On the 27th of May I wrote this article after watching Frank Field MP for Birkenhead on Straight talk with Andrew Neil.
I said:
A single parent with two children working 16 hours per week will get about £480 per week, after tax credits. A married couple with two children (he didn't say it but I presume both are on the minimum wage) would have to work 116 hours to get the same money. He is not surprised at how many single parents there are, but how many married ones there are.Today the Telegraph says:
The figures are stark and astonishing: because of the huge bias in favour of single parenthood that prevails in the tax credit system, a single mother with two children under the age of 11 who works 16 hours a week on the minimum wage, receives, largely thanks to tax credits, an income of £487.So there you have it. This government has built a system either by accident or design that hates families yet the same cretinous bunch of halfwits shout us down if we try and redress the balance.
A two-parent family, on the other hand, also with two children under 11, in which either one or both partners works for the minimum wage, would have to put in a total of 116 hours a week to take home the same income.
The big question is though, why are other news outlets not covering this?
At this time the full report by Frank Field is not yet available online, but I will post a link when I locate it.
Update 11:24
Frank Field's website now carries this press release with this link to a report on the Reform website.
those figures certainly show a stark imbalance.
ReplyDelete"This government has built a system either by accident or design that hates families yet the same cretinous bunch of halfwits shout us down if we try and redress the balance."
ReplyDeleteIt was built with many beliefs, no doubt. But one of them was NOT a belief that tax dollars belong to taxpayers. That concept is incomprehensible to a Nulabour central planner.
mate - interesting post.
ReplyDeleteWhat is David Cameron's policy to deal with this shocking state of affairs?
lady Macleod, yes there is a stark imbalence.
ReplyDeleteflashgordonnz, It is always easy to spend other peoples money.
pommygranate, No idea, I think we are working on it, as in working on policies to deal with the problem.
Free Sex Paid For By Gordon Brown
ReplyDeletehttp://www.typepad.com/t/app/weblog/post?id=35353406&saved_added=1&blog_id=555190
OK Poles, come and get it.
I think the serious inequality between low paid single parents and married couples is really starting to hurt some people and it does great damage to families and causes resentment.
ReplyDeleteThis is something that the Conservatives really need to address and highlight in the next few years.
Thanks to the last budget Brown has yet again hurt hard working married or cohabitating families on low incomes, the cynical expectation that many will be unable/unwilling to claim back what they lose with the 10% tax thresh hold being abolished through the already flawed and discredited family tax credits.
Tax Credit Scandal Blog. Covers Working Tax Credits and Child Tax Credits. This Blog is for people whom have/are suffering because of the Tax Credit System. It covers both Working Tax Credits and Child Tax Credits. The posts on this page are for users to post there own experiences of the Tax Credits System. These could be the good, the bad and the shocking. Please add your own experiences of the Tax Credits System
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