Nothing so far this year has gone well. Unexpected deaths, unwelcome bouts of illness and a unbelievable conservative victory in the general election have left us feeling battered and very bruised.
Even now as I write this, our planned summer trip to Austria isn't happening. It's just been one of those years so far. So what does it mean for our moving plans? Not a lot really, and yet everything.
Whilst deaths and illness have slowed us up, it's the new government that has really helped push us to get to Vienna. Just last week, we had the first conservative budget since the mid 1990's and as expected, there were winners and losers. Invariably, we were in the losers camp. It all comes down to work. Or more importantly, working tax credits.
Working tax credits are a benefit paid to the lowest paid people to help 'top up' their wage to something survivable. At present, anyone earning £6400 or less a year after tax goe the full amount. The problem is that the system put in place back in 2004 has become bloated rising from a £3 million cost annually to a very large £30 million today. So something had to change. With over 98% of the working population eligible to came the benefit, I have to agree that change is needed. The problems begin when you start to look at the suggested change, and the idea behind it.
The current thought process says 'paying tax credits to people allows businesses to have low wages and let the government top up the difference.' Solution, 'remove tax credits and businesses will have to increase their pay.'
That's where the whole idea falls down though. If you run any business in the UK, by law, you must pay the minimum wage. This is set by the government and is mandatory. Removing the tax credits won't increase the minimum wage, and an employer isn't legally bound to increase an employee's wage if they are already paying the minimum. Let's face it, if you run a business, you want to make money, and whilst it's noble to say, 'yes, I will pay a better wage so the government doesn't have to' it's not likely. The thought tha businesses will act altruistically hasn't really been born out.
As a way to tackle this, the chancellor announced the arrival of the new 'living wage' which will set a new minimum of £9 ph in 2020 as it rises from the current level of £6.80. The thing is, this rise doesn't compensate for the loss of the tax credits, so the most vunrable employees are the ones who are going to lose the most, and will find themselves anywhere between £800 and £2000 a year worse off.
So what about us. The idea above is based on the principle of the employee at a firm. The thing is, tax credits are also there to help the self employed persons, like us. Now being self employed, we can't really raise our own wages, and the tax credits are often there to help keep us afloat whilst we wait for payment for jobs done, some of which can take 60 days to pay from the point of invoice. So with a lowering of the threshold from £6400 to £3895 in April, we're going to be £1200 worse off. Add to that the slow death of local services from the council and our time in the UK is up.
So, we've sat down and drawn up a plan that will see us move for as little as possible. There'll be no moving company to help pack boxes, or to deliver them to us in Vienna. Instead it will be us, a loaded down car and a 1000 mile trip across Europe in three days.
We've worked out what we need to survive and it'll all fit in one load in the car. So look out Vienna, we could be there sooner than you think.
