Sponsored by
A suitable working wage
WHILE I support the need for a programme of welfare reform can I suggest that this Government stops its ‘continued propaganda’, you would think that everyone claiming benefits is on more than £26,000 or above per year.
Let me dispel this myth that it pays not to work: if you work and earn £26,000 you are eligible for in-work benefits. If you have a non-working partner, four children, and live in the London area, then the online benefit checker says that you will get around £8,000 in tax credits, £16,000 in housing benefit and £3,000 in child benefit. Your benefits total £27,250, and your total income is £48,000 net.
Incidentally seven out of eight people are on one kind of benefit or another and are in work, the system needs to change; when someone works 40-50 hours a week and can’t keep a family on the wage they receive, the taxpayer is subsidizing employers who won’t pay a decent wage.
It may sound like odd logic, but in reality the £26,000 benefit cap, takes no account of employment history or family size, so a couple who have never worked are unaffected, because they currently receive less than £26,000 in benefits. But a large family – even in a cheap house – will be hit. Is this really fair?
The only ground to support the £26,000 cap is to believe that unemployed people with large families should be poorer than they currently are. If you believe that, support it. If you don’t, oppose it as I do. In my opinion to reduce the overall Welfare bill this government and any future government needs to be promoting not just a minimum wage but a suitable working wage.
D Calder,
Swinley.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Wigan
Friday 25 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 25 C
Wind Speed: 23 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 23 mph
Wind direction: East
Your view
Please sign in to be able to comment on this story.