#039 A Grand Don’t Come For Free
Increase the Personal Allowance to £17'000 or more
Most people living and working in Britain, in 2024, are now feeling the cost of living crisis in one way or another. The conservative government is currently failing to help in any significant way.
One simple way they could help the vast majority of working people would be to unfreeze & increase the personal allowance, as soon as possible, to at least £17'000 per year, for both income tax and national insurance. The personal allowance is the amount of money a person can earn in a year before paying income tax or national insurance.
This change alone would deliver all working people earning £17k a year or more, over £1'200 more a year (£100+ a month). Those earning between £12'570 and £17'000 a year would also benefit, to a lesser extent.
Such a move would help alleviate the cost of living crisis in a significant way and would not even be unprecedented, between 2010 and 2015 the personal allowance increased in Britain from £6'475 to £10'000, an increase of over £3'500 thanks to the Lib Dems in coalition government with the conservatives.
In the past five years however, 2019 – 2024, the personal allowance has increased by just £70, despite high energy prices high food prices, high housing costs and and high inflation over recent years. Britain is long overdue a significant raise in the personal allowance.
This £1'200 per year would be particularly useful for people earning lower than average salaries at this time because it would represent a greater percentage increase to their salaries when compared to people on higher salaries, who are in the main less affected by the cost of living crisis.
The only downside to this move would be the cost of this change, to the country’s tax take, would have to be found elsewhere.
There are however many progressive ideas to raise revenue to offset this cost, some of which can be found in this article - https://progressiveprimers.medium.com/33-tax-the-fat-cats-bc246f4fb447
