Over 20% of families with disabled children are going without heating, according to a charity.
Contact a family, a charity that helps parents with disabled children, says families are under severe financial pressure.
The research, called Counting the Costs was carried out by the charity Contact a Family. It surveyed over 1,000 parents with one or more disabled children and found that a higher number were going without heating than two years ago, when the research was last carried out and that many had borrowed money from family or friends or. The charity wants the government to simplify the benefits system and make child care more affordable for families with disabled children and for energy companies to make social tariffs more accessible.
The Conservative and Lib Dems have said they’re going to cut tax credits and restrict the child trust fund.
The new government wants to target tax credits and the child trust fund. A prudent move or one that will penalise families?
The new coalition government has wasted no time in setting out some of the changes designed to bring down the budget deficit. In their coalition agreement both the Conservatives and the Lib Dems said that they wanted to cut tax credits for higher earners. The £250 child trust fund voucher payable to parents is also likely to go for all but those families on the lowest incomes.
Working tax credit and child tax credit, understanding the basics.
The tax credit system is complicated and that's one reason why some women lose out - make sure you're not one of them.
Many women don’t currently claim tax credits because they don’t know whether or not they’re entitled to receive them and they’re worried about having to pay back money they shouldn’t have received. But tax credits can make a difference to your income, especially if you’re entitled to working tax credit when you can also claim towards the cost of child care. The government changed the rules recently so that anyone who’s been paid too much in tax credits will only have the difference between what they should have received and what they’ve been paid clawed back. Under the old system, you had to pay the lot back and make a new claim, which could mean a wait before your new claim is processed.
