Oral question asked in the House of Commons, by Paddy Tipping (Labour). It was answered on Thursday, 12 July 2007 on behalf of the Treasury.

Tax Credits

Question: Have not tax credits proved a valuable way of taking families, and particularly children, out of poverty? Will they not prove to be more effective than, say, offering £20 a week for couples to get married and stay married?

Answer: I agree with my hon. Friend. The married couples allowance was steadily reduced under the previous Government. Indeed, it was Lord Lamont who did that, and at the time he was being advised by somebody—I think that it might have been the Leader of the Opposition. The problem is that the married couples allowance throws up all sorts of anomalies. For example, if the husband in a couple is killed in a tragic road accident, his widow and children will be left without support—so when we think through the consequence, we see that it bringing back the allowance is not the right thing to do. Helping families with children, and the fact that the working families tax credit has lifted more than 600,000 children out of poverty, are things that we should keep in the front of our minds. All of us in the House say that we are concerned about cutting child poverty, and we have a target to do so. Our measures have helped to lift 600,000 children out of poverty, and that is why tax credits are so important to us.

Secondary information

Type: Oral question
Reference: 462 c1591
Session: 2006-07
Oral question type: Supplementary
Chamber / Committee: House of Commons chamber
Subjects: Children Poverty Married people Social security Welfare tax credits Working tax credit Tax allowances Eligibility Income tax Low incomes Tax rates and bands Take-up
Contains statistics: Yes
Link: View this Oral question on www.publications.parliament.uk