Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 570 party members responded, and we’re publishing the full results.
Overwhelming support for ‘further and faster’ tax-cuts for low-paid
LDV asked: The Coalition is committed to increasing the level at which income tax becomes payable, from its current £7,475 to £10,000 by 2015. The tax-free threshold was expected to rise by about £630 annually. However, in a recent speech Nick Clegg said, “I want the Coalition to go further and faster in delivering the full £10,000 allowance, because the pressure on family finances is reaching boiling point.” Do you support or oppose the income tax allowance being raised to £10,000 as an immediate priority for the Coalition?
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97% – Support
2% – Oppose
1% – Don’t know / No opinion
Well, I think that result is fairly definitive: a North Korean-esque 97% of Lib Dem members in our survey back Nick Clegg’s calls for accelerated tax-cuts for the low-paid. Here are some of your comments:
It takes the working poorest out of tax altogether – should be done immediately.
There seems to be little reason to delay doing this immediately. It’s not that we can’t afford it. We choose not to be able to afford it.
However, it would be more progressive to raise the National Insurance thresholds.
Provided we take equal action to recoup the cost through increased crackdowns on tax evasion etc.
We should aim to increase the threshold to £10k as soon as possible and then press for it to be further raised to the level of the minimum wage – after that, bring back the 10p rate up to the level of the “living wage” in each region.
Support – so long as the rise can be afforded without further expansion of the deficit
I support the idea of the minimum wage level being the income tax threshold
It should be the number 1 priority and we should seek to go further.
* Stephen was Editor (and Co-Editor) of Liberal Democrat Voice from 2007 to 2015, and writes at The Collected Stephen Tall.
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4 Comments
“Overwhelming support for ‘further and faster’ tax-cuts for low-paid”
“a North Korean-esque 97% of Lib Dem members in our survey back Nick Clegg’s calls for accelerated tax-cuts for the low-paid.”
Your article seems to imply that “low-paid” families are already enjoying tax cuts, and wouldn’t it be nice if we could just “accelerate” this process a bit to make it even more fabulous.
The reality is that millions of lower-paid families will be receiving letters from HMRC any day now telling them that they will lose their tax credits from April because they earn more than the new limits, or work too few hours per week. Around 200,000 low-paid families with parents working between 16 and 23 hours per week will lose thousands of pounds per year in tax credits. Many others will lose child tax credits because they earn more than the new £26,000 limit.
It’s the good old fiscal-smoke-and-mirrors trick: Give some people a tax cut, but then take back far more elsewhere in the system (in this case from some of the people who need it most), and declare yourself a tax-cutting party.
If Lib Dems think that increasing the income tax threshold to £10,000 (which will be of no benefit at all to the most low-paid – predominantly part-time women) will be a significant step to making things fairer, then they are deluding themselves.
Excellent and not surprising to hear. BUT. How do we rebutt the claims that low paid families will be worse off because of cuts to tax credits ?
Well, it’s Labour’s usual rubbish of crying that families earning over £26k are “low paid”.
“Well, it’s Labour’s usual rubbish of crying that families earning over £26k are “low paid”.”
Labour are more concerned about the 212,000 families with part-time workers on 16-23 hours per week who will be the biggest losers in the tax credit changes :-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-16992380
I doubt very many of them are earning over £26k. There’s something very amiss when a government which constantly drones on and on about “fairness” and “tax cuts for the low paid” produces a policy which hits families with part-time workers the hardest.