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Friday 13 March 2015

Clegg confirms budget will include Workers' Bonus

The Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg has said that next week’s budget will include an extra £100 for low and middle earners on top of tax cuts already promised. Nick Clegg described the break as a “light at the end of the tunnel” for workers who have helped rebuild Britain's economy. From April, the amount workers earn before paying income tax was already set to rise to £10,600.

Liberal Democrats are delivering on their 2010 election promise of an £800 income tax cut for 25m workers. Raising the personal tax allowance to £10,000 was on the front page of their 2010 manifesto. The Conservatives said the ambition was "a nice idea" but "not affordable." Mr Clegg is now pushing for the government to cut taxes by a further £100.

Commenting Nick Clegg said: "The main thing the government can do is just take less of your money away from you. I very much want to give the biggest possible Workers’ Bonus to millions of people on middle and low incomes. It's a source of huge pride to me that despite being told by David Cameron in the leaders’ debates back in 2010 that it wasn't possible to raise the tax free allowance up to £10,000, we've already gone way beyond that. And I think we can go further still."

Mr Clegg also said: "I don't think anybody should be surprised that the centrepiece preoccupation for me has been tax allowance, tax allowance, tax allowance, tax allowance. Because it's great that there are more in work than ever before, it's great there are more women in work than ever before, it's great youth unemployment is lower than ever before, it's great that our growth rate is higher than most other equivalent economies."

"But a lot of people don't feel it as fully as they deserve to until they see the difference in their pay packets." Nick Clegg added.

Liberal Democrats say they are the party of fair tax, that's why one of their key priorities for the next five years is to cut taxes by an extra £400. Under their manifesto plans they say they will raise the tax free allowance to £12,500 in the next parliament. Nick Clegg has said that the money would come from higher taxes on the wealthy.