The Chancellor not only did not lift the freeze on personal allowances, but instead extended it for a further three years up to 2031! Silver Voices pledges to continue the fight to stop the state pension being taxed and our full briefing to members on the Budget is shown below. If you agree with us and you are over 60 and not yet a member of Silver Voices, please join us today to show your support for our campaign on the following link:
www.silvervoices.co.uk/join-us
The Chancellor did not acknowledge the strength of feeling of older people on this issue and ignored the huge response to our petition which you signed.
BUDGET SHOCK WITH THREE YEAR EXTENSION OF PERSONAL ALLOWANCE FREEZE: BUT THE FIGHT WILL GO ON UNTIL U-TURN ACHIEVED
The Chancellor compounded the problems for low-income older people by extending the freeze on the lower tax threshold by a further three years, until April 2031. If followed through, this will result in the large majority of pensioners being brought into the tax system in the next few years and being taxed on any Triple Lock increases. Older people on modest incomes also face being moved into the higher tax band because of the freeze on that threshold too. The cumulative extra tax burden placed on low- and modest-income pensioners by this shock extension of the freeze is massive, amounting to many billions of pounds a year. In effect the Government has chosen to fund the removal of the two-child benefit cap through this extension.
Silver Voices has always been supportive of progressive taxation to fund improved public services, but levying extra taxes on those who are already struggling to cope with the cost of living is not progressive at all. It was noticeable that apart from the mansion tax on properties worth over £2 million, there were no substantive taxes on the very wealthy in society. There were no major new taxes on banks, the internet giants, multi-national corporations, energy and fuel firms, or billionaires.
Do not worry, Silver Voices will not give up this fight. There is a long time to go until 2031, including at least one General Election. We will update and keep open our petition to stop the state pension from being taxed, as a focus for our campaigning, and keep the issue in the public eye. We already have nearly 200,000 signatures on the petition, and we will be looking to get that over a quarter of a million. And we will make sure that the orchestrated attacks on the Triple Lock and the state pension system do not bear fruit.
We also noted that the Chancellor, while trumpeting extra funding already agreed for the NHS, failed to mention the social care crisis. This makes a mockery of the review of social care currently underway by the Casey Commission. Baroness Casey is supposed to come up with some interim recommendations next year, but there is no extra funding to put any emerging proposals into place in this Parliament.
There were a few Budget proposals which will benefit older people, including the reduction of energy bills next year (we will see how far the promised £150 goes to combat rising prices) and the exemption of over 65s from the reductions in the ISA cash limits.
But, in summary, the extension of the freeze on the lower tax threshold will hit lower income households (both pensioners and working families) very hard in the coming years and is the most significant feature of this Budget. Silver Voices is as ready as ever to keep Your Voice high on the agenda of all the political parties, as we enter a period of political turbulence.