“Judge Not Lest Ye Be Judged for Credit Scores”

   One of the most bizarre politics acts of this new century has to be Labour’s removal of the 10% tax band.

 

Nothing highlights how removed legions of politicians are from the lives of ordinary people. When you’re earning £65,000 plus generous expense accounts, along with additional sources of employment you can’t begin to relate to the hardship felt by those on low incomes.

 

People on low incomes already face phenomenal hardships in simply trying to make ends meet and Labour, the party that traditionally champion the poor, has gone and made it even more difficult. After all it was Gordon Brown who gave Labour the target of having child poverty by 2010. Removing the 10% tax band will only make more difficult for low income families to work their way out of poverty without relying on state support.

 

Combine this with Caroline Flint’s ‘commitment contracts’ and you’d be forgiven for thinking these were Conservative policies. Core Labour voters are going to find it increasingly difficult to remain loyal to a party which seems intent on hammering vulnerable members of our society until they bleed.

 

And before we get sanctimonious let us be clear about what constitutes a low income. A family could have an adult earning £30,000 gross and this is still in relative terms a low income. Take away income tax and NI you’d be left with around £1650. After paying £600 mortgage, £200 council tax, £400 food and £150 utility bills, there’s only £300 left.

 

So life on £15,000 becomes a meagre existence. However one only needs to look in the local papers and see that you’d be lucky to see a vacancy paying as much as £15,000 as a full-time salary let alone £30,000.

 

Maybe these low incomes have has more of an influence on the high levels of debt in the UK. Too many people are earning too little so the credit cards become a panacea while the real cause, low pay, becomes hidden through the propagation of meritocractic values. Such is the power of ideology that normal reasoned people cast the first stone by crying “it’s their own fault”; “tell them to get a better job” and “work harder”.

 

But the worm soon turns and these same people, who judge others, will also be judged over the coming months. No matter how hard they work or pay rises they receive, the credit crunch will repossesses their homes, jobs and more importantly their values. The thing they once held so dear, meritocracy, will be laid bare before them.

 

Yet those politicians, in their ivory towers will look down upon the masses and continue to advocate meritocratic policies because they know that even on judgement they’ll receive a decent pension, can sell the second home and will have networked their way into a comfortable position.