New Labours 5.3 million losers

The Labour party send me a leaflet with Rhrodri Morgan saying that families will be better off and he will abolish child poverty? If I vote for Sophie Howes New Labour policy then I am voting to make poverty worse! Labour in wales is seeing the poor getting poorer? So how will they manage that while making parents worse off and making families poorer? The Uproar over Labour's claim that families in Wales were £5,000 better off since devolution is quite justified and dismissed by opposition parties as "contrived and ridiculous" .(Martin Shipton, Western Mail)

More people are poor than the gov admits and what do they do..... increase tax for the poorest...5.3 million people 'losers' after the abolition of the 10p rate in income tax, reduction in the 22p band to 20p and realignment of national insurance contributions with the upper 40p band. oh and don't forget that PCS members are on strike may 1 about job losses and low pay.
Extra 100,000 adults in poverty

Rise in poverty worse than stated Tania Branigan, political correspondent Tuesday April 24, 2007 The Guardian

The increase in people living in poverty is worse than official figures claimed, it emerged yesterday, after the Department of Work and Pensions found its statistics had underestimated the rise by 100,000.

...Yesterday's correction showed the total rising from 12.1m in 2004-5 to 12.8m (not, as thought, 12.7m) in the last financial year. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has ascribed the rise in poverty to increases in tax credits and benefits lagging behind the rise in average earnings last year. The work and pensions secretary, John Hutton, said the error occurred because incorrect population estimates were used. He said it did not affect the child poverty figures. Children in low income households rose for the first time in six years - by 200,000 - to 3.8m.

Poor adults of working age rose from 5.3m to 5.4m.


UK MPs call for income tax change impacts to be listed in Budget 'Red Book'04.23.07, 11:18 AM ET

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - The impact of income personal tax changes imposed by the Treasury should be listed in the Budget's 'Red Book' so people can easily work out how they will be affected, a group of MPs said today.
Parliament's powerful Treasury Select Committee discovered during its probe into last month's Budget that 5.3 mln people would be 'losers' after the abolition of the 10p rate in income tax, reduction in the 22p band to 20p and realignment of national insurance contributions with the upper 40p band.
'An important part of any change to the personal tax regime must be that both winners and losers can identify, with ease, how they are affected by the changes stated within a Budget package,' the committee said.
The Treasury has maintained that 'losers' under the tax changes would recoup lost cash by claiming higher tax credits.However, take-up of these credits is poor, with 75 pct of those entitled not claiming.

Income Tax - lowest paid who found themselves out of pocket by the changeThe chancellor, Gordon Brown, faces a Labour backbench challenge over his decision to abolish the 10p income tax band from next April, it emerged.
Frank Field, the former Labour welfare reform minister, said that an amendment would be tabled "when the time comes" to provide "transitional protection" for those made worse off.
He challenged the Tories to support Labour backbenchers in a move to help the lowest paid who found themselves out of pocket by the change.