If income tax thresholds remain frozen benefits should too |
Consistency matters. If the fiscal situation is truly so dire that tax thresholds must remain frozen, then the same logic should apply to spending, says John O’Connell
The biggest casualty of the upcoming Budget will not be the rich or the poor. It will be those who are caught in the middle: the working and middle-income households already feeling squeezed.
The rumour is that the government is considering defining a “working person” as someone earning up to roughly £45,000 to £46,000 a year. That figure alone should raise eyebrows: if the threshold for “working” is set there, what does that say about everyone above it? The implication is that they’re somehow more able to carry the costs of a ballooning welfare state. That they can afford to shoulder yet more of the burden. That they should pay more again.
By drawing an artificial line at £45k, Labour can imply that anything done to those earning above it somehow won’t really hit “working people”. But of course it will. Most households earning just above that level don’t feel wealthy, many are senior paramedics, headteachers, school nurses,........