Left Foot Forward revealed that there was a £350m blackhole in the Conservative's tax credit plan. Couples earning £16,000 would lose out to bring in the £400m
Three weeks ago, Left Foot Forward revealed that there was a £350 million blackhole in the Conservative’s tax credit plan. A parliamentary answer laid today outlines that to recoup the full £400 million earmarked by George Osborne would mean couples earning as little as £16,000 each would lose out.
A Parliamentary Question by Andrew Gwynne MP asked the Treasury to “estimate the level of second income threshold for tax withdrawal required to reduce annual expenditure on tax credits by £400 million.” Finance Secretary Stephen Timms, replying on behalf of the Chancellor, said:
“To reduce total annual Tax Credit expenditure by £400 million, it is estimated that the second income threshold would need to be reduced to around £31,000.”
In his conference speech, George Osborne said:
“And I can also tell you today, we can no longer justify paying means tested tax credits to families with incomes over £50,000.”
At the time, the Times and Telegraph reported that this would save £400 million a year. Liam Byrne MP, Labour’s Chief Secretary to the Treasury, responded by saying:
“For the Tories to recoup £400 million from tax credits as they’ve pledged, Osborne had claimed he would only remove tax credits from those earning over £50,000. But figures released to Parliament today show that to raise the £400 million Osborne’s credibility depends on, a couple earning as little as £16,000 each would be hit by his tax plans.”
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3 Responses to “Couples earning £16k each would lose out under Tory tax credit plan”
Andy Dowland
RT @leftfootfwd: BREAKING: Couples earning £16k each would lost out under Tory tax credit plans http://bit.ly/5eMuD2
aidanskinner
RT @leftfootfwd: BREAKING: Couples earning £16k each would lost out under Tory tax credit plans http://bit.ly/5eMuD2
Mark Burton
“Liam Byrne MP, Labour’s Chief Secretary to the Treasury, responded by saying…”
He didn’t say that, his PR staffer wrote it. It’s OK to point holes in the Tories but why the verbatim CTRL-C, CTRL-V of Labour press releases?
You even copied the typo from Byrne’s press release! Leftfootforward seems to march in lockstep to the Labour press office.