Thanks to this idiot of a chancellor who is a new father as well its "hurrah " for kids & childcare
tell you what , why dont i pay 80 % and every woman can have 10 kids each
when will it ever end
we aren't exactly short of people in this country at the best of times
but his short term answer is more people to pay taxes for tomorrows pensioners except most of the kids are to scrounger families anyway who will grow upto claim off the state as well
Actually, it's *today's* pensioners we're paying for. Tomorrow's ones won't have anything unless the working population gets bigger to support them by filling up pension funds and creating wealth.
And how do we do that??
Take a guess...
(Actually, stepping up immigration would be a faster and cheaper option to avert mass pensioner poverty by 2030, but something tells me you may have some, er, views on that.)
More subsidies for childcare, and less money for families on average incomes. Yet again they claim to be "increasing choice" when what they are actually doing is skewing the tax/benefits system even further against families who choose not to dump their babies and children in Ofstead approved childcare.
No subsidies for a parent (or a Granny) who looks after their own children, they still get screwed by independant taxation, and the family element of the CTC is being frozen so average size families on average household incomes will be worse off in real terms.
They have increased the child elements of the CTC because one of their targets is to reduce "child poverty" - using the completely daft measure of "poverty" as
60% of average UK income after housing costs (the "poverty line" works out to
1048 per month for a family of 4 - after tax and housing costs).
But the effect of increasing the child element (which average size families on average incomes don't get), and reducing the family element (which 90% of families get), is they are increasing the already sky high marginal tax rates on families. Already large families and families on low incomes are hardly any better off in work than on the dole. If they carry on at the rate they're going it'll get to the stage where the average family will be hardly any better off in work.
People whinge about scroungers, but the tax credits, benefits, and income tax system all combine to encourage "scrounging". Tax credits and benefits are generous to low income families, while independant taxation screws average/above average income families.
So - you solution to this "problem" is to give less benefits to the poor to force them to work (and thereby boost the economy), and more benefits and/or lower taxes to the middle-class so they can be richer and boost the economy too?
My god that's brilliant! No government has EVER tried that before!! Write to your MP everyone! It's bound to make Britain the strongest economy in the world!
"Andy Pandy" wrote in message news:Bf_Bb.19975$ snipped-for-privacy@wards.force.net...
Yup, many low income workers would see less than 5p of every 1 pay rise they get, so are they really bothered about working harder and moving up the career ladder, or getting a slightly better paid job?
My preferred solution, as I recently posted on uk.gov.social-security, would be to abolish all means testing and pay everyone their applicable amount upgraded to include housing costs, and have a flat rate of income tax at about 50%. But that's far too radical for a government like this one or people with no imagination.
I'd settle for an end to the hypocrisy of assessing people for tax as individuals but for benefits (& tax credits) as a couple/family. Eg by allowing transferrable tax allowances.
Families are taxed far more heavily per person than single people & childless couples. If the income tax system was fairer to families, then complicated and bureaucratic tax credits wouldn't be needed for the vast majority.
That has been the case for years though, when that French Model (forget her name) who was used as the bust for some special reason in France moved to London. Blair and his cronies bleated on about how wonderful UK was with its low taxes.
There was total silence from Blair when the French Governments riposte was that they looked forward to seeing her back in France as soon as she got married and had children.
Exactly. The government seems to think that people are stupid enough to believe that a low basic rate of income tax means low taxes. Unfortunately they seem to be right, people really are that stupid.
A single person on an average income in the UK is probably better off than a single person on the same income in most other Western countries. But a family on an average income will probably be far worse off than their foreign counterparts.
It's not that rare! Anyway a lot of countries give generous tax allowances for children which easy exceed the child benefit and tax credits which a family on an average income here gets.
I thought adult involvement in the labour market was over 75%, which once you include all the pensioners and the 5% actually unemployed, doesn't leave that many single working families.
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