Today’s figures should open up debate on how to reform the current system of tax credits and benefits. What is clear is that more needs to be done to address the growing number of people who are actively contributing to society but yet are finding it increasingly difficult just to get by.
The most read articles on Left Foot Forward this week.
Look Left, our round up of the week’s politics, will be going out shortly.
This policy will only work in the land where the Magic Job Tree grows alongside the Magic Money Tree that ensures all such jobs are well paid. And that only exists in the head of some policy wonks in Tory think tanks.
At a time when the mainstream political discourse seems preoccupied with boosting low pay, living wages and a citizens income it seems odd that the Conservatives would float the idea of reducing the National Minimum Wage. As many have rushed to point out, most evidence suggests that it boosts growth, putting money in the pockets of those most likely to spend
The Mayor of London famously stood up to the government in October 2010, warning of “Kosovo-style ethnic cleansing” and promising that this would never happen on his watch.
So why has he suddenly gone silent on the issue?
Within just three months the OBR’s forecast for growth in 2013 has been halved. The economy now looks set to be smaller at the time of the next election than it was when the crash hit in 2008 and our recovery remains the slowest in over a century. When the government took office they thought this year would see the economy expand by 2.9 per cent – their own forecasts now show we won’t reach that rate of growth by 2017.
The economic case for a new approach has never been stronger.
The Budget announced measures to help parents pay for childcare. But those in most need miss out on the biggest chunk of the support, argues Helen Barnard.
The new childcare policy will do very little to help the millions of people who have already lost out under benefit cuts, but it will help those with joint incomes of just short of £300,000.
It seems increasingly likely that the Labour Party plans to fight the 2015 election on a platform of retaining Britain’s nuclear deterrent. Instead it ought to consider the innumerable better things the money might be spent on.
