Of all the disability cuts, this week's may be the most sensible
It is often baffling how some Budget measures cause outrage while others pass by barely noticed. We all remember the furore about the tax credit cuts. But how many people remember that the same cuts will be applied to Universal Credit, which is replacing tax credits? This week’s cut to the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is another example. Jeremy Corbyn denounced it as punishing “the most vulnerable and the poorest in our society”. The ink had barely dried before Tory backbenchers made clear their disagreements with the Chancellor. But of all the cuts that the Conservatives have made to disabled people, the cuts to PIP may well be the most sensible. They are almost certainly the least damaging.
Business rates are a tax on landlords, not on businesses
There is such a thing as a bad tax cut, and business rates relief for small businesses is one of them. Despite what the Chancellor claimed in his budget yesterday, reducing rates will likely be a tax cut for landlords, not businesses. Business rates are a tax on non-domestic property, paid by the occupier rather than the owner and based on the property's rentable value. Since they are paid by the renting business, most people assume it is businesses who lose out because of them.