Thinktank calls for progressive taxation to fund children and older people’s services

The government must use progressive taxation to deliver social
justice through more generous services for children and older
people, an influential think-tank says today, writes
Mithran Samuel.

In Social Justice: Building a Fairer Britain, the Institute for
Public Policy Research calls for a 50 per cent top rate of tax to
fund universal early years services, more generous tax credits for
families and free personal care.

The tax would apply to earnings over £100,000.

IPPR director Nick Pearce said: “[Britain] still suffers
divisions by social class and levels of poverty and inequality that
rank among the highest in Europe. Achieving social justice in
Britain will mean calling on the public to give their support and
show a willingness to pay for it.”

More information is available from www.ippr.org.