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Osborne Does A U-Turn !

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mikey4444 | 08:28 Tue 27th Oct 2015 | News
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-34644262

"I have said I would listen and that's precisely what I intend to do," he said. "I believe we can achieve the same goal of reforming tax credits saving the money we need to save to secure our economy, while at the same time helping in the transition"

He promised "transitional help" for those affected after his party was defeated twice in the House of Lords.

But would he have listened this time yesterday ?
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Obama has the same problems in the U.S Congress, as we do with the House of Lords. Bad day for the Tories.
08:57 Tue 27th Oct 2015
vitriol?
Where are the fathers of all these single mums the taxpayers are subsidizing
This is all about mikey and how little his own now virtually insignificant "party" give him to be excited about....

oh go on, let him have his moment...
Mikey, surprised you are so happy to have your democratically elected government overridden by a load of sherry soaked buffoons.
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Morning TTT !

I watched the debate live yesterday .....well, until 19:03, for obvious reasons.

I saw very few sherry-soaked old buffoons, although there was a sprinkling of ex-Tory Cabinet Members.......perhaps you were meant them !
That last post of mine was from my phone, it should of course read "the fathers of the children of the single mums" but you worked that out.
and further to it; on last night's news was a single mother, a teaching assistant, bringing up a child on £10,000 p.a. and looked to be in line to have her tax credits cut. But no one ever seems to ask why isn't the child's father making a contribution?
I have a divorced daughter who is bringing up her child alone, but my ex-son in law has always made generous financial help.
Nowhere else in Europe do these fathers get away so easily, with taxpayers picking up the bill as in the UK.
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Khandro...there may be many reasons that absent fathers do not make any contributions. Fecklessness is a major factor, I will admit, but its not the only one.

Perhaps the father is dead, or in Prison, or out of work ? Perhaps the father is is in work but paid so little that there is no money left to give ?

But its a mistake to think that WTCs are only paid to single Mums. WTC's are incredibly complicated, but this BBC link goes some way to explaining how people qualify ::::

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34572807

Most of these are just the kind of people that the Tories are saying that they represent. If these changes go ahead, in the way that Osborne had formally intended, then they will hurt the very people that we should be encouraging.
After all, the idea of this benefit is to encourage people to work.

its going to be an interesting day in the House of Commons !
mikey; If the father is dead (rather unlikely, but not impossible) then she is a widowed single mother. There are other scenarios which might apply and would be taken in account, but for example, in Switzerland before a cent is handed out to an unmarried mother there has to be a tribunal with the father who has to be named of course, and the parents of both parties, all their circumstances are taken into account and a decision is then taken on if, and how much to be awarded, and the mother is left in no doubt that any money she is given is coming from her fellow-citizens.
In the UK, getting pregnant and having a child has become a fast-track to getting your own accommodation and income.
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I agree K with most of what you say but WTC's assist lots of people, not just singe mothers, and that was my point.

Anyway, Osborne has dropped an enourmous testical here, and its all his own fault.
I said last week that he would come up with something in his autumn statement.
Gideon has his eyes on a higher prize I suspect
Personally I'm rather suspicious that Dave and George deliberately picked a fight so they would have an excuse to do something with the Lords. If they did, such as make it electable it would actually end up a big political coup.

And I agree with the absent Fathers. As for the woman on sky I seem to recall the report saying the father left before the child was born.

Tax credits is far to expensive and far too complicated. It needs to go and something better put in its place. Handouts to single parents should not be given except under exceptional circumstance; like death.
“I said this earlier, why are they not kicking Amazon / Starbutts, are they afraid of them?”

Because, TWR, those companies are using legitimate means to minimise their tax bills so that the money they earn is not wasted by giving it to people who do not deserve it. All individuals and companies have an obligation to reduce their tax bills to the absolute minimum.

“Prudie...the Tories have 249 Peers and Labour has only 213 !”

No Mikey, the Tories have 249 Peers and The Rest (which include a number of the recently ejected former LibDem MPs) have around 550.

It’s scandalous, and a great shame thatthese measures have been delayed/watered down or whatever. Tax Credits are one of the greatest scams of modern times. “Work half a week and the taxpayer will pay you for the other half”. And they are designed to “encourage work”. Yeah Right. So I work 16 hours a week for the minimum wage (netting me around £5k pa) and the taxpayer pays me another £5k. If I increase my hours I will lose, almost £ for £, my tax credit payments to coincide with my increased earnings. And that’s supposed to encourage me to work?

A few sums need to be done before hands are thrown in the air in horror. There were some interesting worked examples on the BBC website showing the effect of these cuts. A single person working 20 hours a week @ £9.35 per hour will be £1,000 worse off. Well all that person has to do is work an additional two hours a week to make up the shortfall. Just two hours. A couple with two children where one works 37 hours and one works 16 hours @£9.35 will be just £850 worse off. That requires them to work just 1.8 hours more a week between them. Just what is so outrageous to expect people to work so little extra to maintain their income?

Nobody should be entitled to tax credits until they are working 35 hours a week and only then should payments be considered after rigorous enquiries are made into their finances. The way to get more cash is to work more hours or gain some skills to get a better paid job. This government was elected to put a stop to this ridiculous largesse and the Lords have intervened in a manner that does not become them.
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NJ...sounds like sour grapes to me, if you will allow me to say so.

There are 176 Crossbenchers as well as 213 Labour Members and 26 Lords Spiritual ( hardly members of the Workers Revolutionary Party ! )

This is entirely Osborne's fault. He made a serious mistake in formulating this legislation in such a cack-handed way in the first place. When he ignored his own Party Members, when they raised concern, what happened last night was inevitable.

We must remember that dave only has a majority of 12, so what happened last night in another place, could easily have happened in the Commons.

Shooting the messengers, rather than listening to the message isn't going to cut the mustard !

dave and Osborne have cocked it up...why can't you face up to it ?
I know a lot of people who would chop their right arm off (if that wouldn't disqualify them) for £9.35 per hour.

The system definitely needs reform but was too rushed and ill considered , let's hope they can sort it out better.
NJ Your answer that these people who only work for say 16 hrs. per week should work for many more hours,is not an option in many cases. Full time jobs are simply not available to them,for many reasons including zero hours contracts.

Tell your theories to the thousands of steel workers who are being made redundant,who have no hope of any employment in their home towns,as these towns will shortly be turned into something akin to wastelands.

How are they going to get your recommended 35hrs.per week.

Come off your exalted pedestal and stop pontificating right wing rubbish.Many people live in the real world and life can be pretty tough for them.
SirOracle; Like you, I really feel sorry the steelworkers of Redcar and other places, they have been let down by government and a string of self-interested foreign owners all blaming the world markets, which can fluctuate and leave the UK without an industry to re-commence.
For the younger and more adventurous of them though there are alternatives, they could, for example move to Germany where there is plenty of work in the steel industry;

http://www.make-it-in-germany.com/en/for-qualified-professionals/working/industry-profiles/steel-and-metal-industry
Well that wiped the smug smile of Osborne's face didn't it ???
816 lords is a joke!
We should stop paying them to attend - possibly charge them for tickets, and make the bars charge full prices.
Thank you Khandro for your support.

I agree that some could move to Germany ,and of course this raises the question of how Germany can have a thriving steel manufacturing industry,and the UK is unable to do so.

The finger must be pointed at Westminster for allowing this situation to develop .

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