Petition Raise Tax Credits threshold to at least the Minimum Income Standard (MIS)

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation said its annual Minimum Income Standard (MIS) study suggests families must earn a third more than in 2008, to live within social norms (for details see www.jrf.org.uk/mis). A couple with 2 children need £36,800, single people £16,400 a year, while the figure for a lone parent with one child is £23,900 and a pensioner couple £12,000 each. This MIS standard includes earning enough to eat a balanced diet, run a car and heat the home, it does not include luxury items such as holidays or other things people take for granted. This figure is considerably higher than the recent values introduced by the coalition government meaning thousands of working families have had their tax credits stopped. Most of us are not well off, and relied on this money to help with childcare so that we could both work. The government should raise the tax credit threshold to at least this figure (£36800 for a two-child couple) so that we can all live at the MIS.