I don't agree that raising personal tax allowances is the solution. The problem for the poor is the withdrawal rate of benefits.
Cheers,
I can't afford to put anything to a pension because 40% of the outrageous amount we pay in council tax goes to pay their pension.
I'm taxed to the hilt in order that greedy MPs and MEPS can have plenty to stick their snouts into.
I'm poor and getting poorer by the day and I'm pissed off.
My job pays less than it did 20 years ago but the cost of everything has rocketed.
My kids and their contemporaries have no future and no hope and spent their free time getting pissed legless to try and forget what a shithole this country has become, how we've all been robbed blind by people who were once our servants.
I disagree with Mark.
The amount raised by taxing the worst paid is fairly insignificant (especially when the bureaucratic deadweight of collecting it is taken into account) to anyone but those people - who then don't have enough to live on, and so have to claim benefits.
If people - especially the worst off - can keep more of what they earn, they'll need fewer benefits and so the issue of the rate of benefit withdrawal is minimised. The complexity of benefits is also a big problem - people can't understand them, and so fear rapid withdrawal (and often demands for repayment when it comes to tax credits) if they try to earn more. Consequently, they either don't claim benefits, or they don't try to earn more.
Commenting by HaloScan
