Report 'Damning Verdict' On Tax Proposal

The Labour Party has described a report on the Government's plans on tax and benefits as a "damning verdict".

Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said a report commissioned by the Family and Parenting Institute, on the prospects for poverty and income on families up to 2015, left the Government's family-friendly claims "in tatters".

The report, published on Tuesday, said young families will bear the biggest financial pain in years ahead.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said that grim predictions for UK family finances up to 2015 and planned changes to tax and benefits by the Government would see families with children lose more than pensioners or adults without children.

Responding to the report, Ms Cooper said: “This independent IFS research is a damning verdict on the Conservative-led Government’s policies for families and children.

"It shows that families with children are being hit more than four times harder than the average household and it leaves David Cameron’s promise to be a family-friendly Government in tatters.

"The Government is taking more from children than from the banks. Women and children are paying the highest price."

According to the report, the median income among families with children is projected to fall between 2010 and 2015 by 4.2%. For a couple with two children this equates to £1,250 less a year by 2015. The IFS said families with children aged under five, families with more than two children, and lone parent families not in paid work bear the biggest financial pain in years ahead. Dr Katherine Rake, Chief Executive of the Family and Parenting Institute, said: “These figures reveal the full extent to which families with children are shouldering the burden of austerity. Having children has always been expensive. But now many families with children face an extra penalty of more than £1000.”

(DW)