Budget 2013 - Working families 'no better off than before' (From Daily Echo)

Budget 2013 - Working families 'no better off than before'

9:08am Thursday 21st March 2013 in Politics

FOR many families across Hampshire they were hoping that George Osborne would offer some relief to the rocketing bills.

But for Baljinder Singh and his wife Pushwinder there seems there was little in the Budget that has changed their struggling household budget.

Like countless other young families across the county, both are working all the hours they can get to balance the family’s budget instead of spending quality time with their children.

But Pushwinder, 30, who lives with who their two children Yuvraj, four, and Amrat, two, in Eastleigh, said: “I just don’t think anything has changed and we are no better off.

“There is not anything that will help my situation and we have to work as hard to pay the bills and give the best to my children.”

Mr Osborne confirmed plans to offer help with childcare for parents who both go out to work, worth up to £1,200 a year.

But this does not benefit Pushwinder because she is already using a child care scheme with her employer. And child benefit remains the same as household bills skyrocket.

She said she wanted the Chancellor to directly tackle energy costs and to reduce petrol which has increasingly eaten into the family budget. She said: “It has gone up so dramatically and it is affecting so many people.

“I have to drop my kids off to a nursery each day and even though it is a short distance it can make a difference.”