Child Tax Credit (CTC) and Working Tax Credit (WTC) U.K vote facts and opinion

Child Tax Credit (CTC) and Working Tax Credit (WTC) 

Child Tax Credit (CTC) and Working Tax Credit (WTC) replaced Working Families’ Tax Credit, Disabled Person’s Tax Credit and Children’s Tax Credit in April 2003. CTC brings together income related support for children and for qualifying young people aged 16-19 who are in full time non-advanced education or approved training into a single tax credit, payable to the main carer. Families can claim whether or not the adults are in work.

WTC 

provides in work support for people on low incomes, with or without children. A family will normally be eligible for WTC if it contains one of the following:

• a single person who is responsible for a child or young person and works at least 16 hours a week
• a couple who are responsible for a child or young person, and who jointly work 24 hours or more per week (NB one adult must be working at least 16 hours)
• a person who is receiving or has recently received a qualifying sickness or disability related benefit and has a disability that puts them at a disadvantage of getting a job, and who works at least 16 hours per week
• a person is aged 60 or over and works at least 16 hours per week

If none of the above applies, then a person will still be eligible for WTC if they are aged 25 and over and work 30 hours or more a week. Tax credits are based on household circumstances and can be claimed jointly by members of a couple, or by singles. Entitlement is based on factors such as: age, income, hours worked, number and age of children, childcare costs and disabilities. MPs have backed government plans to cut spending on tax credits in the face of opposition from Labour and the SNP. The Commons approved plans to lower the earnings level above which tax credits are withdrawn from £6,420 to £3,850 and speed up the rate at which the benefit is lost as pay rises by 35 votes. Ministers say the move, estimated to save £4.4bn, is part of wider plans to raise pay and incentivise work.     Tax Credit applies to Working familes But Labour say it is an "ideological attack" on working families. The curbs on tax credits were announced in Chancellor George Osborne's post-election Budget in June. During a 90-minute debate in the Commons, the opposition claimed three million families face losing an average of £1,000 a year from next April. But ministers said the tax credit system had, for too long, been used to subsidise low pay and the changes would bring total expenditure on tax credits back down to more sustainable levels seen in 2007-8. 'Cynical' MPs backed a motion enacting the changes by 325 votes to 290.

Treasury minister Damian Hinds said eight out of 10 households would be better off by 2018-9 as a result of measures announced in the Budget to introduce a national living wage, further increase the personal tax allowance and extend childcare subsidies. "For too long in this country, low pay has been addressed not by genuine reform and driving productivity but by subsidising the tax credit system," he said. "The changes introduced in this order will build on the last parliament's reforms and return real-terms tax credit spending to the level it was in 2007-08 - a decade into the tenure into the government of the Labour Party." But Labour's Seema Malhotra said the changes were being "sneaked through the back door". "This is a political decision made by the chancellor that is set to see over three million families lose an average of £1,000 a year," the shadow Treasury minister said. "It is ideologically driven, it is cynical and it will directly increase levels of poverty in Britain." "It is part of an ongoing attack on the incomes of some of the most hard working families in our constituencies - those very strivers the chancellor purported to support."

Eligibility The calculator

Send tax credit renewal forms to HMRC’s Netherton office.

HM Revenue and Customs - Tax Credit Office

Comben HouseFarriers WayNethertonL75 1AXUnited Kingdom

Send changes of name or address, or complaints, to HMRC’s Preston office. Make it clear why you’re writing. For example, write ‘change of circumstances’ or ‘complaint’ at the top of your letter. You do not need to include a street name or PO box.

HM Revenue and Customs - Tax Credit Office

Preston PR1 4AT 
United Kingdom

Send new tax credits claims to HMRC’s Liverpool office. You do not need to include a street name or PO box.

HM Revenue and Customs - Tax Credit Office

Liverpool L75 1AZ
United Kingdom

Reality opinion

  Source

The challenge politically is that Working Families Tax Credit's keeps many families above the basic poverty line. For many the change will take families on low incomes into a poverty
With Utility costs rising above inflation and employers saying the market will not allow them to increase pay for staff the Tax Credit system has become a key solution. As the Tax credit system has an element connected to child care this will have to be factored into the decisions on Employment. This is likely to hit many families on lower incomes particularly the Younger families that will struggle

HSBC Tax avoidance & Welfare Benefit Fraud

The HSBC Tax avoidance and Benefit Fraud

Tax Fraud v Benefit Fraud

The HSBC issue and Benefit Fraud is an interesting story of two aspects of our economy in the U.K.
The Benefit Fraud issue is highlighted in the first video recorded some time ago and features the major issue of Benefit Fraud and the consequences

This highlights the issue that most welfare benefit claimants cannot afford the lawyers that the Wealthy Tax avoiders can afford.

The line that Benefit Fraud hurts the tax payer should------now apply to the Tax avoider shouldnt it?

Will we see the same level of protections with the wealthy Tax avoiders or will there be a fear of upsetting them? The Photo explained

HSBC Tax avoidance

Own speaks of Tax avoidance and here today in the U.K we hear of the issue of Tax avoidance featured on Panorama tonight.
Uk Government seems to be rather reluctant to chase the Tax.

