Worried about bills this winter? In Truss’s Titanic economics, only the rich will get a life raft
As millions of families get ready to choose between starving and freezing, the biggest question in British politics right now is what government support is going to come in the next few months, and who exactly is going to get help. With Boris Johnson’s “out of office” on, and the current chancellor missing in action, it is left to the Tory leadership candidates to play at governing. On Sunday, the all but guaranteed victor, Liz Truss, announced she would “rush through” her £30bn worth of tax cuts six months earlier than planned, to “tackle the cost of living crisis”.
It doesn’t take an economist to realise that, far from “tackling the cost of living crisis”, introducing tax cuts is a dire way to target support:it just adds more cash to upper middle-class families’ pockets while the very poorest – many of whom pay little or no income tax – don’t benefit.Just look at the details of Truss’s £30bn cut: £19bn of it would go not to struggling families, but to businesses skirting corporation tax rises. Indeed, even Truss’s plan to scrap the national insurance rise would benefit the wealthiest: 85% of the £8bn cost would go to the top half of earners. It is Titanic economics, where the country is sinking and only the rich get a life raft.
As inconvenient as it is for a party that has spent years running down the benefits system, common sense says one of the best ways to help people most vulnerable in a cost of living crisis is to bolster social security. After pressure from charities,ministers havepledged to increase benefits next April by this September’s rate of inflation. But by then, prices will have rocketed again, and families will have been left to get through a cold winter alone. Analysis shows current government energy
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