PLANNED CHANGES TO TAX CREDITS IN APRIL 2012

That this House is aware that from April 2012 changes in tax credits for couples with children will require them to work up to eight hours extraper week in order for them to continue to qualify for working tax credits worth 3,870 per annum; notes that recent Written Ministerial answers to parliamentary questions have revealed that over 212,000 couples with 470,000 children in the UK will be affected by these changes unless, during the present economic recession, they can find extra employment time; believes that such changes will cause low income households to give up their employment because they will be better off on benefits, thereby forcing thousands of families out of work and into poverty and debt, the effects of which willbe long lasting; and calls on the Government todesist in its plans to introduce such ill-thought-out and negative changes.