22nd April 2010
ONLY LABOUR WILL PROTECT TAX CREDITS IN CLWYD WEST
“Only Labour will protect the tax credits and child trust funds relied upon by many local families”.
That was the message from First Minister, Carwyn Jones as he joined local Welsh Labour candidate, Donna Hutton, in setting out the choice facing families in Clwyd West..
In recent days the Tories and Liberal Democrats have panicked about their unpopular policies to cut tax credits and child trust funds – which benefit 3,958 people in this constituency. Today Carwyn Jones and Donna Hutton set the record straight.
Welsh Labour’s First Minister, Carwyn Jones said,
“The Tories and Lib Dems are trying to pull the wool over people’s eyes about their true policies on this vital subject for local families. The independent Institute for Fiscal Studies has said that couples earning as little as £16,000 each would face an end to their tax credits under the Tories. The Lib Dems would scrap Child Trust Funds and cut Child Tax Credits and Winter Fuel Payments.”
Welsh Labour candidate Donna Hutton said,
“This is a hot topic on the doorsteps in towns like Colwyn Bay, Abergele and Ruthin. Families on modest incomes are, quite rightly worried and confused about the Tory proposals to do away with their tax credits and child trust funds.
“7,400 local families are benefiting from these schemes and only the Labour Party are committed to maintaining and improving the current support.”
ENDS.
Further information:
The independent Institute for Fiscal Studies has said that the Conservatives would need to take tax credits away from households with incomes of £31,000 to raise the money that the Conservatives have promised.
"At its 2009 party conference, the Conservative Party proposed to start the withdrawal of the family element of the child tax credit at an annual family income of £40,000, rather than the current threshold of £50,000. An early estimate of the savings from this reform was produced by researchers at IFS and cited by the Conservative Party, and this was that the change could save £0.4 billion a year. However, the government has estimated that the threshold would have to be cut by more – to £31,000 a year – in order to save £0.4 billion. “It is likely that the estimate from the government is more accurate, because the IFS estimate assumed full take-up of the child tax credit. Without access to HMRC’s data, it is not possible for us to say precisely how much money would be raised by the Conservative Party’s proposal having allowed for incomplete take-up, but it can be stated confidently that it would be less than £0.4 billion (because that would require lowering the threshold to £31,000), but more than £45 million (which is what would be raised if the threshold at £50,000 were replaced by a cliff-edge, as this is the total amount to which families with incomes exceeding £50,000 are entitled)."