Tax Credits, The Telegraph catches up with this blog!

Alas, no one else seems that bothered.

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.

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.

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.

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.

When will Frank Field come home?

I have for quite some time now had some admiration for Frank Field, MP for the formerly Conservative constituency of Birkenhead, and had indeed wondered if there was any chance he might defect to the Conservative party.

Thanks to an interview on BBC News 24's Straight Talk with Andrew Neil, I now know that he was originally a member of the Conservative party and child poverty campaigner.

What is more interesting also was that the Child poverty action group pointed out that under Harold Wilson's government between 1966 and 1970 poverty had got worse.

It seems clear to me that Frank is a very intelligent man. I would say he is a Conservative in the best traditions of the One Nation compassionate strand. However he is currently a Labour MP for Birkenhead.

What I found most interesting was some of his comments in the interview. I am currently reading his paper on New Deal. He will go on to publish papers on other areas of welfare and welfare reform. I suggest any one who cares about these things should read them.

Some remarkable observations were these:

From earnings of about £100 to £500 per week there is very little any one can do by their own hand to improve their standard of living. That is solely in the gift of the Chancellor.

Just go back and think about that. It is simply shocking.

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.

On the Margaret Hodge affair, he was not surprised at what she said, he was surprised she was being attacked for telling the truth.

He pointed out that now the Bangladeshi community in Bermondsey was making exactly the same complaints that were being made 40 years ago by the white residents 40 years ago, that the welfare system favoured new immigrants.

You can find Frank Field's website here.

I do hope he rejoins the Conservative party. From my point of view, he would be most welcome.

Support this Early Day Motion!

Write to your MP and get them to support this Early Day Motion, proposed by Frank Field MP for Birkenhead.

The motion's text is:

That this House believes that whatever proposals come forward on House of Lords reform, any indicative vote should include on the ballot paper the option to support the status quo.

I have written on the subject of Lords reform here. I think this is a great idea. After all, if it isn't broke, don't fix it!

You can contact your MP via They work for you, here.

Hat tip to Dizzy Thinks, here.