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General Anti-Avoidance Rule (GAAR) will fail to stop tax avoidance
New TUC research (undertaken for us by Richard Murphy of Tax Research) shows how weak the government’s latest anti-avoidance measure really is. You might think that an initiative labelled as an...
View ArticleYoung people short changed from the Autumn Statement
Youth unemployment remains close to 1 million, and the government’s existing schemes are proving not to work. In particular, the Youth Contract has failed to deliver anywhere near the number of...
View ArticleIs the state pension age really going up?
The state pension age is set to rise. In the 2011 Autumn Statement the Chancellor announced that the Government intended to bring forward a previously announced increase in the State Pension age to 67,...
View ArticleWhat will happen to next year’s NMW?
The NMW has been hitting the headlines. As the recovery picks up, with further improvements forecast for next year, there finally appears to be at least some agreement across the political spectrum...
View ArticleWhat has the Chancellor announced on the minimum wage?
The Chancellor’s announcement on the minimum wage at 5pm this evening has already been spun as a committment to a £7 an hour minimum. But importantly this is not what has been announced. As I have...
View ArticleGovernment calls for forward guidance on the minimum wage
The government has today published the detail of its final evidence to the Low Pay Commission, which provides some helpful clarity on the facts behind the various headlines of the last few weeks....
View ArticleAre children being affected by the benefit cap?
Reading DWP’s press release on their latest benefit cap statistics, you could be forgiven for thinking that this is not a policy which is hitting family incomes. The statement informs readers that:...
View ArticleHave 200,000 disability claims been ‘thrown out’?
Today’s Sun proclaims that “200,000 disability claims have been thrown out”, along with what appears to be an exclusive quote from Mike Penning MP, Minister for Disabled People. The story seems to come...
View ArticleFair pay matters, but so do tax credits
With today’s labour market statistics showing that inflation is still rising around twice as fast as average weekly earnings the UK’s household budgets remain tightly squeezed. While stronger pay...
View ArticleWhat has been announced on the welfare cap?
Earlier today the Chancellor announced further ‘details‘ on the welfare cap. This included the expenditure limits that benefits within the cap will be subject to, and the list of which entitlements...
View ArticleMark Carney at Congress 2014: When will Britain get a pay rise?
When the Governor of the Bank of England addressed the TUC earlier today he told unions that they were right to ask ‘when will Britain get a pay rise’? He started by setting out his analysis of the...
View ArticleTreasury tax breakdowns: misleading propaganda is a poor basis for debate
Today’s press stories around the Treasury’s income tax breakdowns make the political purpose of these statements clear: ‘How the biggest chunk of your hard-earned tax goes on welfare’ reports the Daily...
View ArticleThe real story of the Autumn Statement: the OBR tell the Chancellor to think...
Many are already reporting today’s Autumn Statement in terms of the immediate changes to stamp duty and air travel. But the big headlines were not in the Chancellor’s speech. It’s the OBR’s chilling...
View ArticleOBR set out scale of tax losses from low pay growth
Yesterday’s OBR report sets out the impacts that low wage work is having for tax revenues, suggesting that the £17bn shortfall we assessed that low earnings have created to date (as set out in IPPR...
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#Budget2015: The worst public spending cuts are still to come
There was much pre-Budget speculation that the Chancellor was going to use today’s Budget to ease off on austerity and reduce the scale of planned public service cuts in the year ahead. But although...
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#Budget2015: Total spending set to fall MORE in years ahead than Chancellor...
Hidden away in the OBR’s charts are some important figures on ‘Total Managed Expenditure’ – essentially all of the money government spends on services, pensions, help for low income workers and capital...
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The UK is the only major G7 economy where taxes have not helped to close the...
In Box 4.5 of their Economic and Fiscal forecast the OBR set out a few helpful home truths about the UK’s deficit reduction plan compared to competitor economies over 2009 to 2014. Their conclusions...
View Article#Budget2015: Where could £12billion of welfare cuts come from?
How could £12 billion of welfare cuts be achieved? We have previously looked at the sorts of changes that would be needed to raise the revenues the Chancellor has set out. These proposals make clear...
View ArticleConservative tax plans help the wealthiest most – but there is a fairer way
At the Conservative party conference last year David Cameron announced that a future Conservative government would seek to introduce two separate income tax cuts: an above inflation increase in the...
View ArticleWhat are the Lords debating on trade union political funds?
While the big news today has been the Budget, debate has also been taking place in the Lords, where the first Trade Union Bill report stage debate is underway. Among the issues the Lords are debating...
View ArticleA tax cut for those paying the 40p rate: £42.20
Interesting to note that while announcing his personal allowance tax cut the Chancellor failed to mention that ‘the basic rate limit will be reduced, from £34,370 to £32,245 in 2013-14, so most higher...
View ArticleAre the rich really paying five times more?
The Chancellor claimed that today’s Budget shows that: we’ll be getting five times more money each and every year from the wealthiest in our society Is this true? The claim appears to be based on the...
View ArticleBudget 2012: No help for young unemployed people
Today’s Budget contained no help at all for young unemployed people. All we learnt was that: Government also recognises that the best route out of unemployment for some young people will be starting up...
View ArticleNew Government survey shows only the finance sector thinks regulation is the...
Today BIS published their new ‘business perceptions survey‘ proudly proclaiming that: The burden of regulation is beginning to lift, according to an independently produced report. Fewer firms cite...
View ArticleChris Grayling gets his unemployment statistics wrong (again)
Today’s TUC unemployment analysis highlights the fact that while recent labour market statistics have brought some better news (with full-time employee jobs on the rise, and headline unemployment...
