Tax credit cuts of £4.4 billion passes by majority of 35

18 September 2015

Starting in April 2016, the earnings level above which tax credits are withdrawn will be cut from £6,420 to £3,850.

More than three million families are set to lose an average of £1,000 a year, according to Labour.

Ian Murray, shadow Scottish secretary, said “In one move, the government have cut the incomes of hard working people across Scotland. This tells you everything you need to know about this government. The people who will suffer after today’s decision are working people, who get up every morning and do the right thing”.

Treasury minister Damian Hinds said; “For too long in this country, low pay has been addressed not by genuine reform and driving productivity but by subsidising the tax credit system”. This may be completely true, but rather than addressing low pay and implementing “genuine reform”, the Tories are instead choosing to rip away the little support that those on low-pay currently have.

Shadow Chief Treasury Secretary Seema Malholtra said of the move; “It is ideologically driven, it is cynical and it will directly increase levels of poverty in Britain.”

“It is part of an ongoing attack on the incomes of some of the most hard working families in our constituencies – those very strivers the chancellor purported to support.”

Jeremy Corbyn said in his speech to TUC conference; “They call us deficit deniers; they spend billions cutting taxes for the richest families and for the most profitable businesses. What they are is poverty deniers. They are ignoring the growing queues at food banks, they are ignoring the housing crisis, they are cutting tax credits … Let’s be clear: austerity is actually a political choice that this government is taking and they are imposing it on the most vulnerable and poorest in society”