Tuesday 5 August 2014

Oooh, Oooh, I Know! Is It ‘Women & Minorities’..?

Who has been hit hardest by austerity?
Gosh, that’s a tough one. Wait – what paper is this from again?
Analysis by the Treasury suggests the impact of changes to taxes and benefits has been broadly regressive. The more you earn, the less you’ve lost as a proportion of your income, except for top earners, who have been hit relatively harder. This isn’t surprising – benefit cuts and VAT rises have hit the poor, income tax cuts have helped the middle and upper middle, while pension changes and child benefit withdrawal have affected the richest.
So...broadly OK?

Well, no. Of course not...
But it’s not just about income. Inevitably, tax and spending decisions affect different groups – women, men, disabled – differently. But the Treasury has never published any analysis of the cumulative impact of changes to tax and spending on these groups.
As part of its mandate to ensure the impact of policy changes on “protected groups” is taken into account properly, the Equality and Human Rights Commission asked analysis firm Landman Economics and the National Institute of Economic and Social Research to produce just such a “cumulative impact assessment”.
Aaaaaand….that’s where I quit reading!

6 comments:

Quiet_Man said...

Another exponent of the magic money tree of economics so beloved of leftards and the hard of thinking.

Macheath said...

'Equality and Human Rights Commission... analysis firm Landman Economics... National Institute of Economic and Social Research...'

Well, that's one deck of the B-Ark filled right away.

Bucko said...

It stands to reason that those hit hardest by austerity will be those who were given the most free stuff in the past.

It also stands to reason that they are the most legitimate targets. not the ones who create the money to pay for the free stuff

Ted Treen said...

Well, as a white, heterosexual, married, nominally christian, fully-employed for 47 years male, I can't help wondering when someone will recognise me & my ilk as a minority group...

Jonathan said...

"protected groups”
Presumably that means I can only hunt them in season?

JuliaM said...

"Another exponent of the magic money tree of economics so beloved of leftards and the hard of thinking."

Well, the tree's well fertilised at least...

"Well, that's one deck of the B-Ark filled right away."

"We're gonna need a bigger boat..."

"Presumably that means I can only hunt them in season?"

Vermin's always in season...;)