Behind enemy lines

From the BBC:

Families with children will be hardest hit by tax and benefit changes aimed at cutting the deficit, a charity (1) argues.

The Family and Parenting Institute (FPI) says the average income of households with children will drop by 4.2% between 2010-11 and 2015-16, the equivalent of £1,250 a year. Average household income however will fall 0.9%, or £215 a year, say the FPI... The figures, calculated for the FPI by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) (2), suggests much of the fall in income during these years will be due to tax and benefit changes, as well as other reasons such as falling incomes.

"This research confirms that families with children are shouldering a disproportionate burden," said Katherine Rake (3) of the FPI...

In reply the government pointed to policies that it says are already relieving the burden for families. "The prime minister acknowledged that families are facing difficult times so the government has taken practical steps to help them - cutting fuel duty, freezing council tax and cutting income tax for millions," said the government in a statement. (4)

1) Might that be a fakecharity? Why yes! I gave their accounts a closer look two years ago. But weren't Blulabour going to get rid of all the fakecharities which Nulabour set up? You might think so, as this lot appear to be a thorn in the government's side, but as I said two years ago:

We all knew that Labour would do a scorched earth policy before handing over the keys to the Tories, but they've pre-financed this particular bunch to continue the fight from behind enemy lines: of all that lovely taxpayers' money rolling in, they've tucked away £7,480,898 at the bank (balance sheet, page 15 of the accounts) to keep them going for a couple of years after Blulabour has taken over.

Their taxpayer-funded income in the years straddling the change of government, i.e. to 31 March 2010 and 31 March 2011 (see page 14 2011 accounts) was £8.5 million a year, half what it had been under Nulabour, but they still had £5.8 million cash as at 31 March 2011 to keep them going for a couple of years.

2) The IFS are pretty straight, I think we can take their figures at face value.

3) Who is "raking" it in, no doubt.

4) Totally irrelevant statement: those changes or freezes were incorporated in the figures anyway; and those changes or freezes apply to all households, not just 'families with children' (what the FPI actually mean is 'families with children on benefits').

Note also that the government is obsessed with freezing the least-bad taxes fuel duty and council tax, and claims to be reducing income tax while having massively increased stealth taxes on income such as VAT and National Insurance, which are far worse.