Labour Manifesto: Rich and Poor

16 May 2017

“A Britain for the rich and the elite and the vested interests. They benefited from tax cuts, bumper salaries and millions have struggled at the same time.”

  • When politicians talk about “the rich” you should always ask exactly who they mean, as the Institute for Fiscal Studies said recently. This is a broad claim because it’s not clear exactly which taxpayers we’re talking about. Income and wealth inequalities are even higher among the very rich than in the general population.
  • Overall, the incomes of all but the richest and poorest 10% of households benefited from tax changes between 2010 and 2015, according to the IFS.
  • The story changes when you add in benefits policy. The combined effect was generally either negative or neutral for all income groups.
  • Generally, higher income households were hit less hard. The exception was the richest 10%. Their incomes were hit harder than the rest of the top half.
  • The impact of tax and benefits policies planned or put in place since 2015 will be similar in the long term: poorer households will be hit hardest; the top half will do better than the bottom half; the richest 10% will do less well than most of the rest of the top half.

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