to buy votes. they're scandalous. if people aren't able to live on their wages, then force companies to increase the minimum wage to where they can.



my sister gets them. she drives a brand spanking new nissan juke (with a private reg). iphones, ipads, etc. good luck to her, meant i got a half decent xmas present.

HOUSE!



ffs. people in 'wanting free stuff shocker'.

Setting aside the political angle because all parties agree that in pricipal they are a good thing, child and working tax credits are the reverse option to raising the minimum wage, but most importantly they eliminate the long-held belief that some people are better off living on benefits - its very difficult to explain to a single parent why they should go back to work when they actually can earn almost as much in benefit payments as they can from working and looking at their resultant nett pay at the end of the week - give them a tax break so that they keep more or even most of their earnings and suddenly its a whole new picture, offer them a subsidy for child care and there is no longer any excuse for not working.



None of the political party's will argue a defence for deliberately keeping people out of work when there are initiatives like tax credits that cost the country less than paying out benefits, and neither should they - the only thing left to argue is where the line in the sand should be drawn, both recent governments have got that wrong in my opinion but it doesn't deflect the fact that tax credits are a good option.

The tories were vehemently opposed to the introduction of the Minimum Wage, stating that companies would be going bust wholesale. What chance do you think this bunch will mandate a Living Wage?

Politicians of all major parties in this country are cynical filith. Look at Labour with it's huge rises in NI. What has that acheived and have the Con-Dems reversed the jobs tax? What it has achieved is t create mass part-time working. Why does no one want to change it - because if they did instead of 2 part timers doing one job the supermarkets etc would employ one full-timer. What would that do to the unemploment figures? It's totally cynical throughout. If anyone thinks the Tories are cynical then look at New Labour - utterly disgusting.

Come back when your mummy has potty trained you.

Now you ARE having a laugh, fair for who exactly?? The two working parent families earning just shy of 100k keeping child benefit or the lone parent earning 50k? (I'm not talking about the fairness of the amount, just the logic)



Fairness that cancer patients are having to go and look for work??



Fairness that as from April if you have a "spare bedroom" and claim housing benefit, for every "spare" room your benefit will be reduced???



Fairness that after 20 years and paying 20% tax on one job and 25% on the other two simultanous jobs I qualify for nought because my husband earns more than 7.5k a year????



Yeah, this government are really being "fair"

I didn't say that it was, you little cretin.



I have consistently argued that Cameron is the son of Blair is the son of Thatcher.



Do try to make an effort to keep up.

oh bless, sweetheart. is that it? go on, have another rant about something if it makes you feel better. tell us about this mass army of loft insulators that will save the country.

to keep up with you i could easily afford to lose a leg. and develop asthma.



cretin? that's so sweet.

Should be fun if the prediction of a triple dip comes true.

a line has to be drawn somewhere if you want the 'rich' to start paying more/losing more.

good lord. is cancer now a death sentence that makes it impossible to work? my ex boss had it all wrong, working almost to the end, when she should have been at home/hospital simply waiting to die.

absolutely it's fair.

you do know that the taxes you pay don't sit in your own special account somewhere, waiting for you when you're a bit strapped. pensions have to be paid, wars have to be funded, bins need emptying, the terminally bone idle need cigarettes, etc etc. there'll be a bit set aside for you. but not much.

they're being as fair as previous governments. i mean the 10p tax removal that screwed the very poorest in society, shameful. and shame on labour voters who are now moaning about similar coalition policies.