Tory budget is not good enough
As with every budget from the UK Tory government, the devil is in the detail.
Although the main headlines from this budget did yet again highlight that the Tory government is protecting the interests of the most well-off and pushing more pressure on those who can least afford it.
This was clearly seen in the boost for the richest with changes to their pension allowances.
The Tories removed the limit on the lifetime pension allowance, while also increasing the annual pension tax relief so that you can now save £60,000 per year in your pension as opposed to the current level of £40,000.
This move will benefit less than four per cent of the total UK workforce, costing an estimated £1 billion per year.
In contrast, the average living wage in Scotland last year was just over £28,000 – so no chance that this change in pension taxation will help anyone but the very richest.
This change also does nothing to help the everincreasing number of pensioners relying on the UK state pension or who are unable to save up anything near this limit for their pension.
In contrast, those on Universal Credit have been warned by the Chancellor that sanctions will be applied more rigorously for anyone who fails to meet strict work search requirements or who refuse to take up what the DWP regard as a reasonable job offer.
The DWP has a poor reputation for imposing sanctions and work in complete contrast to Social Security Scotland which aims to deliver benefits with dignity, fairness and respect.
It is also quite galling for the Tories to impose stricter sanctions on the unemployed when you consider the number of Tory MPs – especially exPrime Ministers – who are frequently absent themselves from their constituency and the Commons to take on outside jobs, such as speaking tours, or even the four Tory MPs who now have shows on the GB News channel.
Maybe sanctions should be considered on politicians who fail to represent their constituents?
The Tories are trying to boast about maintaining the current energy price cap for another three years, but a cut in energy bills is what is really needed.
The UK, and Scotland in particular, has the highest energy charges in the developed world. Households are really struggling, with more people facing fuel poverty and some self-disconnecting from supplies to stop bills from rising.
Yet, energy bills will still increase as the £400 energy bills support scheme comes to an end.
The Tory government could have taken real action to tackle the energy crisis but – as usual – do little while energy companies make record profits.
Recently, the Tories have been complaining about the Scottish Government plans to increase recycling with the deposit return scheme, complaining in particular, about the impact this would have on our whisky industry.
But it’s unlikely the costs of this scheme will have anything like the impact of the budget decision by the Tories to increase duty on whisky by 10.1 per cent, with the tax burden on whisky now risen from 70 per cent to 75 per cent.
This means of the average price of a bottle of whisky at £15.42 – £11.40 would go directly to the Treasury in taxation through duty and VAT.
Of course, there was some mention of just over £300 million coming to Scotland via Barnett consequentials funding, but the detail of this has still to be worked out and no one is sure what the final figure will be.
Whatever the final figure, though, the majority of the taxes raised in Scotland stay in Westminster.
That’s not good enough. We need our Independence to use all our resources to create a fairer, more prosperous economy for all – not just the rich as proposed by this Tory budget.