Labour Manifesto: Rich and Poor

“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.