‘TAX CREDITS BOMBSHELL’ AS 1,000 COUPLES IN DERBY COULD LOSE £4,000 A YEAR

CHANGES to tax credit rules, being introduced by the Government in April, will result in over 1,000 Derby couples with children losing around £4,000 a year.

The move is being introduced as part of the Government’s austerity measures and will affect couples who are working part-time. Couples will need to increase the number of hours they work from a minimum of 16 to 24 hours per week or they will lose all their working tax credit of £3,870 per year.

The HMRC’s website explaining the changes says:

At the moment, if you're responsible for at least one child and working at least 16 hours a week, you can get Working Tax Credit.
From 6 April 2012, the rules for couples with at least one child are changing. In most cases, to qualify for Working Tax Credit your joint working hours will need to be at least 24 a week.
This will mean:

• if you both work your joint weekly hours must be at least 24, with one of you working at least 16 hours a week
• if only one of you works, that person must be working at least 24 hours a week
• If neither of these apply, your Working Tax Credit will stop from 6 April 2012.

Government figures revealed in parliamentary answers to Labour’s shadow Treasury minister Cathy Jamieson MP show 212,000 households across the country could lose out.
A recent survey by the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development found that one in five organisations have cut back on the number of hours that people work as a result of the economic downturn, with just 6 per cent increasing them.

This tax credits bombshell is now just a few weeks away. It is a deeply unfair change from a Government that is increasingly out of touch with parents feeling the squeeze and struggling to juggle work and family life.

Raising taxes and cutting spending too far and too fast has seen unemployment rise and the economy going into reverse resulting in many employers cutting people’s hours. And it tells you everything you need to know about the warped priorities of the Tory-Lib Dem Coalition.