So let's get this straight. The Treasury introduces tax credit and pays out billions of pounds a year. It then finds it's got its sums wrong and tries to reclaim the billions it has overpaid. People hand back the money which they think they have rightfully claimed and many of them have to resort to Salvation Army food parcels. Even though the problem has been identified the Treasury continues to pay out nearly £2 billion more than it ought to. And now, having paid the money out and then reclaimed it, it's giving it back because of a legal challenge. You couldn't make it up.
And who presided over this mess? Yup, Gordon Brown.
And when George Osborne says he will match Labour's spending plans you really wonder what planet he is living on. Here's a least £2 billion which could be saved in Year One.
24 comments:
Got out of bed the wrong side this morning, did we Mr Dale ? Look on the bright side, at least that nice Mr Mercer has got himself a new job..
Re Osborne he's on an election winning planet! You may remember Labour & the media stopped us in our tracks in the last two elections with cuts scare stories.
its a very sensible statement iain. shoots the labour "slashing of services" fox and applies to public services- nhs and education. not the entire budget.
And you cannot get off the bloody tax credit system unless:you die, emigrate, become unemployed. So beware, tax-credits are more trouble than they are worth. Once you are on the system- you are on the system!
Spot on Iain, a total mess and all down to Brown and his overwhelming desire to rule and tinker!
What a mess and wast of my money!
"And when George Osborne says he will match Labour's spending plans you really wonder what planet he is living on. Here's a least £2 billion which could be saved in Year One"
Planet Realism? If you read the article, it notes that Gordon has adopted the Tory idea that spending growth should be below that of the growth in the economy, and that therefore this will continue.
As to the £2billion figure-yes, it could be saved by scrapping the ridiculous scheme. And then put into somewhere more important, such as defence. You've advocated higher defence spending before, Iain, so surely you can agree with sucha proposal?
No I don't agree at all. We shoud not accept that government spending has to grow year on year at all. Surely it should the aim of all politicians to take as little money from the taxpayer as possible. i know that is an old fashioned concept.
Government spending will be nearly $700 billion by 2012. Are we really saying that there are no savings to be made in that? We should be looking at year on year real reductions in spending overall, not guaranteed increases.
I listened to Osborne and thought the same as you at the time Iain, but on reflection he's played a blinder.
Even more interesting was the interview with Gordon Brown later on in the Today programme. He came across very poorly - 'um-ming & ah-ing', lacking in confidence, completely and utterly incapable of giving a single, straight, honest answer to any of the question asked. I found myself laughing in disbelief when he referred to Iraqis as 'stakeholders' or similiar when questioned on the war. He really is an odd person - more and more I'm noticing his strange habit of reciting lists of things, when talking to interviewers - very odd.
One word sums up his interview - 'Shifty'.
The Tories have no choice but to agree Labour's spending. Tax Credits is a terrible system, but the thought that the Tories would slash it, and other measures, would be to hand the election to Labour.
People have to live - even with a crap system.
I had to re-read that last post; I thought someone said he sounded 'Shitty'..
But never mind the Today interview, did you hear his speech to the NCVO ?
Try and get a transcript - he has started talking about "Citizens' Juries", referred to a new "Concordat" [does he even know what that means ?] and a new 'compact'.
Is that a new car, or something he's going to get for his wife's make-up bag ?
Curiouser and curiouser...
Still, if the Tories have started to imitate him, he must be doing something right...
Well Iain; I'm afraid the next time you complain about low defence spending, I'll not take you seriously.
"Citizens' Juries" - sounds like something from the old regime in East Germany.
What next "Citizens' Reporting Groups"?
Still, interesting to see that Brown has placed our safety and security in the hands of the voluntary sector. The Police must be breathing a sigh of relief. Now that the law and order problem has been solved, they can get back to what they do best - meddling and muddling in Political Correctness.
I've received one of these letters and quite honestly it's absolutely incomprehensible to understand what it's actually about !
The final paragraph reads:
" We would like to assure you that this review will not lead to your tax credits awards being reduced(I'm not actually getting any!) or to us asking for any more payments for these earlier years(good I've repayed the alleged overpayment in full although at the time they tried to tell me it was my responsibility to tell them( I had for almost 24 months every 3 months or so before they actually did anything !) that they had actually overpaid me despite them confirming that they had all the correct relevant information - ' Our computer can't recognise the information we hold '
Finally the letter ends - " You do not need to do anything we just wanted to update you"( about what ? as this letter will probably be the first thing most people know about a problem why don't they just write to those that are getting a refund enclosing the cheque when the reviews done ?
