Brown on way to a means-test nation, says Howard
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Your support makes all the difference.Gordon Brown was accused last night of creating a "dependency culture" by putting up to 25 million people on means-tested benefits. Michael Howard, the shadow Chancellor, bitterly attacked Mr Brown for increasing income-dependent benefits. He said: "Doesn't this rise in means-testing send out loud and clear the signal: the more you save the less you'll get."
During the final day's debate on the Budget, Mr Howard said that up to 25 million people would be in households on means-tested benefits from 2003-04. "The Chancellor is determined to make us a means-tested nation, to create a dependency culture, in which all the way up the income scale, right up to £66,000 a year, people are dependent on the Chancellor's largesse."
Mr Howard said Mr Brown had degraded himself and his office by exaggerating the scale of the global downturn, and accused him of making "misleading claims" about Britain's performance compared to its major competitors.
The shadow Chancellor attacked the decision to adopt a new measure of inflation, saying it would cost pensioners millions of pounds by limiting increases in pension payments to cover price rises. Mr Howard said: "Can the Chancellor confirm that, on the basis of his own inflation forecast, pensioners would find themselves almost £1 as week worse off in 2006-07 if he were to make such a change?"
He accused ministers of increasing the overall tax burden by 50 per cent since 1997. He said: "No longer is there any pretence of jam tomorrow. We are now on the road to higher taxes for the duration of this government however long or short that may be. How does the Chancellor ever expect people to trust him on tax again?"
Opening the debate, Patricia Hewitt, the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, said: "In the past, when the world economy slowed, Britain's economy crashed; first into recessions, last out. Not now. Thanks to the tough decisions we took in the first term, Britain now has the lowest inflation for 30 years, the lowest interest rates for 40 years and faster growth than any other major European economy. We will do nothing to jeopardise those stable economic foundations, now tested in bad times as well as good."
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