Isle of Wight families on low incomes, who rely upon Working Tax Credits to survive, are bracing themselves for further cuts.
As was widely reported during the election campaign, the Conservative party pledged they would be sticking up for ‘hard working families’.
Cuts too harsh
The Chancellor, George Osborne, plans to cut £12bn from the welfare budget affecting in-work Tax Credits – a move that has been slammed as too harsh by opposition members, and even the London Mayor, Conservative Boris Johnson, report the Financial Times.
A study by the Resolution Foundation think-tank says the Conservative cuts to tax credits (and other benefits) will push 200,000 children into poverty next year.
Impacting Island families
Here on the Isle of Wight, the proposed cut to Working Tax Credits could have a seriously detrimental impact on Isle of Wight families, who already struggling to pay their bills and put food on the table.
According to HMRC figures 7,900 working families on the Isle of Wight will be affected by the changes. Of those, 6,200 have children and the changes will affect the lives of 11,400 Island children.
Low paid families to lose up to £1,300pa
Ed Gouge, the Secretary for the Island Party said,
“Working Families Tax Credit was introduced by Gordon Brown to help people to get back into work by making sure that their income in work was more than their benefits when unemployed. It reduced the proportion of children in poverty from 35% to 19%.
“George Osborne is undermining this by taking away up to £1,300 a year from low paid Isle of Wight families, while his cuts to council funding threatens to reduce help to the same people to pay their council tax by £500 or more a year.
“Labour believes that the introduction of a proper Living Wage is the way to reduce the need for Tax Credits, not this attack on hard-working families and their children.”
Changes to council tax benefit too
The Isle of Wight council is currently conducting a consultation on proposed changes to council tax benefit, something that will affect those on low incomes.
There are nine possible changes that would affect just over 7,000 current working age claimants across the Island.
Make sure you share your views on the proposed changes before the deadline of 6th November.
No view from Island Conservatives
Earlier in the week, OnTheWight approached the chairman of the Island Conservatives, Ian Ward, for his view on the proposed changes.
He did say he’d get back to us, but at time of publishing (Friday), he’d not sent through his comments.
Image: sahdblunders under CC BY 2.0
