Jonathan Ashworth – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2015-10-20.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has made an assessment of the effect of tax and benefit changes included in the Summer Budget 2015 on (a) relative and (b) absolute child poverty.

Harriett Baldwin

The intended impact of these reforms is to incentivise work, ensure work always pays, and then allow people to keep more of what they earn.

We know that work is the best route out of poverty. Our new life chances measures will drive continued action on work and education, which will make the biggest difference to disadvantaged children – now and in the future.

HMT’s published distributional analysis shows that the proportion of welfare and public service spending which benefits poorer households has not changed since 2010-11, with half of all spending on welfare and public services still going to the poorest 40% of households in 2017-18. At the same time, the richest fifth of households will pay a greater proportion of taxes than in 2010-11 as a result of government policy – and more than all other households put together.

The Government has carefully considered impacts with regard to all relevant legal obligations when formulating the welfare policies announced at the Summer Budget 2015.