British Chancellor Misses His Child Benefit Promise
The British Chancellor reneged on his promise of child benefits. In a “tough but fair” move as depicted by the Chancellor, Mr. George Osborne announced in a Conservative conference that the child benefit will be taxed for higher-rate taxpayers from 2013. The move is expected to save up to £1 billion a year. As recently as a year ago, Mr Osborne said his party would not cut the child benefit, as it was "valued by millions.”
The decision will affect couples in which one parent earns about £44,000 a year. Mr. Osborne also said the total state benefits one family can claim in the future would be capped at about £26,000. Nearly 7.7 million families with children are getting child benefits, costing about £12 billion a year. The remaining benefits are destined to be slashed in the face of austerity measures in coming years.
Austerity Measures
As a part of wider austerity measures, the European governments are stubborn in implementing spending cuts. The welfare measures introduced after WWII to project themselves as welfare states by the western countries, are being slashed one by one since the GATT agreement. The financial crisis of 2008 has provided the European governments and the U.S. an opportunity to speed up the withdrawal of welfare state measures.
The Euro crisis or European debt crisis or Greece crisis has provided another opportunity to the European countries to scrap public spending, spreading the fear of another crisis among the people. Though the Euro crisis is not yet seen in practice, except in market analysis and swift austerity measures, the governments are very active throughout Europe in slashing welfare benefits of the people.
Capitalist Crisis
Imperialist capitalism has been in crisis for a long time, and that has culminated in a bigger financial crisis in 2008. The big financial and manufacturing giants want to place the burden of their crisis on the people keeping their assets safe.
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