Think-tank launches social justice vision

Universal early years services, more generous benefits to cut child
poverty and free personal care will deliver social justice in
Britain, a leading think-tank said this week.

In Social Justice: Building a Fairer Britain, the Institute for
Public Policy Research calls for a 50 per cent tax rate on earnings
above £100,000, to fund these and other measures to cut
inequality and poverty.

Children between one and four should receive universal, full-time
child care and education, which would be free for poorer families,
it says, while it also calls for increased tax credits to cut child
poverty.

Older people would receive a more generous state pension, linked to
earnings, as well as free personal care, it adds.

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.”