Tory “lies” on tax credits exposed

RT @leftfootfwd: Tory "lies" on tax credits exposed http://bit.ly/c1HEC2

RT @leftfootfwd: Tory "lies" on tax credits exposed http://bit.ly/c1HEC2

Remember this on tax credits? RT @SamuelCoates Lies: http://j.mp/ciVBA6 << Who's lying now, Sam? http://bit.ly/c1HEC2

RT @leftfootfwd Tory "lies" on tax credits exposed http://bit.ly/c1HEC2

RT @leftfootfwd: Tory "lies" on tax credits exposed http://bit.ly/c1HEC2

When Labour said the Tories would make these child tax credit cuts, the Tories branded them liars http://j.mp/cRimkr

RT @leftfootfwd: Tory "lies" on tax credits exposed http://bit.ly/c1HEC2

RT @wdjstraw: Remember this on tax credits? RT @SamuelCoates Lies: http://j.mp/ciVBA6 << Who's lying now, Sam? http://bit.ly/c1HEC2

“@leftfootfwd: Tory "lies" on tax credits exposed http://bit.ly/c1HEC2” <= I'm *sorry* if we're not giving the rich benefits. #LabourLost

And why, exactly, should people earning more than £30,000 be receiving benefits? Call me a bluff old traditionalist, but I thought the point of the benefits system was to help those in need. How is someone earning more than £30,000 a year in need?

I agree that they should have been honest about it, but there’s nothing actually wrong with the policy itself.

Tory "lies" on tax credits exposed http://bit.ly/c1HEC2 via @leftfootfwd

RT @leftfootfwd Tory "lies" on tax credits exposed http://bit.ly/c1HEC2 <- I can stomach a lie when mixed with giving low earners more money

RT @wdjstraw: Remember this on tax credits? RT @SamuelCoates Lies: http://j.mp/ciVBA6 << Who's lying now, Sam? http://bit.ly/c1HEC2

RT @leftfootfwd: Tory "lies" on tax credits exposed http://bit.ly/c1HEC2

RT @wdjstraw: Remember this on tax credits? RT @SamuelCoates Lies: http://j.mp/ciVBA6 << Who's lying now, Sam? http://bit.ly/c1HEC2

RT @wdjstraw: Remember this on tax credits? RT @SamuelCoates Lies: http://j.mp/ciVBA6 << Who's lying now, Sam? http://bit.ly/c1HEC2

Shouldn’t the article take into account the plan to increase the tax threshold – so won’t people earning upwards of £25K benefit from that more than they do from tax credits?

RT @leftfootfwd: Tory "lies" on tax credits exposed http://bit.ly/c1HEC2

RT @wdjstraw: Remember this on tax credits? RT @SamuelCoates Lies: http://j.mp/ciVBA6 << Who's lying now, Sam? http://bit.ly/c1HEC2

RT @leftfootfwd: Tory "lies" on tax credits exposed http://bit.ly/c1HEC2

RT @leftfootfwd: Tory "lies" on tax credits exposed http://bit.ly/c1HEC2

RT @leftfootfwd: Tory "lies" on tax credits exposed http://bit.ly/c1HEC2

Crikey – storm in a teacup time. So the thrust of the ‘lie’ is the difference between £30k and £40k as a family income? Well, that’s obviously a big difference to the families affected, but in terms of policy it’s a continuation of the same idea – not a U-turn, more a further deepening of the cuts already proposed. Which we already knew, or at least expected.

Sorry, not going to get annoyed enough over this one, even if I finish my sentence in italics.

RT @leftfootfwd: Tory "lies" on tax credits exposed http://bit.ly/c1HEC2

@BBCLauraK tax credits budget table http://www.leftfootforward.org/2010/06/tory-tax-credit-lies/

Post the evidence before Alex starts: http://bit.ly/cRimkr

[...] Will Straw at Left Foot Forward says the budget document has exposed Tory “lies” about their tax credit [...]

RT @wdjstraw: Remember this on tax credits? RT @SamuelCoates Lies: http://j.mp/ciVBA6 << Who's lying now, Sam? http://bit.ly/c1HEC2

[...] Will Straw at Left Foot Forward says the budget document has exposed Tory “lies” about their tax credit [...]

[...] Will Straw at Left Foot Forward says the budget document has exposed Tory “lies” about their tax credit [...]

RT @leftfootfwd: Tory "lies" on tax credits exposed http://bit.ly/c1HEC2

[...] Will Straw at Left Foot Forward says the budget document has exposed Tory “lies” about their tax credit [...]

j dennis_99: Tax credits are not benefits. They are a payment designed to encourage work and to make work pay. The aim is to stop/reduce the dependency on benefits.

On the bald face of it £30,000 might seem a lot of money but that doesn’t reflect individual circumstances. Deductions have not been taken into account. Nor living costs. For a couple working, there will be extra work associated costs such as travel, work clothes etc. Childcare will figure in most families’ outgoings and will be greater for a single parent household who doesn’t have extra cover. This increases dramatically if a child has SEN. And children are themselves expensive.

Reducing the incentive to work, espcially as GO made specific reference to lone parents being expected to look for work when their youngest child is aged 5, is not a good policy.

Obviously there are alternatives: increase the minimum wage, introduce a mandatory living wage, close the pay gap, force employers to allow parents to work any hours they want, provide universal free childcare. Not policies I expect to be introduced any time soon.

