David Cameron backtracks on child benefit cuts
David Cameron is today set to backtrack lightly on child benefit cuts which were announced earlier this week by Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne. In a hastily rewritten speech it is believed he will offer married couples a tax break which will make up for the child benefit cuts that are set to hit many middle income families in the UK. There is growing anger within Conservative backbenchers regarding the handling of the benefits cut and the fact that it does not appear to have been correctly calculated to hit the people targeted.
There is also talk that David Cameron will tone down his Conservative party conference speech and all talk of austerity measures and significant cuts in the public sector budget may well disappear into the background. This is probably the first major challenge for David Cameron since he took office with many comparing this to the 10% tax debacle introduced by Gordon Brown and ultimately withdrawn.
The truth is the UK taxation/benefits system is a very complicated monster and a simple tweak in one area can have major implications in other areas. Whether or not David Cameron has the bottle or the nerve to backtrack completely and start again regarding his benefit shakeup remains to be seen.
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