Single parents better off under Labour's tax credits, while traditional families hit

[Legal Beagles]

Traditional families, where the mother stays at home while her husband works, are more likely to face poverty than single-parent families, Government researchers admit.

More...

[Amethyst]

Re: Single parents better off under Labour's tax credits, while traditional families




By Steve Doughty
Last updated at 10:41 PM on 27th June 2008

• Comments (0)
• Add to My Stories

Traditional families, where the mother stays at home while her husband works, are more likely to face poverty than single-parent families, Government researchers admit.
A single mother who goes out to work receives more through the tax credit system on average than a working parent who also has a partner to support.
Of nearly 6,000 families surveyed, 13 per cent of those headed by a single parent with a job had poverty-level incomes, according to the findings, published by the Department for Work and Pension.



Balancing the books: Two-parent families, where the mother stays at home while the father works, are getting less tax credits than single-parent families
But among two-parent families where one partner stayed at home raising the children while the other went to work, 15 per cent were in poverty.
The assessment of poverty is based on the DWP's measure of a family living on below 60 per cent of median income, with adjustments to take into account the number of people in a family.
When researchers also made a judgment of standard of living - with hardship based on the ability of families to afford new clothes or days out or consumer goods - they found that 11 per cent of lone-parent families in poverty were also in hardship.
But among two-parent families with stay-at-home mothers inpoverty, 22 per cent showed up as also experiencing hardship.
The DWP research showed that an average single-parent family got £101 a week in tax credits. But couples with one parent working got tax credits worth £98 a week - less than the single-parent families even though they had two adults to house, clothe and fee.



The findings were made public amid increasingly intensive Government efforts to persuade mothers to take job.
However, surveys show most women would prefer to stay at home to bring up their children, at least during their early year.
There are 2.3million single parent families in Britain and just over two million traditional families with a working father and a stay-at-home mother.
Academics from the largely Government-funded National Centre for Social Research examined evidence from the DWP's Families and Children Study for their report, which said: 'Most families who received in-work tax credits had low earnings and so were often closer to the income poverty threshold than families who did not receive them.
'This was particularly true for single-earner couple families. For these families in-work tax credits did not entirely make up the difference between family income and the income poverty threshold.'

[Amethyst]

Re: Single parents better off under Labour's tax credits, while traditional families

hmmmmm

difficult one cause there are so many contributing factors to take into account.

The DWP research showed that an average single-parent family got £101 a week in tax credits. But couples with one parent working got tax credits worth £98 a week

I get £114 a week in tax credits now I'm on my own

Before when i was with my husband, he worked..i didnt, I received £53 a week.

Doing a direct comparison is obviously ridiculous. And no way should I have received the same amount of tax credits then as i do now.

less than the single-parent families even though they had two adults to house, clothe and fee.

despite the missing d - whats the point ? the £3 a week less they quote is hardly a difference and the two adults had an additional income. They make it sound like working should be for your pocket money and the tax credits should pay for your living.

I did feel worse off financially at home but thats cause i had extra burdens of mortgage, debts, and bowling green fees lol.

I think maybe the comparison is skewed, maybe if they compare a working couple with kids with a single working parent and see what the individual tax credits per person actually takes the income up to would be a better comparison ? Living costs would be less for couples as bills although slightly higher for more useage etc are shared between you, a single parent had to shoulder all the bills alone. Thats a lot more than £3 difference.

[Guest]

Re: Single parents better off under Labour's tax credits, while traditional families

This kind of research is largely meaningless because it relies on statistical analysis and statistics only apply to groups, not individuals. Statistics are very useful in describing groups, but cannot be applied to an individual. There might only be 22% of two parent families experiencing hardship, but to the individuals involved, they either suffer [100%] or they don't [0 %].

[Amethyst]

Re: Single parents better off under Labour's tax credits, while traditional families

That is very true.

[scoobydoo]

Re: Single parents better off under Labour's tax credits, while traditional families

Personally I think some of the CTC scheme is an excuse to employ more civil servants.

My sister who works for me is on CTC - so I do the PAYE - deduct tax from her and the she has to deal with CTC to claim it back? How ridiculous. then as her hours are paid on a casual basis and can vary a lot - she is worried sick she may get overpaid and then owe them money.

For those in employment why not just raise the tax threshold depending on whether you have dependant children.

Before she was a single parent her partner used to fiddle figures and do as many cash jobs as he could so they could claim - whilst running around in a big expensive car.

The whole system needs a shake up so that those in genuine need get more - because I genuinely believe it is not being distributed fairly at the moment.