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A-24

Políticas anti-família no Reino Unido

por A-24, em 13.09.13
Government family policy undermines families. Por Philip Booth.


There are various solutions to this discrimination against single-earner households and marriage. The best would be to radically cut back benefits and taxes so that families could take their decisions without interference by the state. It is not necessary for the government to spend 50 per cent of national income to deal with problems of poverty not resolved in other ways ­ indeed, that level of spending and taxation is a major part of the problem.

In the short term, the most expedient move would be to move the tax system towards a system of household tax allowances. This would mean that single-earner families can have the same amount of tax-free income as dual-earner families and that couples would pay less tax to compensate for the benefits they forgo when they marry. One stepping stone towards this would be a transferable tax allowance but the government seems much less keen on implementing this manifesto promise than it does on dreaming up new welfare benefits for rich dual-earner couples. The Coalition priority seems to be to create new welfare benefits, rather than cutting taxes on families.

In the last three years, the English and Welsh Catholic agencies have tended to echo the predictable secular commentary on welfare reform, criticising any reductions in spending. They should read the signs of the times. We have a welfare and tax system that is completely broken. Instead of supporting the family in a spirit of subsidiarity, it attacks the family. Instead of supporting work, it attacks work. Two essentials for the common good or human flourishing ­ families and work ­ are being attacked by the institution that is supposed to promote the common good.

The Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has called proposals for a transferable tax allowance “patronising drivel that belong in the Edwardian age”. This makes one wonder to what age does a situation whereby nearly 30 per cent of children live in families in which nobody works full-time belong?