Wednesday 20 August 2008

Tax credits - update

Bill Quango MP asked: Any ideas what the Tories plan to do with tax credits? If its what is required I fear they may face a fine for seriously overfilling their wheelie-bin.

To which I replied: Don't forget that Tax Credits is just Family Credit, (which the Tories introduced in 1987, which itself was probably just a replacement for something else), but repackaged with extra complications. The Tories will just invent dozens of additional amendments and tweaks, fill a wheelie bin or three with the daftest ones and then introduce the rest..

And here we have it! According to a pre-released speech, George Osborne will announce that the Tories will: strengthen tax credits by tackling the "couples penalty" which he says disadvantages couples who live together - and improving administration of the system. "There is absolutely no Conservative plan to in any way get rid of tax credits, indeed if anything we want to strengthen tax credits."

Further, since when does the gummint engage spambots to disseminate propaganda on 'blogs? Following the above exchange, this was posted: Ben said ... "Hi Mark, Really interesting post thanks. There's a load more links on Government legislation, impacts on tax, etc here:
http://www.childcare-vouchers.net/benefits/legislation.aspx
I hope it helps, thanks again,
Ben.


I'd normally delete that sort of crap, but in this case I'll keep it as evidence.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

MW

On "Today" this morning Osborne (between interruptions from his interviewer) regurgitated Labour tax policies, calling them "Conservative". He even moaned about the increase in "child poverty" and the increasing gap between rich and poor. I was waiting to hear him say "something must be done". The next GE may see a lot of manure slung onto the fields of unemployment but, unfortunately, it seems that the new manure will produce the same weeds.

Mark Wadsworth said...

He even moaned about the increase in "child poverty"

It would have been cooler if he'd complained about the increase in the number of unemployed people having kids.