25 signatures reached
To: Chancellor of the Exchequer
UNFREEZE THE INCOME TAX THRESHOLDS!
We are asking the Chancellor to use his Autumn statement to stop the unfair freeze on the income tax thresholds – it’s a sneaky and deceptive way of raising taxes whilst pretending not to! Some commentators say it equates to a rise of about 9p in income tax.
Why is this important?
As well as squeezing middle-earners, it’s cruel, because it hits those at the bottom – pensioners and the low-paid – the hardest. Many pensioners will be dragged into the tax bracket for the first time, paying tax on incomes below the official poverty line. Much of the recent increase in the State Pension is simply being snatched back in tax!
Many of those affected are pensioners who have followed government advice and saved into a small private pension, only to find they are now just above the threshold for Pension Credit. The better-off may have to forgo some luxuries, but we have to forgo necessities, choosing between eating and heating. More people will need to use food banks, and more old people will die during the cold winter months.
Punitive taxation of low incomes is counter-productive for the government, as it deters people from saving for their old age. It also discourages the unemployed and those on benefits from entering the jobs market, as taking low-paid jobs may mean they actually end up worse off. Neither is what the government professes to want, yet their current policy has precisely that effect!
The government are shooting themselves in the foot, as they are treating the Electorate like idiots, thinking we wouldn’t notice the extra tax bill! And meanwhile they have just removed the cap on bankers’ bonuses…..
Here are a few other things the government could do to help the less well-off:
1. Reintroduce a 10% starting income tax band, which we’ve had in the past.
2. Restore the Age Allowance for pensioners, so cruelly stolen by George Osborne in his 2012 Budget (whilst lowering the top rate of tax!).
3. Uprate the thresholds for Pension Credit in line with inflation, as they have done with Universal Credit.
4. Increase the Warm Home Discount by more than the measly £10 we got last year.
I ask you to support this Petition and spread the word to your friends. The Government MUST unfreeze the tax thresholds, especially the basic rate, or they will forfeit our support at the ballot box!
Many of those affected are pensioners who have followed government advice and saved into a small private pension, only to find they are now just above the threshold for Pension Credit. The better-off may have to forgo some luxuries, but we have to forgo necessities, choosing between eating and heating. More people will need to use food banks, and more old people will die during the cold winter months.
Punitive taxation of low incomes is counter-productive for the government, as it deters people from saving for their old age. It also discourages the unemployed and those on benefits from entering the jobs market, as taking low-paid jobs may mean they actually end up worse off. Neither is what the government professes to want, yet their current policy has precisely that effect!
The government are shooting themselves in the foot, as they are treating the Electorate like idiots, thinking we wouldn’t notice the extra tax bill! And meanwhile they have just removed the cap on bankers’ bonuses…..
Here are a few other things the government could do to help the less well-off:
1. Reintroduce a 10% starting income tax band, which we’ve had in the past.
2. Restore the Age Allowance for pensioners, so cruelly stolen by George Osborne in his 2012 Budget (whilst lowering the top rate of tax!).
3. Uprate the thresholds for Pension Credit in line with inflation, as they have done with Universal Credit.
4. Increase the Warm Home Discount by more than the measly £10 we got last year.
I ask you to support this Petition and spread the word to your friends. The Government MUST unfreeze the tax thresholds, especially the basic rate, or they will forfeit our support at the ballot box!
