Autumn Statement: Greens offer 10-point plan of distinctive tax and spend policies to create a fairer, greener society

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Image of the Green Party's Carla Denyer on BBC Question Time.
Image of the Green Party’s Carla Denyer on BBC Question Time.

Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer has outlined a 10-point plan of distinctive tax and spend policies aimed at delivering a fairer, greener country. She will dismiss the chancellor’s Autumn Statement, saying it will be “another failed opportunity to end the cost-of-living crisis, tackle the climate crisis and restore crumbling public services on which we all rely.”    

Denyer said: 

“Our 10-point plan identifies around £30 billion of additional funds that would be available from simply rebalancing the tax system so that the super-rich pay their fair share and both people and planet benefit.”  

“The extra revenue raised would enable the government to pay NHS staff an inflation-matching pay award, increase access to NHS dentists, increase Universal Credit, abolish the two-child benefit cap, improve bus services and help small businesses take advantage of the opportunities offered by greening the economy. 

“Instead, the chancellor’s Autumn Statement will be another failed opportunity to end the cost-of-living crisis, tackle the climate crisis or restore crumbling public services. It’s clear that as the Tories continue to languish in the polls, Jeremy Hunt has more interest in electoral gimmickry that he has in creating a fairer and greener country.”  

The Green Party’s 10-point plan would:   

  • Restore the public health budget by increasing spending by £1.4 billion  
  • Immediately increase NHS spending by £8 billion, to ensure NHS staff can be paid an inflation matching pay award
  • Meet the Government’s current plan to increase access to NHS dentists by increasing spending 50 per cent – £1.5 billion – of the total NHS dentistry budget
  • End the rise in homelessness caused by the cap on Local Housing Allowances at a cost of £700 million
  • Increase Universal Credit by £40 per week at a cost of £9bn  
  • Abolish the two-child benefit cap to reduce poverty for some of the most vulnerable children in the country by increasing the welfare budget by £1.3 billion
  • Provide the necessary powers and funding to rural local authorities to take back control of bus services so they can increase routes and service frequencies at a cost of £3bn
  • Turn ISAs green by linking their tax exemptions to investments in green bonds 
  • Invest an additional £3billion in Green Transition Grants for small businesses to help them prepare for and take advantage of the opportunities offered by greening the economy 
  • Rebalance the tax system to raise an extra £30 billion through changes to Capital Gains Tax, National Insurance and the abolition of “non dom status” which would pay for the proposed measures 

Championing the Green’s alternative Autumn Statement, Carla Denyer said: 

“These fairer, greener alternatives give just a flavour of what could be done if we had a Government willing to tackle the long-term crises we face. They would start to remove the fundamental injustice that means that wealthier people who own more assets often see a lower effective tax rate than less well-off people. 

“Everyone deserves easy access to a dentist, improved public health, properly paid and supported doctors and nurses working with decent facilities, reduced poverty and homelessness, and accessible public transport.  

“There is enough money in the economy to make our country fairer and greener. What is lacking is the political will to change priorities. And Starmer’s official opposition seems no more ready to offer this than the Government is. That is why we so desperately need more Greens in Parliament to make the case for the common-sense changes that can deliver a fairer greener country.” 

Continue ReadingAutumn Statement: Greens offer 10-point plan of distinctive tax and spend policies to create a fairer, greener society

Universal Credit forces people to use foodbanks

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Universal Credit was is Iain Duncan Smith’s project to do away with many ‘legacy’ benefits for them to be replaced with one benefit. Affecting low-paid workers as well an non-workers, UC is a terrible mess and not fit for purpose.

It is disappointing that Citizens’ Advice Bureaux have accepted £51M (39?) from the government to advise UC claimants.

Foodbank use to soar after next stage of universal credit, Trussell Trust warns

GOVERNMENT plans to move more people onto universal credit (UC) could lead to a huge increase in those turning to foodbanks to survive, the Trussell Trust warned yesterday.

The charity, which runs more than 400 foodbanks across Britain, said that demand in areas where UC has been in place for at least 12 months has increased by 52 per cent, compared with 13 per cent in areas where the new benefit has been in place for three months or less.

Benefit problems are the main reason for referrals to receive emergency food supplies, the trust said, adding that people moving onto UC account for a rising proportion of foodbank referrals.

Waits for the first payment and the shift to the new system have been blamed for causing hardship.

 

Continue ReadingUniversal Credit forces people to use foodbanks

Looks like the Tories have started a nasty media campaign

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It’s as if there is an artificially imagined plot to engage all interests so that they will forget the big picture. A desperate attempt to distract?

I find it very strange that it is all so vacuous. But then it is made up

Today’s news carries stories of AI to identify organised gangs of social security benefit fraudsters. I can’t see it really. It’s not going to be organised crime more likely gangmasters that sort of scale of things. It’s likely to be vulnerable people that are exploited.

Handy to distract from the debacle of Universal Credit. UC delay is strange because it’s actually so short. I may be out of date but there was a 3 month delay with JSA and a 2 month delay with ESA. It is always taken to the limit.

Perhaps the differences with UC is that it disrupts peoples’ lives so nastily and that 6 week limit is ignored. It also attacks low-paid self-employed hard-working oh-whats-the-differnce? It attacks people who are so unfortunate to find themselves newly unemployed. The way to move the unemployed into work is to make it as painless as possible. There are 3 month delays for benefit. I can give you a month’s work?

31 Dec 2017

Getting over the writer’s block

Please try to have especially enjoyable sex. Reciprocation? Go on do it for him / her /it / that too

Thoth tarot Devil card

Nah get really down and dirty ;)

2018? What about this for that thing? Love people

1/1/18 Universal Credit being unable to handle 5-week months is simply ridiculous. Are they clowns running this country?

Continue ReadingLooks like the Tories have started a nasty media campaign