What does the current unprecedented rise in children living in the borough mean for the Oldham economy? Labour Oldham says an increasing youth population is good as they will fund the pensions of tomorrow but Labour Oldham never chooses to discuss the financial costs associated with bringing those children into educated adulthood in Oldham. Negative contributions: receiving more in benefits than the sum of Income Tax & National Insurance deducted from a persons salary. Remembering that current pensioners never had access to many of the modern day benefits before their retirement including tax credits, figures show that basic pension payments for Oldham in 2012 cost approximately £194,000,000. Tax credits paid to working and non-working pre-pension adults (£168,593,600) when combined to housing benefit costs totaled £206,570,101. 26.3% of all Oldham homes (Dec 2013) were in receipt of tax credits with the average annualised amount received being £7,195 a rise of 18% from 2011/2012. 10,400 ‘working families’ in Oldham each received an annualised average £9,796 in tax credits. Almost ten thousand pounds on top of a wage is a staggering amount of in-work benefits that totally negates any Income Tax, National Insurance, Council Tax & a large proportion of VAT paid on goods & services. 7,400 out of work families each received an annualised £6,482 in tax credits. Compare these figures to the average Tax & National Insurance deductions on a £15000 wage which is approximately £1,850. Oldham is a false economy where childless singles and couples are the most disadvantaged people in Oldham shut out by deliberate political policy that creates an interdependence between the Labour Council & target demographic “family” voters. Compare this to the inequality of a single Oldham person already denied access to social housing & working over 30 hours per week being paid a miserly £13,000 per year who is entitled to just 86 pence per week in tax credits. Many of today’s parents will be in a negative contributory situation for 20 years or more of their working lives receiving over five times more in tax credits each year than they would ever have paid out as income tax & national insurance. Many of these parents have voiced the inexcusable opinion that pensioners should be subjected to austerity, a withdrawl of the winter fuel payment, lose their rights to a free bus pass & TV license so families can have more. Families within the high end tax credits niche in Oldham already get the lions share of all Oldham public spending from Oldham Council, the NHS, Central Government and local authority housing partners whilst in real terms financially contributing absolutely nothing to the services in which they cause backlogs, shortfalls & over-subscription.