View ArticleToday’s dreadful GDP data
You can read TUC reaction to today’s appalling GDP figures across the blogosphere. Our Deputy General Secretary Frances O’Grady has a post up at the Guardian, and on the Guardian’s Comment is Free blog...
View ArticleWho is blocking more creative QE?
An interesting Gavyn Davis column in last week’s FT revisited the ongoing debate over whether the Bank of England should be taking additional action to support the economy through ‘unconventional’...
View ArticleCan self-employment explain the growthless jobs conundrum?
The jobs market continues to confound – with employment rising while GDP falls. But does part of the answer lie with rising self-employment rates? Recently published ONS tables – currently considering...
View ArticleNew business bank a ‘misnomer’
While the case for the introduction of a British investment bank is compelling, the Chancellor’s planned ‘small business bank’ has been met with scepticism from business leaders. Citi economist Michael...
View ArticleWhat has happened to the Government’s Youth Contract?
Earlier this year the Deputy Prime Minister was keen to sing the praises of the Youth Contract, in particular the 160,000 ‘wage incentives’ which were intended to “reduce the cost to employers of...
View ArticleWhat’s Left – an important debate that needs to focus more on workplace...
The recent Juncture article from Gavin Kelly and Nick Pearce makes the vital argument that we need: A more fundamental thinking of social democratic political economy than has yet been undertaken in...
View ArticleIs the deficit down by a quarter?
Pledge cards at today’s Conservative conference have been proudly proclaiming that the deficit is down by a quarter. Is it? The reality is not that simple. Firstly, the Government assessment depends...
View ArticleIs the Living Wage the only answer to poverty pay?
Living Wage week was a great success in drawing attention to the large number of low paid workers across the UK, and the importance of finding new ways to boost incomes above the vital pay floor set by...
View ArticleAre zombie companies holding back the recovery?
Yesterday’s FT announced (£) that the ‘BoE fears zombie companies haunt the road to recovery’, claiming that ‘the idea that zombie households, companies and banks are holding back the recovery will...
View ArticleMichael Fallon confirms that employment rights for shares will lead to new...
The Chancellor’s employment rights for shares proposals have rightly been criticised for permitting employees to trade essential key employment rights for potentially worthless shares, undermining both...
View ArticleWhat are the impacts of the child benefit updating changes?
The Chancellor has already frozen Child Benefit for three years. But today we heard that the real terms value of this important family benefit will be cut even further as a result of the Chancellor’s...
View ArticleChanges in uprating bring huge costs for families – while business gets a tax...
The changes the Chancellor has announced in the basis for tax credit and benefit uprating will have significant implications for families – our analysis shows that the cumulative impacts of policies...
View ArticleBenefits uprating bill: the breaking of the inflation link could be the...
Following the announcement of his decision to reduce tax credit and benefit uprating in years ahead the Chancellor announced today that the Government will be introducing a Welfare Uprating Bill,...
View ArticleOBR demonstrate huge new tax avoidance loophole opened up by employment...
Today’s budget provides costings for the new employment rights for shares scheme – the costs of which are estimated by the Exchequer to be £80 million by 2017-18. But the OBR also note that: There are...
View ArticleOBR suggest HMRC cuts will lead to less tax revenue being collected
Very interesting that the OBR have chosen to note that (highlighting my own): There have been, and will continue to be, wider operational changes within HMRC and across Government that are likely to...
View ArticleWhy progressives need to defend tax credits, as well as calling for stronger...
The Living Wage is rapidly gaining support, among commentators if not employers. But, on left and right, this new recognition of the need to boost Britain’s shrinking wage share has been accompanied by...
View ArticleShares for employment rights: what employers think about it (answer: not a lot)
Today, to little fanfare, BIS has published in full all responses to their recent consultation on shares for employment rights. A very brief read through the results reveals very little business...
View ArticleWhat does the Budget tell us about the Chancellor’s economic approach?
Yesterday’s Budget made clear that the Chancellor will not be changing course. Growth continues to disappoint, borrowing goes up, real wages fall and the Government continues to propose more of the...
View ArticleA budget that takes the country further in the wrong direction
The TUC’s Budget reactions are covered extensively across the press and our General Secretary Frances O’Grady gives her verdict on the Chancellor’s proposals as part of the Guardian growth panel here....
View ArticleIs the benefit cap encouraging people into work?
Is the benefit cap encouraging people into work? ‘Officials’ at the DWP think so, having told the Press Association on Friday afternoon that as a result of the impending cap 8,000 people have found...
View ArticleUK Statistics Authority upholds TUC’s complaint about DWP’s misuse of statistics
In a formal response to a letter the TUC recently sent to the UK Statistics Authority, Andrew Dilnot CBE (the Authority’s Chair) today replied confirming that: We have concluded that the statement...
View ArticleCan a benefit cap ever be progressive?
There was a lot to praise in Ed Miliband’s recent speech on social security. A committment to tackling long-term unemployment and worklessness through Job Guarantees and a clear indication that a...
View ArticleSeven days wait for family and housing benefits for unemployed claimants
Full information on what the new ‘seven day waiting period’ for unemployed claimants will mean is not yet available. But from what’s available so far it doesn’t look good for people who lose their...
View ArticleWhere next for the UK labour market?
The Bank of England’s confirmation that a strengthening recovery is finally with us has rightly received an accross the board welcome. But the Governor’s assessment that real wages are still failing to...
View ArticleWill the cost of living squeeze ever end?
This week’s labour market data made clear that the cost of living squeeze continues. Average earnings are still rising well below the rate of inflation, involuntary part-time work is at an all time...
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