I think I stole this idea off Guido but don’t let that put you off. There’s a hint of it in a Guardian article, regards a suggestion of capping benefits at £500 per week:
The Department for Work and Pensions said there had to be a limit on the amount of money benefit claimants could receive. “We think that limit is set at a fair rate of £26k – the equivalent to someone earning £35,000 before tax. If you take child benefit out of the cap, it will simply become ineffective, failing the very principles of our reforms, which is to bring fairness back into our welfare system while ensuring that support goes to those who need it.”
And lo, it works out; input “35000” and you get per week:
Gross Income £673.08
Taxable Income £529.33
Tax £105.87
National Insurance £64.10
Take Home £503.12
I think there’s a lot to be said for phrasing the debate not in terms of paltry-sounding net sums, but in terms of gross annual salary to give some perspective of someone’s effective quality of life on benefits.
35k in London is a lot different to 35k in Aberystwyth.
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