David Wickes: lies should be exposed, not least of all because it tells us something about character and what we can expect. The fact that the Tories lie, either together or when they’re in a coalition, is not a suprise. It is not so much a storm in a teacup as the thin end of the wedge.

Anna: the tax allowance is not relevant to the table. It’s showing income and tax credits. It’s not attempting to show net income. Most working people will benefit from the increased allowances, but families will lose that if they go above the tax credit threshold – it will cancel it out, if not wholly, then in part. They will still be worse off than they would have been if the Tories hadn’t lied.

Will: David Cameron, George Osborne, Nick Clegg, Teresa May all signed up to Gingerbread’s campaign to stop discimination of single parents by use of labels and language. GO specifically said in his speech that ‘lone parents’ would be expected to look for work when their youngest child reached 5. Not all parents. Not the absent parents. Just the lone parent. The implication being that ‘lone parents’ (who might be widowed, divorced, DV survivor) wouldn’t want to work, look for work volunarily and so are ‘benefit scroungers.’ More pre-election lies and hypocrisy.

Oh look, the Tories lied about tax credits too. What a surprise: http://bit.ly/c1HEC2 (by @leftfootfwd)

RT @sunny_hundal: Oh look, the Tories lied about tax credits too. What a surprise: http://bit.ly/c1HEC2 (by @leftfootfwd)

By 2012-13,no family with one child over age of one,income over £30,000 will get a penny in tax credits: http://bit.ly/aL80NQ (@leftfootfwd)

RT @sunny_hundal: Oh look, the Tories lied about tax credits too. What a surprise: http://bit.ly/c1HEC2 (by @leftfootfwd)

RT @sunny_hundal: Oh look, the Tories lied about tax credits too. What a surprise: http://bit.ly/c1HEC2 (by @leftfootfwd)

RT @sunny_hundal: Oh look, the Tories lied about tax credits too. What a surprise: http://bit.ly/c1HEC2 (by @leftfootfwd)

RT @humphreycushion: By 2012-13,no family with one child over age of one,income over £30,000 will get a penny in tax credits: http://bit.ly/aL80NQ (@leftfootfwd)

RT @humphreycushion By 2012-13, no family with 1 child over age of 1,income over £30k will get a penny in tax credits: http://bit.ly/aL80NQ

http://www.leftfootforward.org/2010/06/tory-tax-credit-lies/

RT @wdjstraw: Remember this on tax credits? RT @SamuelCoates Lies: http://j.mp/ciVBA6 << Who's lying now, Sam? http://bit.ly/c1HEC2

RT @humphreycushion: By 2012-13,no family with one child over age of one,income over £30,000 will get a penny in tax credits: http://bit.ly/aL80NQ (@leftfootfwd)

RT @sunny_hundal: Oh look, the Tories lied about tax credits too. What a surprise: http://bit.ly/c1HEC2 (by @leftfootfwd)

RT @politic_animal: RT @humphreycushion By 2012-13, no family with 1 child over age of 1,income over £30k will get a penny in tax credits: http://bit.ly/aL80NQ

RT @leftfootfwd: Tory "lies" on tax credits exposed http://bit.ly/c1HEC2

RT @sunny_hundal: Oh look, the Tories lied about tax credits too. What a surprise: http://bit.ly/c1HEC2 (by @leftfootfwd)

Have LFF worked out how this coalition thing works yet?

RT @leftfootfwd: Tory "lies" on tax credits exposed http://bit.ly/c1HEC2

@Jacquie Martin – ‘thin end of the wedge’ arguments (like ‘slippery slope’ arguments) are just lazy and irrelevant to the debate in question. whether this appears to confirm your preconceived prejudices is neither here nor there.

Also, how can you dismiss Anna’s argument on the grounds that the table is ‘not attempting to show net income’? Surely that’s the whole point at issue – you can’t possibly discuss whether someone is worse off or better off without reference to their net income.

I’m with David on this – this is just an extension of an existing plan, it’s hardly a policy U-turn. Banging on about ‘Tory lies’ in this instance just seems partisan and puerile – and distracts attention away from some of the more important issues on which we ought to be holding this government to account (in a grown-up way)

The tables indicate that we can expect future adjustments but a big change is the increase in the withdrawal rate from 37%to 41% (the rate at which tax credits are withdrawn as income increases). The tables only show scenarios without the childcare element of working tax credit (ie support to help pay for childcare costs). If you apply the new increased withdrawal rate there are dramatic cuts for working families with childcare costs now rather than in a couple of years.

@ Jacquie Martin:

Tax credits are payments from the State to citizens. They are benefits. Don’t kid yourself. And child tax credit in particular is not based on your employment status – it is paid to recipients of Child Benefit, regardless of whether or not they are working.

The lowest-paid in society are taxed, and then have to apply to have SOME of that tax given back to them in the form of tax credits. It would be far simpler to simply not tax them in the first place.

As far as deductions being taken into account, it should be noted that people’s basic living costs are roughly the same. Anything beyond your normal utility bills, food, clothing, and compulsory insurance is not a living cost, it is a lifestyle choice. And I personally do not believe that the State should be in the business of subsidising people’s lifestyles. I live reasonably comfortably on a wage of £18,000. I have two children, who I look after 3-4 days a week. The only benefit I receive is working tax credit, which refunds part of my income tax and national insurance. Now if I can cope with no net help from the State, it is perfectly reasonable for people on nearly £10,000 a year more to cope as well.

Before the election, Labour's claims about Tory plans to cut child tax credits were dubbed… http://reduce.li/y8gizt #lies