Income tax cut for 25 million and 1.1 million taken out of tax so far. The personal allowance for under 65s increased by a further £630 to £8,105 in April 2012. The combined impact of this increase, alongside the £1,000 increase announced at the June 2010 Budget, benefitted 25 million individuals by up to £326 a year in cash terms and means that a total of 1.1 million people have been lifted out of income tax altogether (HMT, Budget 2011, p. 35).
Fuel duty cut, now 10p lower than it would have been under Labour. We’ve abolished Labour’s fuel duty escalator, cut fuel duty by 1p and delayed most of Labour’s planned rises in fuel duty (HMT, Autumn Statement 2011, p. 8).
Council tax frozen for two years – a real terms cut this year. Council tax has been cut in real terms this year, thanks to the second year of the Conservatives council tax freeze. This will save an average family up to £72 a year on a Band D home, on top of last year’s freeze. The compounded saving of both years’ freeze is worth up to £147 (DCLG Press Release, 13 February 2012, link).
Housing Benefit capped – opposed by Labour. The Government has capped Housing Benefit so that taxpayers will no longer be subsidising some families to get over £100,000 per year in Housing Benefit to live in areas that they themselves cannot afford. From April 2011 the Government removed the five bedroom Local Housing Allowance rate so that the maximum level is for a four bedroom property; introduced absolute caps so that Local Housing Allowance rates cannot exceed a maximum of £400 per week or £20,800 per year (DWP, Impact of changes to Local Housing Allowance from 2011, link).
Benefit cap put on the statute books – opposed by Labour. It is not fair that households on out of work benefits should receive a greater income from the state than the average working household receives in wages. So in the Welfare Act we included a cap linked to average weekly earnings, which will limit the amount of benefits a household can receive to £26,000 a year. It will come into force in 2013 (DWP website, accessed 16 May 2012, link).
The biggest ever cash increase to the Basic State Pension. The Government has increased the Basic State Pension by a record amount, £5.30 per week, thanks to our triple lock. The triple lock guarantees that the Basic State Pension will always increase either in line with earnings, inflation, or 2.5 per cent – whichever is the highest (HMT, Budget 2012 Statement).
More good school places. We are restoring discipline to the classroom, raising standards and improving the quality of teaching. We are letting parents, teachers and charities set up great new schools in the state sector, giving more parents the choice of a good school and helping disadvantaged children through pupil premium worth £2.5 billion. We are restoring rigour to the curriculum and making sure more children take the core academic subjects employers and universities value (Education Act 2011).
Creating an immigration system that benefits Britain. We have capped the number of non-EU skilled workers employers can bring here to work at 20,700 a year. No non-EU unskilled workers are allowed. We have also shut bogus colleges and will turn away those students at the border who do not speak English. This action will reduce the number of student visas by a quarter (Home Office Press Release, 6 April 2011; Hansard, 22 March 2011, Col. 858).