Should the government be doing more to protect the lower paid?

A report out today suggests that the UK government is not doing enough to protect those on low incomes in the UK. However, as the burden of a near £1 trillion government debt continues to hang around the neck of the UK population is there anything more the UK government can do to protect those on low incomes?

In many ways the UK government is in a no-win situation because ultimately if it attacks the high earners in the UK, taking a higher percentage of their income away, this could push business leaders away from the UK. However, if the UK government takes a high proportion of income away from those on reduced wages or reduced income it will be accused of "reverting to type" and create friction between the various classes in the UK.

While there is no doubt that Gordon Brown and his former Labour government were caught out by the worldwide recession, credit crunch and resulting problems, the situation was made worse by overspending on the public sector in years gone by. David Cameron has stepped into the breach to try and reduce government debt, reduce government spending and also take the UK economy into another growth period. Whether he will be able to do this during his current tenure of number 10 Downing St. is open to debate.