Tax Credits: The Irish Robin Hood
I bet we’re all wishing we voted Labour now! After Maggie T swept through and punished the poor for being poor, I’m sure everyone breathed a sigh of relief when big Johnny M was voted in and it appears we’ve seen it all over again when the whole tax credit thing starts to take hold.
When the new changes came into effect, thousands of parents had their Child Tax Credit cut completely. Previously those earning a “normal” salary were pretty much guaranteed some sort of payment, even if it was the bog standard tenner a week. Every little helps right, I mean that would get you fresh bread & milk every day however the threshold has been reduced from £41,300 per year to £26,000 if you have one child and £32,200 if you have 2 or more children. Of course, lets give good old HMRC their dues, there will be factors that mean even if your income IS above the limit, you may still get some help, if you perhaps pay for child care etc however the majority of the people I have spoken to who have been affected by a tax credit cut just don’t get anything.
The Saddening Truth
So, does that not defeat the purpose of why child tax credits were introduced in the first place? What happened to encouraging parents to go out and work by making it financially worthwhile? How many people out there are worse off going out to work than they would be sitting at home claiming benefits? How demoralising and completely sickening is it, that the parents hit worst by these cuts are basically going out to work to pay for the childcare they require when they are at work? I think there would be quite a few answers on a postcard moments here!
Personally, I think they must all have shares in Nightol because considering they have just plummeted half a MILLION kiddies well below the poverty line, how the hell can they sleep without it! Think about it, a lot of the families these kids come from were already struggling so what’s the justification for taking the £10 a week that paid for those kids swimming lessons off them?
On the other foot, just for a bit of the old yin & yang, black and white; dumb and dumber more like, the super dooper rich dogs have has tax cuts so they can now wipe their backside with 2 Twenties instead of one. However not to worry folks, the general opinion of our government is that those affected by cuts to their tax credits will be able to get extra hours at work.
Sorry, are they for real?
Companies are making cuts themselves, redundancies and pay freezes are rife across the board so figure that one out!! Also, let’s say your employer’s business is thriving (you must work for Apple) and you can have as many hours overtime as you wish, I’m pretty certain the last time I checked, you need to actually have children before you can claim child tax credits, so what, mothers are now meant to work to 9pm at night or at weekends to “make up” this loss with their kids in their back pocket?
So, our government have had to make some tough decisions, & they claim to have made them in the fairest possible way. Contentious?