Rayner, the Deputy PM and Housing Secretary, reportedly urged Rachel Reeves to make a major benefit change ahead of the Spring Statement.
Deputy PM Angela Rayner (Image: Getty)
Angela Rayner‘s bombshell leaked memo that allegedly called on Rachel Reeves to make a raft of bold changes ahead of her Spring Statement also reportedly pushed for middle class families to lose a key benefit. Rayner, the Deputy PM and Housing Secretary, was accused of straying from her brief as she and her team suggested Reeves should consider various measures instead of spending cuts, including a string of wealth tax rises, according to a document seen by The Telegraph.
It’s now reporting that same memo also urged the Treasury to “claw back” child benefit payments from households where the highest earner was on between £50,000 and £80,000.
Under the current rules, parents can claim £26.05 per week – or £1,345.60 per year – for the eldest or only child.
Parents get £17.25 per week for any additional children which amounts to £897 per year, though rules mean some high earners aren’t able to claim it.
Parents are entitled to £1,355 a year in child benefit for a first child and £897 a year for any additional child.
Changes to the rules made under former Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, where are still in place, mean when the high earner has an income of between £60,000 and £80,000, they are subject to the High Income Child Benefit Charge.
If earnings rise above £80,000 they then lose the benefit entirely. Rayner’s apparent memo said the move could bring a saving of around £600m annually.
QT: Fiona Bruce tries to get an answer on Winter Fuel Payments
Hunt warned the Labour government against changing the current threshold, telling the paper: “This may look like a relatively minor budget measure but was one of the most popular things we did because it helped striving middle-class families struggling with childcare costs.
“Abandoning them would finally confirm that far from being a New Labour government, this is a traditional anti-aspiration Old Labour government,” he added.
Rayner and her team’s memo set out “ten proposals that would be popular, prudent, and would not raise taxes on working people”.
It added: “There are also some more radical and new proposals that may be more difficult to implement and/or contentious – but which would be worthy of careful consideration.”
The various potential measures, which also reportedly included the idea of making it more difficult for immigrants to get Universal Credit welfare payments and to raise the fee which has to be paid to use the NHS, were not adopted by Reeves.
The Environment Secretary Steve Reed was asked about the memo on BBC Breakfast, and insisted the Cabinet was “united behind the government’s plan for change”.
A government spokesperson told The Guardian: “We don’t comment on leaks.”
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch also brought up the apparent leak at her last PMQ spar with Sir Keir on Wednesday, claiming he had “lost control of his Cabinet”.
The Prime Minister reponded that the “Deputy Prime Minister is working with the Chancellor, building 1.5 million new homes, reforming our planning system, putting £7 billion into our economy and bringing forward our employment rights Bill which is the single biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation.”
Most Popular Comments
1st Most liked comment • 11 hours ago11
“So let’s get this straight a woman who lived off benefits for a third of her life and got all her training for welfare through tax payersnow …”
2nd Most liked comment • 9 hours ago11
“Leave school, have a child, in fact, have lots of children, don’t get a job, don’t …”
3rd Most liked comment • 15 hours ago7
“She did well on Benefits. Look where she is today, looking down from her ivory tower.”