The Sun explains the welfare system properly*, for once:
Thousands [hundreds of thousands, actually] are currently losing 90p or more out of every £1 they earn through tax and lost benefits. A single mum of two earning £150 for a 16-hour week ends up with just 4p for every extra pound she earns.
She pays 20p in income tax and 11p in National Insurance. Then she loses 39p working tax credit, 20p housing benefit and 6p council tax benefit - a total loss of 96p in every pound. Treasury figures show 1.7million claimants keep less than 30p out of every pound they earn - including 130,000 who pocket 10p or less.
It appears that IDS has finally been bludgeoned into seeing commonsense:
RADICAL plans to make work pay and end Britain's crippling benefits culture are being drawn up by ministers. Claimants will be promised they can keep 40p in every extra £1 they earn if they start work. It will smash the hurdle for many on the dole who end up WORSE off if they take a job.
The 40p guarantee is at the heart of a revolutionary blueprint being drawn up by Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith and welfare minister Lord Freud. They are also looking to overhaul the benefits system to make it simpler.
I know for a fact that political parties read each other's manifestos and nick the bits they like, but this sounds a lot like UKIP's welfare policies at the last General Election, and to be fair, we based them in part on the Citizen's Income Trust's workings.
And don't forget that the Laffer Curve applies to welfare claimants as much as anybody else - it is quite possible/probable that if we reduce the total marginal withdrawal rate, the 'cost' of welfare would fall.
* Via UKIP Daily Briefings.
Friday, 16 July 2010
Lib-Cons nick another UKIP policy
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
W-e-e-l-l-l, you know, if they keep nicking them, then they'll get the right policies in the end.
Please pop by and vote on the fuckwits 2010 blogging list We're all bored with Mr's Dale and his sycophants giving each other a manipulated round of applause every Year.
What James Higham said! Labour did it (nicked UKIP policies) and now the LibCons have started. Someone once said that you can't get a cigarette paper between them!
JH, WFW, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. It's just a pity they didn't do the tax cutting, get out of EU, lift smoking ban as well :-(
I shall believe it when i see it. If i see it I'll be very pleased. Benefit withdrawal rates is the single biggest social and economic issue we have.
If that works, maybe they'll find a way to bring in a flat tax and citizens income, they'll be halfway there.
I think you'll find they just borrowed it.
You'll know this shortly as they will use it all wrong, b*gger it up completely then give it back looking worthless and criticise you for having mad ideas.
Al.
MA, I find it highly unlikely as well, but we can hope. As to 'flat tax', forget it, the Lib-Cons will hike VAT by 2.5% and will press ahead with 1% NI hike, thus making the taxation of incomes even less flat that it was before (and there's no talk at all of getting rid of 50% top rate).
Anon, there are some ideas that are so good (like CI or at least reducing marginal withdrawal rates) that it is difficult to do it badly. But no doubt they'll do their best :-(
Post a Comment