What is tax and benefits?

Tax & Benefits:

Tax: A compulsory contribution to state revenue, levied by the government on workers' income and business profits, or added to the cost of some goods, services,

and transactions.

Benefits: A payment made by the state or an insurance scheme to someone entitled to receive it.

"...Fairness means giving money to help the poorest in society. People who are sick, who are vulnerable, the elderly - I want you to know we will always look after you. That's the

sign of a civilised society and it's what I believe..." David Cameron

Different Tax’s• Progressive• Income tax

• Regressive • VAT 20%• Excise duty

Key benefit payments for poverty

• JSA

• State Pension - The maximum you can get is £110.15 per week.

1 in 6 pensioners (1.8 million or 16% of pensioners in the UK) live in poverty, defined as 60% of median income after housing costs

Pensioners are also the biggest group of people on the brink of poverty with 1.2 million on the edge

Benefits:Housing Benefit:

You may get help with all or part of your rent. There’s no set amount of Housing Benefit and what you get will depend on whether you rent privately or from a council.

How much you get depends on:

• your ‘eligible’ rent

• if you have a spare room

• your household income - including benefits, pensions and savings (over £6,000)

• your circumstances - eg age of people in the house, if someone has a disability

The New Austerity Plan

In economics, austerity describes policies used by governments to reduce budget deficits during tough economic conditions. These policies may include spending cuts, tax increases, or a mixture of the two.

UK national debt

This has been controversial as this might be considered immoral as some people are reliant on benefits to make ends meet, so to make cuts to it and take money from them would leave the poorest in absolute poverty, this is not fair as often the reason people are living on benefits is out of their control so to take their lifeline off of them would be unethical in my opinion.

Bedroom Tax• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fqgFMh0KWQ

• The ‘Bedroom Tax’ is a reduction of housing benefits for certain groups of people who live in social housing, because they have more bedrooms than the Government say they need.

• The basis of the Bedroom Tax is; if you receive Housing Benefit, are in social housing, are aged between 16 or retirement age (in 2013 that was around the age of sixty one and a half) and have more bedrooms than the Government say you need then your housing benefit is reduced by, 14% for the first bedroom more than they say you need and 25% for two or more bedrooms than the Government say you need. The idea being is; why should the tax payer pay for you to have more then you need.

Some people think that if you are given a council house that isn't your its not your house, its still the governments. And if you have a small family that doesn’t use all the rooms in a big house you should move to a more fitting house for your family size and let a bigger family that needs the space move in.

Traditional arguments against benefits:

• Laziness

• Unemployment trap

Due to the costs of child care & transport they’d incur from working and the loss of benefits from obtaining an income. People are financially better off to remain unemployed.

Unemployed to do unpaid work or lose benefits

Jobseeker's Allowance and sanctions