Sunak proposes Tax cuts for Pensioners in new election pledge

• British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak proposes tax cuts for millions of pensioners in his latest campaign pledge.
• The tax cut is expected to increase to almost 300 pounds a year by the end of the next parliament.
• The new proposal, described as "triple lock plus," will cost 2.4 billion pounds a year by 2029/30.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak proposed tax cuts for millions of pensioners on Monday in his latest campaign pledge, highlighting the importance of older voters in the upcoming July election. Sunak’s Conservative Party announced that it would introduce a new age-related allowance and implement a tax cut of around 100 pounds ($128) for each of 8 million pensioners in 2025, with the amount rising to almost 300 pounds a year by the end of the next parliament.

“This bold action demonstrates we are on the side of pensioners. The alternative is Labour dragging everyone in receipt of the full state pension into income tax for the first time in history,” Sunak, who last week called a general election for July 4, said in the statement.

In the year leading up to February 2023, the number of pensioners in Britain increased by 140,000, reaching a total of 12.6 million. Close to 50 million Britons will be eligible to vote in the election, which opinion polls predict will likely end 14 years of Conservative rule in the country.

The Conservative Party stated that the proposal aligns with its commitment to the so-called triple lock, which guarantees increases to publicly funded pensions by the level of earnings, inflation, or 2.5 percent, whichever is highest.

Labour has also committed to retaining the policy, which a Conservative government introduced in 2011 to prevent pensioners from falling into poverty. However, costs associated with it have come under increased scrutiny in recent years after British inflation soared, pushing up the government bill for state pensions by an additional 11 billion pounds last year.

The party described the new proposal as "triple lock plus," stating that it will cost 2.4 billion pounds a year by 2029/30. The funding will come from the government’s previously announced plan to raise an extra 6 billion pounds a year by clamping down on tax avoidance and evasion, according to the party.

“This is just another desperate move from a chaotic Tory party torching any remaining facade of its claims to economic credibility,” Labour shadow paymaster general Jonathan Ashworth said in a statement on the plans.

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