“Tax credits bombshell” as families in Bristol could lose £4,000 a year
Hundreds of parents in part-time work in Bristol could lose around £4,000 a year from this April, following a change to tax credit rules being introduced by the government.
Kerry McCarthy Labour MP, for Bristol East, is urging the Government to reconsider a little-noticed change to tax credit rules which means thousands of families will lose all of their working tax credits unless they can significantly increase their working hours.
The change means that couples with children earning less than around £17,700 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. This could affect 750 children living in Bristol East.
Government figures revealed in parliamentary answers to Labour’s shadow Treasury minister Cathy Jamieson MP show 355 households in Bristol East and 212,000 households across the country households 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.
Kerry McCarthy, Labour MP for Bristol East said:
“This 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.
“As it stands, the economy is stagnant, people are struggling to make ends meet, and many employers are cutting people’s hours. Very few people in part-time work will find be able to increase their hours by up to 50 per cent at the moment. And for a couple with children losing around £4,000 a year, or £75 a week, from this change could mean going out to work makes no sense what so ever.
“This tax credits bombshell is now just a few weeks away. For many families here in Bristol it means going out to work won’t pay and they’ll be better off on benefits. That makes no economic sense at all. The government urgently needs to think again.”
