Ahead of the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement on 25 November 2015, we had been asking single parents to tell us how important tax credits are to them. In his spending plans, Chancellor George Osborne announced that the proposed cuts to tax credits would not go ahead. This is a great success, however, there are separate cuts still […]

I’d like to share my story on why tax credits are important to me as a single mother. Firstly, I never thought I’d be a single mother. I was married (happily I thought) to someone I loved very much, we had been together 7 years and we were raising our 1 year old daughter together […]

I am a single parent with twin boys. I don’t receive any financial support or any other input from the boys’ dad or his family. I am about to begin work two and half days so that we can afford to rent our own two bed house in the local town. Since having the twins, […]

I am a well-educated woman. I had a successful career before making my decision to give up work to take care of my family. At the time, I was married to a man who had a well-paid job so I was fortunate to have that choice. My marriage broke down and I was left pregnant […]

I am a 51 year old mother of two young children and I claim Child Tax Credit.  Without it, we could not eat. Indeed, we sometimes still do not eat without desperately resorting to a credit card and we all know where that road leads. Like most single mothers, we went without any form of […]

I’m 40 years old and a single mum to my 3 year old son. What a relief it was to hear the tax credit cuts have been put on hold. I would like to thank everyone who made this happen. The fear and anxiety that I have is off the scale. My story 2 years […]

Last month, a number of the Redbridge Gingerbread group met with Wes Streeting, the Labour MP for Ilford North, one of 4 Redbridge constituencies. The meeting came at the end of an exciting week in politics. Days earlier, the House of Lords had voted for a motion which would delay George Osborne’s planned tax credit cuts for […]

I have always worked full-time up until I had my son at age 32. I was made homeless when he was barely eight months old when my marriage broke down as a result of domestic abuse. We spent a year living in a women’s refuge before being allocated a three bed flat in an undesirable area. […]

I’m a single mum of 2 boys aged 12 and 16. At the moment, I’m contracted to work 16 hours per week, but I am working 30 for a temporary period, and I’m still finding it hard to make ends meet. With things like school trips, new shoes for the boys, books for college and all the […]

My name is Melanie and I have a 7 year old son. I was married to his Dad and had been for three years. But, sadly when our son was 10 months old, I discovered he had a drug addiction. I had no choice but to leave our family home. My ex-husband never managed to […]