Working Families Tax Credit

Leaving us also to reflect on how quickly the Working Family Tax credit claimants have their money reclaimed with the threat of Debt recovery and all the other action HMRC will take. As Mr Cameron has said. we are all in this together

I

Benefits and welfare and the real situation

The Welfare challenge

The Institute for Fiscal Studies says"



Working-age benefit spending has always been sensitive to the unemployment rate. But the rapid growth of housing benefit and tax credits over the couple of decades (documented in thisbriefing note published today) means that slow earnings growth now has the potential to push up spending too. Much of the hoped-for savings from the introduction of ESA have failed to materialise, and it is an open question whether the personal independence payment will be any different. Mr Osborne wants further cuts to social security spending to help reduce the deficit. He may end up having to make cuts just to stay on track."

The gov .uk Stats for your area-
Benefit stats

The BBC quote the Institute of Fiscal studies

Explaining why spending had in fact reduced by £2.5bn in real terms, it said:

• All of the £5bn rise in the cost of pensioner benefits could be explained by the rising cost of state pensions. It said this was partly down to the ageing population, but also the "more generous" entitlements of a new generation of pensioners who had recently retired
• There had been an "unanticipated" rise in housing benefit spending of £1bn, despite cuts of £2bn, which was down to the growth of the private rental sector, rising rents and slow earnings growth
• This slower earnings growth meant spending on tax credits had not come down as quickly as expected, reducing costs by less than £3bn compared with a forecast saving of £4.6bn
• "Significant delays" in the replacement of disability living allowance with the "less generous" personal independence payment had led to a £1.6bn increase in spending, rather than a £1.2bn cut
• Switching from the Retail Prices Index to the Consumer Prices Index measure of inflation for up-rating benefits had not saved the expected £4bn

Note the challenge of the Tax Credit - this will become the Universal Credit in due cource. The slow earnings growth has made a difference

Many may agree with Edd Balls and Rachel Reeves. They wrote: "A key cause of the Tories' overspending is their failure to make the economy work for working people, leaving thousands more reliant on housing benefit."

So how are the Welfare Reform changes affecting people

The changes to council tax benefit have also hit Blackpool particularly hard, as the council decided to pass on most of the 10% shortfall in government grant to its residents.

Mike Clague, a former RAF chef whose 19th floor flat has such a spectacular view, is having to find £15 a month extra.

"It doesn't sound much," he says. "But on top of all the other bills, it's a lot."

Ann Morris gives out school uniforms to those who cannot afford them

He has had to cut back on food as a result. Chocolate has become a once-a-week treat.

In Blackpool even those on jobseeker's allowance (JSA) have to find an extra £206 a year.

Many people have not yet paid anything.

"We recently had a huge influx of clients for non-payment of that money," says Julia Hannaford of Blackpool Citizens Advice.

"In one week we saw 40 people."

For those that are paying, the extra outgoings have stretched household budgets. Half the council tenants in Blackpool are behind with their rent.

In two or three cases, the local housing association has now obtained suspended possession orders, the first stage in the eviction process.

Sanctions

Elsewhere in the North West there are already some striking memorials to the first six months of the benefits changes: the houses that no one wants.

In Sefton, on an estate once known as Beirut, there are roads where dozens of people have moved out.

One resident of Daley Road points out 10 empty houses in her street.

One of the empty houses in Daley Road

"They don't even bother to board them up anymore," she tells me.

"It's all because of the bedroom tax. Nobody wants a three bedroom place anymore."

On this part of Merseyside, community workers also report that, since April, more people are having their benefits temporarily stopped.

JSA claimants, for example, now have to prove that they are job hunting, by applying online.

But not all are computer literate.

Ann Morris, a development worker in Litherland, says that as a result many parents can no longer afford to buy school uniforms.

She and her colleagues have set up a uniform bank to help.

"They all want their kids to go back to school with new uniforms. But some have benefit sanctions, so they just don't have the money," she says.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

I never thought I'd see the day that we'd all get in and share a bath. A treat is getting in the bath first.”

Carol WilsonBenefit claimant

'Blind Scouse'

Carol Wilson, a carer from the Tuebrook area of Liverpool, was herself sanctioned earlier in the year.

She lost one week's Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), as a result of being in hospital.

Since April she has also had to find £80 a month as a result of having a spare room, and £9 a month extra for council tax.

Along with all claimants, she has also been affected by the 1% cap on annual benefits increases.

She, her partner, and her son now share their bath-water to try to economise.

"I never thought I'd see the day that we'd all get in and share a bath. A treat is getting in the bath first."

And she stretches a pot of stew, known as scouse, so that it lasts for three days.

"You just add potatoes each day. When the meat runs out, it's known as "blind scouse".

Blind scouse is certainly making a comeback in Liverpool at the moment, she says.

Coping

All along the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has insisted that the changes are not about saving money, but about encouraging more people into work.

Indeed since claimants were warned about the cap on total benefits back in April, the DWP says more than 15,000 have been helped to find jobs.

"Since April we have made great strides delivering our reforms," a DWP spokesman told the BBC.

"The rollout of universal credit and personal independence payments have begun, reforms to housing benefit are making the system fairer and the benefit cap is now in place across the country."

The government also says it has cut income tax for 25 million people, saving a typical taxpayer £700 a year.

It claims the typical household will also save £600 as a result of council tax being frozen for five years.

And even among those hit by benefit cuts, there are those who support the principles of the reforms.

"I do think it's right that people should be in work if they can be," says Carol Wilson.

"And I don't think being on benefits should be too comfortable.

"Whilst I would like more, the country is in a crisis. And I cope with what I have," she says.

The Welfare Reform

This is the reality watch the video to hear the truth!!!