Why has spending gone up and tax revenue gone down if lots more work?

[RonJeremy]

It will be because the coalition has taken so many of the lowest paid out of paying tax at all. The Tories are very fair that way.

They have nearly put the top rate of tax back to what it was throughout all but the last few nanoseconds of the previous labour government.

[truman]

This question is baffling me as we approach the Election.

 

The Government probably quite legitimately claims there are millions more people in work than when they came to power yet the figures from their own department show the following:

 

Welfare spending has increased from 99 to 112 Billion

Income Tax revenue has gone down from 202.9 to 202.5 Billion

 

So how can this be, surely the logical assumption would be more people in work then less spent on Benefit and more received in taxation.

 

I suppose the obvious answer is the jobs are very low hours and low paid, and/or we are having to retire much later so people are still working that would previously have been retired.

 

Without wishing to doubt their figures, how can this anomaly be explained?

 

Out of interest Titanic,where are your figures from?

[RonJeremy]

Out of interest Titanic,where are your figures from?

 

Don't you know that 92.3 % of statistics are made up on the spot?

[biotechpete]

It will be because the coalition has taken so many of the lowest paid out of paying tax at all. The Tories are very fair that way.

They have nearly put the top rate of tax back to what it was throughout all but the last few nanoseconds of the previous labour government.

 

They are when they get their ideas from the Lib Dems!

[tzijlstra]

They are when they get their ideas from the Lib Dems!

 

Hah, beat me to it! I love (as in the most cynical manner) how people blank over the fact that this was a LibDem policy, a direct consequence of the coalition, the Tories would NEVER have introduced it.

[RonJeremy]

Hah, beat me to it! I love (as in the most cynical manner) how people blank over the fact that this was a LibDem policy, a direct consequence of the coalition, the Tories would NEVER have introduced it.

 

I did mention the coalition! And then slipped into "the Tories". My bad. It was a coalition policy. As were the Tuition fees and the reduction of the top rate of tax to nearly sensible levels.

[Anna B]

I'm more concerned with the fact that the government have doubled the national debt since 2010 and what with all these cuts to services to save money, punishing the most vulnerable in society, just where is all the money going?

 

We don't hear this mentioned very often do we? The Tories still keep coming out with the mantra 'The mess the Labour party left us in..' working on the principal that if they say it often enough people will believe it - and it works!

 

As for more people being in work; not claiming unemployment benefit is not the same as being in work, and the tax revenue is down because more people are being paid a lot less.

[tzijlstra]

I did mention the coalition! And then slipped into "the Tories". My bad. It was a coalition policy. As were the Tuition fees and the reduction of the top rate of tax to nearly sensible levels.

 

Yes you did, I glanced over that Ron, apologies.

[JFKvsNixon]

It worth remembering that income tax only makes up around 30% of the countries tax income.

[Anna B]

We don't hear this mentioned very often do we? The Tories still keep coming out with the mantra 'The mess the Labour party left us in..' working on the principal that if they say it often enough people will believe it - and it works!

 

As for more people being in work; not claiming unemployment benefit is not the same as being in work, and the tax revenue is down because more people are being paid a lot less.

 

There are nearly a million unemployed people not drawing benefit at any one time because they've been sanctioned. Also an awful lot of unemployed people over fifty who are not able to claim benefits because they have savings, who also don't appear in the unemployment statistics. Then there are the many people who are trying self-employment, setting up small businesses, but who are not able to pay themselves a penny.

 

As I say, a lot of people who are unemployed and have no income, are no longer allowed to claim benefits. Add that to the people who have 0 hours jobs and it's not suprising the tax take is down.

 

The Tories 'success' is not what it seems....