{"id":6338,"date":"2015-10-19T15:47:04","date_gmt":"2015-10-19T14:47:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=6338"},"modified":"2015-10-20T15:26:45","modified_gmt":"2015-10-20T14:26:45","slug":"broken-promises-and-tax-credit-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=6338","title":{"rendered":"Broken promises and tax credit cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"
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They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been described as plans based on \u00e2\u20ac\u015bpolitical and class dogma, and not economic necessity\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 by Unite general secretary, Len McCluskey<\/a>; part of an economic package that will worsen inequality, by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) <\/a>; and dubbed the \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWork Penalty\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/a> that will threaten any \u00e2\u20ac\u015bsense of optimism, opportunity and security<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 in this country by the Labour Party.<\/p>\n

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The government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cuts to tax credits: they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got a lot of attention, but not much support.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tomorrow night (October 20) the Commons will vote on these changes. If they pass it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll mean that the earnings threshold at which tax credits can be withdrawn will be slashed from \u00c2\u01416,420 to \u00c2\u01413,850.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re also rushing through cuts to child tax credits, which will mean families can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t claim for more than two children.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Tories have said this will only apply to children born after April 6, 2017 but if you stop claiming for more than six months and then need support again, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll only receive money for two children \u00e2\u20ac\u201c regardless of when they were born. <\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t what the electorate voted for: before the election David Cameron promised he wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t cut child tax credits<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Now the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098lies\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 are coming thick and fast. After making a u-turn on their pre-election promise, the Tories claimed that nine out of 10 families<\/a> would be better off under their changes.<\/p>\n

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Cherry-picking<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re cherry picking the figures: 3.3m households will on average lose \u00c2\u01411,300 a year. To cope with the cuts, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s estimated you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d have to earn \u00c2\u014111 an hour; the paltry National Minimum Wage (\u00c2\u01416.70 an hour) comes nowhere near this.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Neither does the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so-called National Living Wage (\u00c2\u01417.20 an hour by next April, \u00c2\u01419 an hour by 2020), which you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll only get if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re over 25 and won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t offset benefit cuts.<\/p>\n

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After Michelle Dorrell, a self-employed single mother, broke down on Question Time<\/em> over the impending cuts to tax credits, the reality of the Tories\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 plan has become clear.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Women will be affected disproportionately by the changes<\/a>; one million single parents in work will be \u00c2\u01411,000 poorer and one and a half million married women will lose \u00c2\u0141600 a year.<\/p>\n

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It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll hammer not just people on zero hours contracts and in low-paid work but also cabin crew members, bank workers and distribution staff.<\/p>\n

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The union Unison<\/a> has designed a calculator to estimate how much you could stand to lose (click on link to see how you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be affected). One thing is clear \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the breadth of the effect will be wide.<\/p>\n

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Time and again Tory cabinet ministers and MPs have repeated the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lacklustre response that people will be better off because of the changes.<\/p>\n

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But a number of Tory MPs could be unsure about committing to the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s plan when it comes to the vote.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Over the weekend it emerged that 71 Tory MPs<\/a>*<\/u> have more families living in their constituency who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be affected by the cuts than their parliamentary majority in May.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Poll tax\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 moment?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This could be the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s poll tax moment<\/a>, so it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s worth urging your local MP to vote against the cuts.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner believes, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bslashing \u00c2\u01414.4bn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s worth of tax credits is a vindictive assault on low-income families.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe Tory leadership says it wants to make work pay,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut if you look at the details in their budget, cuts to tax credits actually create a disincentive to work.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Len McCluskey has attacked the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s decision as \u00e2\u20ac\u015bheartless\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 and asked George Osborne change direction.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIncreasingly, this government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s claims to be on the side of hardworking families yet granting the rich and powerful the constant indulgence of successive tax breaks, is fast becoming a sick joke.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOsborne\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s looming working tax credits cuts are bringing terror to those working long hours on low incomes.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bTo them, George Osborne does not look so much like a leader in waiting as the hammer of the ordinary working people and their children. His appalling plans to attack working incomes must be dropped, now,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*If you are in one of the 71 constituencies there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still time to email your MP now and urge them to get George Osborne to not cut tax credits. For their details see<\/em> www.theyworkforyou.com<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been described as plans based on \u00e2\u20ac\u015bpolitical and class dogma, and not economic necessity\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 by Unite general secretary, Len McCluskey; part of an economic package that will worsen inequality, by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) ; and dubbed the \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWork Penalty\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 that will threaten any \u00e2\u20ac\u015bsense of optimism, opportunity and security\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 in this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3539,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[76,409,44],"wps_subtitle":"Attacks on families not what people voted for","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6338"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6338"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6339,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6338\/revisions\/6339"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}