Budget: The family (From The Oxford Times)

Budget: The family

10:00am Thursday 21st March 2013 in News

HIGHER tax bands and scrapped duty rises are small mercies for the Boyce family, who say the damage is already done.

Tom and Teresa Boyce, of Bears Hedge, Iffley, have to feed themselves and their children Rebecca, 13, Lillie, 11, and Jamie, four, on money from Child Tax Credits, Working Tax Credits and employment support allowance after Mr Boyce stopped working because of an employment dispute.

They receive about £207 a week in total, but do not claim council tax or housing benefit, and have to use top-up meters for their utilities for fear of facing a bill they can’t pay.

The family pays £100-a-week in rent and £20 in bills. They also run a car.

Providing he goes back to work, Mr Boyce will be £31.50-a-month better off when the tax-free allowance rises to £10,000 next year, but he said it would make little difference.

The 57-year-old, who used to earn £360 a week before tax, said: “They always talk about these things they’re going to do for people in one year, two years, but all the things they do to take money from you happen instantly,” he added. “If they give you more money from one place, they take it away from you somewhere else, so it doesn’t make a difference.

“And there’s all this talk of beer duty and fuel duty, but if you go to the pubs now, it’s only single people in there when it used to be families.

“They’re closing the stable door once the horse has bolted.”