WLD speak out against Labour tax changes

12.13.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Thu 17th Apr 2008

Many WLD members are very angry about the loss of the 10p tax band, in which there were many more women than men. Our President, Lorely Burt MP, says: 'Women already, on average, receive a much lower income then men. In 2004 for every £1 on average earned by men, women got just 54p. The abolition of the 10p tax rate has made things even worse for women already on low pay and women pensioners who cannot or are not prepared to claim pension credit.'

Cllr Dr Miranda Whitehead, Vice Chair of WLD, has written to Nick Clegg on the issue. Vera Head, Liberal Democrat Councillor and WLD Treasurer, has spoken of the effect on pensioners like her, and other members are also contributing their views.

WLD hopes that all our members will make their feelings known about this further erosion of the financial position of women. Please read the contributions below and then write to your MP, of whatever party, and tell them what you think.

Lorely Burt MP, adds: 'Working women, particularly those who sacrifice income for the satisfaction of helping others, and women pensioners will be at the front of the queue to be further penalised by this gross injustice inflicted by an uncaring government. The Chancellor has shunned those very people his party purports to serve. The disgrace has been felt by his own MPs who have ethical convictions, but even their entreaties have fallen on deaf ears'.

Vera Head says: "The fact that there is a large increase in the personal allowances for pensioners over 65 is said by some to balance out the loss of the 10% tax band. But that is only if you have sufficient income above the new £9000+ allowance on which you will now only pay 10%. For those women under 65 whose personal allowance is far lower there is no balancing factor."

Lizzie Jewkes, WLD member and PPC for Chester adds: "The government's claims that low paid working parents will not be affected as their Child Tax Credits will be increased is not true. It may be true for families where one parent works, but for families with two working parents it is not true."

Miranda Whitehead has written to Nick Clegg as follows:

'Dear Nick,

As one of his last acts as chancellor Gordon Brown abolished the 10p introductory rate of income tax, a tax which has supported the low paid. It is difficult to believe that any government can find it acceptable that those struggling at the bottom of the income scale are subsidising tax cuts for the better off.

Government assurances that tax credits and increased personal allowances will help to make good any increase in tax has not been born out by the facts. People earning less than £18,000 and ineligible for working tax credits because they are under 25, early retirees who cannot claim the higher personal allowance given to the over 65s, and part time workers with insufficient hours to qualify for tax credits will have to pay more tax. In some cases twice as much.

Women Liberal Democrats are aware that women on average receive a much lower income than men. So the person most affected by these changes is very likely to be a woman on a low income, a woman with a part time job, or a woman who has retired at 60, often on a partial pension caused by lack of contributions while caring for children or elderly family members.

We call on our Parliamentarians to seek an immediate increase in the personal allowances for women aged between 60 and 65, and we want to see low income families with children whose working families tax credits do not cover the tax increases helped. Finally we ask why those on low incomes have been forgotten in the Prime Minister's rush to grab the headlines by cutting the basic rate of tax.

We hope that this ill thought out policy will have more than a marginal effect on the Labour vote on May 1st.

Yours sincerely,

Cllr Dr Miranda Whitehead ( Vice Chair WLD)'