Government To Help Poor Families By Robbing Them of £75 A Week

photo by sirqitous

What a government this is. It thinks that the way to help the unemployed is by making them homeless, the way to help the employed is by making them jobless and the way to repairing the British economy is my driving us back into recession. Now a new gem, you can help poor families by changing the family credit rules to cost them £4 000 a year! The  change in the, to come in this April, will mean more than those earning under £17,700 will have to up their hours of work by a minimum of eight hours or lose out on all their working tax credit.

Shadow chief secretary to the Treasury Rachel Reeves describes the figures as a “bombshell.”

“In this climate, very few people in part-time work will find be able to increase their hours by up to 50 per cent at the moment. And for a couple with children losing around £4,000 a year, or £75 a week, from this change could mean going out to work makes no sense. This tax credits bombshell is now just a few weeks away. For thousands of families it means going out to work won’t pay and they’ll be better off on benefits. That makes no economic sense at all. The government urgently needs to think again.”

Cathy Jamieson MP, Labour’s shadow Treasury minister, who uncovered the figures said: “This out-of-touch government doesn’t seem to understand what life is like for families on low incomes who work part-time and look after their kids. Parents can’t just increase their working hours when the government’s failed economic policies mean the extra work is simply not there. And the government hasn’t even exempted families with disabled children and full-time carers. Unless Ministers see sense by the time of the Budget this deeply unfair policy risks plunging thousands of families into poverty and worklessness.”