A Salford mum-of-four who is a full-time carer for her 10-year-old learning-disabled daughter has spoken out over horrendous planned tax credit cuts that could push her further below the breadline.
Diane Hutchinson, who lives in Pendlebury, said she feared her family would not be able to afford the basics of food and utility bills after the April 2016 changeover.
Diane, who also has a 12-year-old and two children under four, told SalfordOnline.com: “I’m scared my children will be taken off me because I won’t be able to afford to feed them once my tax credits get cut down.
“Myself and my partner already skip meals to make sure our children are fed.”
Chancellor George Osborne is planning to axe £4.4bn from the welfare budget – including cuts to tax credits for the poorest paid.
Osborne is facing a backlash from voters over the planned cuts, which experts suggest will hit the lowest-paid hardest.
A stark warning by the Institute for Fiscal Studies found that 3 million families would lose £1,000 a year.
At the moment anyone working a minimum of 16 hours a week can claim Working Tax Credit, while parents can also claim Child Tax Credits.
But changes due to come into force in April 2016 will lower the threshold where tax credits are withdrawn from £6,420 to £3,850.
Diane does receive a carer’s allowance but this is also under consideration as part of Tory cuts.
The government says people’s incomes will be protected by the Living Wage and increases to free childcare, but the message from the lowest paid could not be more clear.
“When they do come into force a lot families will become homeless and we’ll see more children going into care as parents won’t be able afford their food, gas and electric bills,” said Diane.
“I think it’s wrong cutting Child Tax Credits as its for the child and not for the adult.
“I even had to go to Salford Food Bank in February when I was pregnant. I felt guilty taking food off people but not eating was putting my unborn son at risk.
“I’m scared more for my children than myself and I know a lot of people in low-paid work who will be affected.”
Her fears are echoed by Worsley and Eccles South MP Barbara Keeley, who campaigns for the rights of paid and unpaid carers.
“These cuts are a ‘work penalty’,” she told SalfordOnline.com.
“They will hit families with disabled children, they will hit carers, they will hit many working people and I have called on the Government to rethink this damaging policy.
“8,000 families and many working carers in Worsley and Eccles South rely on tax credits to pay for daily essentials.
“The Conservative Government is turning its back on support for people who will struggle without it.
“I am also very concerned about the impact the tax credit cuts will have on the incomes of many unpaid carers who juggle care and work.
“Family carers who work 16 hours a week on the national minimum wage will be affected by the cuts. Carers UK say that all carers who are receiving the Carers Allowance and Working Tax Credits will lose out because of the change.”
