal with the economic situation. Yes, if you affect the disposable income of people too much either through tax, unemployment, reduction of benefits then they can't spend and the goods they used to buy will remain on the shelf a bit longer.

And if the government carries on spending keeping more people employed and on good incomes then they may be able to spend more but the amount the country owes goes up and up and up, we risk losing investment from overseas and we also have big interest payments to deal with affecting available spending further down the track.

So it's a balancing act.... The question taxing Osborne, Alexander and the rest is "How much expenditure can you reasonably dispense with and how much tax can you reasonably raise before materially affecting growth or creating public dissent?" My guess is that they will deal with the 'low hanging branches' first (freezing public sector pay, cancelling contracts, raising VAT) and see how that goes first. They'll try to spread the effects as widely as possible rather than targeting just one group of people. Then follow up with another budget in November with the next phase.

I will have no sympatyhy for anyone who strikes - we are in the shit as a nation and every one of us will have to realise things will have to change.

The problem is that probably 80% of government spending does go on OAPs, unemployed people, disabled people and children. by definition its the NHS, schools, pensions, benefits. To say, they are targeting cuts at the most vulnerable is ridiculous - they don't have much else TO cut. They obviously have to pay pensions, teachers and nurses, but they can cut frills, perks, freebies and nice-to-haves. It is a horrible decision to make.

To "target" the well off, working and capable they will have to bump up taxes to get more money out of us, which they will probably do as well.

25% overspend. We will probably be looking at post war rationing with envy in a year's time.

obviously pensions, teachers & nurses not an exhaustive list!

i am a sahm i cant afford to work i used to commute to work via train gave up to have first child.
my dh earns £35000 i need benefits and tax credits to buy the girls bday/xmas pressies and clothes

All shopped out are you being ironic?

you "need" benefits to buy pressies

Agree Riven

I am just looking at numbers - either they raise taxes or cut spending, they have to do one or the other or both. I favour more tax tbh I think as a society we should pull together to get through this bad time but that is probably just rose tinted.

what is wrong with that tootootired!!

dhs money is all tied up with the bills etc isnt any spare

dhs money is for bills and food etc and morgage etc.

i dont see presents as fivilous.

Sorry am I stating the bleeding obvious here. They aren't frivolous but they are optional.

When I was a kid my parents were utterly skint, only dad worked on a low wage, they grew veg, made clothes and presnets, never had holidays. Basically they only did what they could afford.

Now people seem to choose a lifestyle and say right, I need the state to top me up to achieve this. We have truly lost the art of discerning wants and needs in every area of life.

whatever happens i just cant see them stopping ctc AND child benefit together.

your upbringing was different to mine!!
i couldnt imagine saying sorry girls no presents here on there bday and xmas
that is obviously just me
we are all brought up differently
my ubringing was comfortable had quite a few pressys and hols abroad etc
will stop there as dont want to dig a hole

"Surely the duty of a Govt is to collect taxes and then spend it on the stuff a country considers necassary for soceity.
Therefore ppublic spending is actually a duty?"

It's determining what is considered 'necessary for society' that is the crux of the matter. A society like the USA has a very different view of what is necessary and should be provided for by the state than a society like Sweden. They also have radically different views on what level of personal taxation is acceptable. Whilst public spending is an obligation in most civilised societies, what that money is spent on can change according to philosphy and (crucially in our case) availability of funds.

allshoppedout while presents are nice ,they are deemed a luxury and not a neccesity...
some people only have half of your annual income and manage to pay bills,feed and clothe their children and buy presents....

whatever happens i cant see them stopping both tax credits AND child benefit...

this thread is bloody awful it's like how much money we survived on as children top trumps.

and hardly anyone is moaning about benefits to children being cut. wouldn't think this was a site for parents.

any thread about the new free schools proposals? how much will that cost? lol bonkers

Interesting article about the budget for free schools here