There has been a lot of discussion in the news about changes to tax and benefits which have been coming into effect in the last few weeks. Two things worth highlighting are things which have gone straight from the Liberal Democrat Manifesto at the last General Election into reality in the last week.

A tax cut promised. A tax cut delivered – April 6
Cutting taxes for working people is the Liberal Democrats’ number one priority. It is so important to Liberal Democrats that we put it on the front page of our manifesto, argued for it in the coalition negotiations and are delivering it in government.

From Saturday 6 April 2013 more than 20 million working people will be paying £600 a year less than they were under Labour, as the tax threshold rises to £9,440. Someone earning the minimum wage will have seen their Income Tax bill cut in half. From next April this rises to £700 as the threshold rises to £10,000 – as promised in our manifesto.

The change benefits everyone who works and pays tax, but is it particularly beneficial for lower paid workers who now keep more of what they earn.

In Bury this means that 73,900 people have had a tax cut of £600 (about 4,400 people in Holyrood Ward alone).

In Bury 5,830 lower earners will have been taken out of having to pay income tax all-together.

Amazingly across Bury this means that £44,330,000 LESS income tax is being paid as a result of these changes.

April 8th: State Pension “Triple Lock”
On Monday the full basic State Pension will increased by 2.5%, or £2.70 a week, to £110.15 per week. This is in addition to last year when the triple lock ensured pensioners benefited from the largest ever increase to the basic State Pension of £5.30 per week.

As a result the basic State Pension will represent a higher share of average earnings than at any time since 1992.

The Lib Dem Manifesto said: “We will uprate the state pension annually by whichever is the higher of growth in earnings, growth in prices or 2.5 per cent.” In Government we have been able to deliver on this promise.