Public and Commercial Services Union
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Alternative needed to budget for the well-off
The chancellor’s financial package includes:
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Cutting the top tax rate on earnings over £150,000 from 50% to 45%. Someone like Barclay’s boss Bob Diamond earning £6m per year will be £325,000 better off.
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An extra £10.5bn of welfare cuts will hit poor people hardest.
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Corporation tax being cut even further, taking £3.76bn from public services and handing it over to big business
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Confirmation of local pay rates in the public sector – meaning pay cuts for everyone outside London, and taking money out of hard hit economies.
It has also been announced this week that the minimum wage for young people will not rise this year – for the first time since it was introduced.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “This is a budget for the rich, and is outrageous at a time when unemployment is rising, people's pay is being frozen, pensions are being attacked, and social security slashed.
"It is a very arrogant demonstration of the fact that we are not all in this together.
"There is an alternative. Invest in collecting the billions of pounds in tax that is avoided and evaded every year, and use the money raised to create useful jobs doing things like building homes and improving public transport."
Round-up: Budget day message is loud and clear
