... reminds me of something that happened three years ago.
From the BBC:
MPs have overturned a series of defeats inflicted on the government's welfare reform bill in the House of Lords.
The coalition won seven key votes in the Commons, rejecting amendments made by peers and reinstating their original proposals into the legislation. These include plans for a £26,000 annual limit on total household benefits, including child benefit.
Ministers say they will use a rule known as "financial privilege" to ensure Parliament approves the cap... The measure, which the government says it will also apply to Lords amendments on employment and support allowance (ESA), relates to the principle that the Lords cannot oppose tax and spending decisions agreed by the Commons.
So surely the same principle applies to the reductions in Working Tax Credits..?
Tuesday, 27 October 2015
This House of Lords/Working Tax Credit thing...
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9 comments:
I think it does, but Boy George is messing around. He wants to appoint more Tory peers.
Read this:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-34644262
Excuse to reduce the impact I think. Along with "constitutional reform"
Random, I expect there's a gravy train waiting at the terminus with passengers wanting to disembark and he's got to make some space for them.
There was an analysis piece I found yesterday that showed how that things like the increase in the income tax threshold and other things had reduced the need for TC's by taking people out of tax. Mind you making VAT 20% was pretty stupid.
But, for I think political and self interest reasons, very few in government (and I include the quangos and the civil service in that) will ever think this through to the point where the CI light dawns.
Hopefully they'll increase the NI threshold - what a joke that people pay effective 20% NI on earnings of just £7500, lower if you don't work the whole year.
"Hopefully they'll increase the NI threshold."
Nah, it was all done for the ballyhoo factor of "relieving poor people from paying tax". In govspeak, NI isn't a tax, you see.
R, B, possibly. The "Lords" must have known they would provoke a reaction, but what sort of gamble are they taking?
L, M, off topic, but agreed. The civil servants don't like CI because there are no civil service jobs in it.
B, no politician has ever admitted that NI is a tax. That is part of their omertà. According to them, VAT isn't even a proper tax, so they can whack it up a bit with little political fall out. Notwithstanding that NI or VAT each raise five times as much as net Council Tax after rebates and discounts.
The welfare reform bill was a bill; the tax credit changes are a Statutory Instrument. The convention that the Lords can't interfere with budget bills doesn't apply to SIs (this was established by Conservative peers under the previous government).
JB, thanks that makes sense now.
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