At least the reputation of tax credits will be unaffected by all this. There isn't one !
If personal allowances were raised to a suitable level there would be no need for the illusion of Gordon Brown taking money off you only to hand it straight back.(Complete with the goodwill that engenders.) Easier to understand and less room for error but no continuing stream of political capital to be made.
Whilst I understand the logic of Osborne's views,it is a return to Butskellism and managed decline.The last tax and spend Tory was Ted Heath and it did not help him.
So why bother to vote tory? They've now comitted to continue NuLab's profligate ways of disposing of our money. Labour have a known level of incompetence, is it worth the risk of voting in a new, untried, mob?
Better the Devil you know maybe?
I would say that the burning in previous elections along the logic of "Tax-cuts = NHS staff cuts = Tories kill people so that fat cats can have more cash" have been a part of this... as has the fact that national debt is mounting and much of it is very cleverly hidden.
Thus there is no guarantee that the next government will be able to lower taxes in the face of mounting repayments.
As others have said, pledging to increase public spending slower than the rate of economic growth has been Tory policy for two years now. It would look damned odd to abandon it just because the Labour Party have finally acknowledged that it's a workable idea.
Will Osborne bother to simplify the complexities of Broon's income tax system? Will he raise personal allowances to remove the lower paid from the system? Will he commit the Tories to Broon's Tax Credit shambles or will he scrap it?
On a day when there is serious examination of the foul ups of The Tax Credit System, this odious creep Osborne commits the Tories to the economics of the madhouse. Does Osborne have any nous or is he merely unfit to shovel manure.
And yet Gordon didn't fire the famously clueless and confused 'Red' Dawn Primarolo who presided over the Tax Credits disaster , she's been moved to Health. Unbelievable. Does her ongoing employment in such a vital Dept. despite such mind boggling incompetence amount to an admission of guilt on his behalf? Was she only following orders?
The Tax Credit problem could be fixed if it went back to the system of calculating them used under the previous Conservative Government.
You had to claim every 6 months and provide evidence of your income for the previous 2 months.
You were then awarded Tax Credit for the next 6 months based on your income for the previous 2 months.
Simple and easy to understand.
Only drawback if your income went up or down you still got the same tax credits for 6 months.
Can someone out there tell what/which Government department is fit for purpose. i.e. works!! Tax credits, CSA, MOD, NHS, Passport office, Dixons, BBC,Digital ITV, immigration service, police, Army Navy, marines, Royal air force. Railways, BAA, Et hoc. Is it earnestly being suggested that all of these enterprises and education are going to be fixed, repaired and replaced by a Tory Party that is unable to arrange one in a brewery ? Lastly, Housing for the english!!
Iain, you're almost beginning to sound like a real conservative. What Boy George's statment really amounts to is an explicit acknowledgement that Blue Labour and New Labour are identical in their policy stances. As this is an electorate that rarely embraces radical change all the momentum will stay with the status quo especially when the leaders of nominal opposition appear to be a pair of silly young prats.
If the position had been reversed and the New Labour machine had been running Tory tactics over these past few there would have been an ad nauseam repetition of the mantra "Tax, Spend & Waste" with daily Press Releases of the latest quango and pc expenditure excesses. Unfortunately, New Labour is a professional, idealogically motivated and deadly serious operation, something the current Tory "Opposition" is demonstrably not.
This is part of a larger problem. The standard of public administration in this country is deplorable, mainly because the government tries to do too much, with too little real talent at its disposal.
The tax credit business is a straightforward cock-up. In a sensible world those responsible would now be out of a job. But government is not sensible. It recruits, retains and often promotes, third-raters.
It does not help that the pool of ministerial talent is more like a puddle and ministers rarely stay long enough in post to master their departments.
Moreover, because the government tries to do too much it is always chronically short of money while rates of taxation remain grotesquely high.
And where are Her Majesty's official opposition? Closeted with their image consultants, striving to be all things to all men.
We need an opposition red in tooth and claw, tearing into government incompetence and extravagence, week in and week out. Without it, things can only get worse.
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