Should the UK make the assessment basis for tax and welfare the same?
The UK taxes income on an individual basis while means-tested welfare benefits such as Universal Credit are assessed on household or family income. This creates inconsistencies, for instance when one high earner in a household disqualifies the couple from benefits despite the partner's low personal income. Recent policy debates, including around the high income child benefit charge, have considered shifting some elements toward household assessment.
28 Opinions
Yes. Tax and welfare should operate from a coherent assessment of income rather than two bureaucracies applying contradictory rules. If the state knows what you earn well enough to tax you, that information should form the basis for assessing means-tested support too. One transparent system, clear definitions, fewer loopholes and less duplication. Make work pay and make it considerably harder to game either side of the system.
A benefit such as Pip, esa is given to an individual for specific reasons eg disability to link it to other people in the same household might disadvantage that person who really needs it just to support themselves with medical costs etc.
Tax should be calculated on a household basis.
Taxing households instead of individuals is an anti feminist time machine back to the 1950s. We scrapped joint taxation in 1990 because it slaps a massive tax penalty on second earners, which are mostly women, the second they return to work
Some on welfare are in the high thousands per month. How would be my first question, but yes tax the same as anyone working.
All assessment should be individually based.
They should both be looked at as a household.
This can't be assessed easily but a person should be taxed less if they are supporting others, so whilst we need individual assessments to be fair we need individual burdens considered as well. The tax system of paying according to income is the problem here, if we start from a position of everyone having to pay the same for the same services provided, regardless of income we would all end up in a better position because the barriers to wealth would be lowered considerably
I don't know enough to make a full informed opinion. But it does seem odd to a layperson like me that they are different.
Overall, I belive this will be a fairer way to collect tax. It will stop very high earners manipulating ownership of accounts and property to avoid higher tax.