Across the country the one million people in low-paid jobs who have yet to apply for tax credits should hurry up and do so before it’s too late and universal credit arrives in their area, say UNISON…Read more…
‘An inconsequential little protest’
Graeme Ellis didn’t expect that a very personal gesture of protest would help pave the way for the government’s budget u-turn on cuts to disabled people
The article ‘An inconsequential little…Read more…
Another graph for Nicky Morgan: Public service cuts make budget inequality even worse
The hapless performance of Education Minister Nicky Morgan on BBC’s Newsnight when confronted with evidence of the distributional impact of her government’s tax and benefit cuts made for cringeworthy TV. Morgan seemed genuinely shocked at the disproportionate losses inflicted on lower…Read more…
Disability cuts – a warped sense of priorities
The government’s decision to slash Personal Independence Payments (PIP) whilst giving a tax cut to those earning comfortably more than the average UK salary shows a warped sense of priorities.
The…Read more…
#Budget2016: TUC reaction roundup
The Chancellor, George Osborne delivered the 2016 budget yesterday, here is a quick round up of reactions from our TUC bloggers: Public Service cuts £3.5bn worth of cuts to public services by 2020. The spending cuts will be identified through an ‘efficiency review’. Cuts and increased pressures on…Read more…
#Budget2016: Pensions freedom tax boost for Treasury but what now for the workplace pension?
For the Chancellor, it was one bit of fiscal news to cheer in a Budget of downward revisions, cuts and slices. The Treasury has netted £200 million more than expected in tax from pension fund withdrawals after dramatically loosening restrictions in April.
The post #Budget2016: Pensions freedom tax…Read more…
#Budget2016 arithmetic made simple: the madness of George’s surplus rule
The Chancellor has broken his welfare cap. He bust his debt rule (again). The great part of the policy action seems to have been about making sure it wasn’t a full house of broken rules. Because of the significantly weaker economy, government revenues were down by an average of around £10bn a year…Read more…
#Budget2016: What’s behind the changes to business taxation?
George Osborne has cut corporation tax again. In 2020, the rate will go down to 17% – lower than the basic rate of income tax. Given the extent of the cuts being meted out to welfare spending and local government services, this choice – forecast to cost nearly £1 billion when it comes in…Read more…
Schools take centre stage in #Budget2016
As trailed in yesterday’s press, a centrepiece of the Budget is a move to make every school in England an academy and to strip local authorities of their long-standing role in education. The signs were there that this was on the cards with the Times reporting earlier this month that there would be…Read more…
Extra funding for flood defences welcome but don’t forget staff on the ground, says UNISON
Welcoming the Chancellor’s decision to increase tax insurance to pay for flood defences, UNISON General Secretary Dave Prentis said: “More funding for flood defences should help save people the pain…Read more…
#Budget2016: Women and low income households again bearing the brunt of austerity
Last weekend the Women’s Budget Group published a cumulative assessment of ten years of austerity, covering both the Coalition government (2010-15) and the policies announced thus far by the Conservative government that took office in May 2015. The findings of the research could not have been…Read more…
#Budget2016: No let up for the public services squeeze
2019/20 is shaping up to be a very tough year for public services, with enormous pressure on departmental budgets as the Chancellor attempts to achieve his budget surplus in that year. £3.5bn additional cuts to departmental budgets – excluding those protected areas of education, health,…Read more…
#Budget2016 risks Right to Buy groundhog folly
Today in the Budget the Chancellor once again asserted that ‘…we are the builders’. However, this hasn’t yet been borne out when it comes to housing. In the 2015 Autumn Statement, and again in the Budget, the Chancellor set out the government’s commitment to deliver 400,000 affordable housing…Read more…
Another budget, another year of cuts, another year of failure
We’re six years into the Osborne experiment, and the Chancellor is still forcing the British people to swallow the same medicine – even when it’s clear it’s not working
The article Another budget,…Read more…
#Budget2016 ignores housing crisis
Sadly although Chancellor Osborne once again asserted that his party were “the builders”, today’s budget largely ignored the housing crisis. The best that can be said is that there bit was a commitment of £115 million to help the homeless and rough sleepers, who must be the…Read more…
#Budget2016: Teachers’ pay under attack
The Chancellor’s announcement on academies in today’s budget represents, among other things, a significant attack on national pay bargaining in a sector that is overwhelmingly made up of women workers. The imposition of academy status on schools up and down the country matters to all of us. It…Read more…
#Budget2016: Lifetime ISA – an attempt to kill two birds with one stone
The Budget spectacle is usually littered with animal references: rabbits out of hats, foxes shot and so on. This year we can add to the zoological ranks, an attempt to kill two birds with one stone. A Chancellor faced with a generation struggling to ge…Read more…
This is not a Budget for the next generation, says UNISON
Commenting on today’s Budget, UNISON General Secretary Dave Prentis said: “Six years of severe cuts to public spending have done little to pay down the deficit, despite the Chancellor’s promises. Yet…Read more…
#Budget2016: A lost dozen years, with yet another hit to earnings and living standards
As the Chancellor confronts his failure to deliver a secure economy with stronger growth, working people confront yet another hit to living standards. Real earnings grew in 2015 by 2.5%, a positive figure for the first time since 2007; next year they w…Read more…
Budget 2016: Osborne’s five year failure to tackle the real problems
On Wednesday, Chancellor George Osborne will deliver his sixth budget. In his first budget back in 2010, he identified a number of challenges for our imbalanced and over-indebted economy that his strategy indended to resolve. He’s had five budgets since to tackle them, but looking back at his…Read more…