We saw last week in the Autumn statement that personal tax allowances were increased and this has followed the trend of successive budgets by this coalition government.

They are indeed planning to make work pay by increasing the amount you can earn before you pay tax. Or is it?

Universal Credit is going to shake up the benefits system like nothing else has in the last 50 years.. The plan seems to be the withdrawal of working and child tax credit on the pretext they can claim increased tax allowances and lifting more people out of tax completely.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politic ... -work.html

Labour introduced tax credits as a giveaway to big business much as housing benefit is a giveaway to landlords. But I would say more they were a reaction to our manufacturing industry/mid range paid jobs being destroyed.

The jobs that mainly went were in today's money the £23-£28k manufacturing jobs a large part of the working class did.

Rather than face the problem Labour decided to instead introduce tax credits to lift the new low paid jobs up to that level for families.

Of course their other idea was that the city and the financial industry would pay the tax to pay for it.

Removing tax credits wont bring those jobs back,and it wont increase the wages in low paying jobs.

Universal Credit was the best chance for 60 years to reform the welfare state seems it has now missed that chance and is a complete mess.

Much more complicated than what it replaces much less generous for people working full time in national minimum wage jobs. No less generous for people not working and a conditionality regime that borders on lunacy.

The only ploy I favour is to reduce benefits to a level that it's better to work. benefits should be just enough to get by, not the 'holiday' it is now.

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Lets be careful out there !

Working tax credit was designed to increase attractiveness of low paid work. The fact they are reducing it in certain circumstances may mean those people who currently work and receive it are better off on out of work benefits.

Tax credits were just another bung to big business to get taxpayers to make up wage levels to living standard. Take it away and what is likely to happen?

Banks and other lenders took tax credit earnings into account when deciding mortgage levels..

what happend to stopping child payments at two children ?
as for the dole , the answer is pay people do work more

Dole should be earned. You should have to perform community style work whilst leaving job centre time, and lets face it there is plenty that could be done around the borough.

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Lets be careful out there !

I sort of agree with you, but with work needed in the community I think the problems lies in 2 main areas

People in work or not no longer care about their community

Looking after the community was and is the responsibility of the councils and fat cat companies.

So the councils make cut backs to save money they tell us, yet they still retain their huge salaries and perks, and give themselves above inflation rises every year. We have elected councillors on a gravy train of expenses that the list is endless and considering quite a lot of them are not members of the party in power why are they allowed the same perks.

Look at the by pass. it is always a mess, the trees are overgrown, the subways are a mess. This is owned by TFL, so why should the public be made to clear up land owned by TFL when they should be doing it themselves

Look at the retail parks and surrounding area, a mess of carrier bags, litter and trollies. Why arn.t the retailers who generate this mess be made to keep the area clean. After all they make huge profits.

Im not saying the unemployed should not do community work, but not just to ensure some fat cat organisations can get away from their obligation and line their pockets

The years of Socialism reduced us to this state, looking after themselves, and handouts to the lazy unscrupulous, and encouraged into the Country to share the bounty created by the natives, to insure a future for the Labour party by Tony Blair, we have been run into countless billions of debit and to a point of overpopulation in some parts of the Country, that to be English is a joke, not as it once was to be proud, we have fought many wars to protect our heritage, just to see it cast aside, the once proud pound was a leading currency, now no more than milk bottle tops.

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Its not always the biggest and the bestest, its them that make the least mistakes.

Yep - that's why there is a big queue at Calais as they take turns to hide themselves in and under trucks.

Toothless irresponsible Governments, one a after another.

We need 10 years away from the EU umbrella. Pay nothing to anyone in foreign aid or Brussels tax during that time. Illegal immigrants are exported within 24 hours, passport or not.

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Lets be careful out there !

The so called 'legal migration' has been far more damaging to the jobs market. Romanians who can come here and then sign up to sell 'The Big Issue' are by definition self employed and as such are allowed access to the benefit system including housing benefit.......

These people walk straight thru the gate no need for them to hide under trucks.

As for the rest the majority entered the Country quite legally on student or visitors visa's and overstayed working in the black economy.... The Border Agency do not have sufficient staff to chase them all down (quite a surprise really when you think who funds them?) .

As I have said before immigration legal and illegal is a definitive requirement of the growth Governments across the World strive to achieve. On that basis expect plenty of rhetoric but little action.

Or put another way your standard of living may not be as good as it is today without this immigration and your house would certainly not be as valuable as it is...........

Absolutely spot on Geezer and a point which is clearly missed by a large majority of the electorate.

Recent discussion amongst those of us who care to seek out facts beyond the headlines have centred on the fact that there is a growing gulf between the legal ' Minimum Wage ' and the realities of an actual ' Living Wage '. The major supermarket chains have been highlighted as amongst the worst offenders for exploiting this loophole, but I doubt they are alone in this.

Despite generating multi million pound profits they often pay the bare minimum wage to the majority of their employees, who are then forced into the Tax Credit system in order to survive. Hence the taxpayer is effectively subsidising the wage bill for companies who could well afford to pay a decent living wage, but choose not to.

Quite frankly there is a lot of nonsense spoken by folk who have no idea what its like to try and survive on the lowest level of benefits. Whilst there will always be people who abuse the system, there are many many more who are genuinely struggling to cope with a system that knocks them down every step of the way.

Perhaps its time to show some humility and humanity, instead of jumping on the usual bandwagons ? Just a thought.