予算 blow to middle earners

By Ben Leapman
Updated: 00:00 BST, 12 December 2003

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MIDDLE-INCOME families will lose as much as £100 a year under changes to 税金 credits slipped out in （ドイツなどの）首相／（大学の）学長 Gordon Brown's Pre-予算 報告（する）／憶測.

Almost three million families will 落ちる 犠牲者 to a 決定／判定勝ち（する） to 凍結する 重要な elements of two 税金 credits which go to the 広大な 大多数 of families in Britain.

In his ありふれたs 声明 on Wednesday the （ドイツなどの）首相／（大学の）学長 trumpeted bigger child 税金 credit 支払い（額）s for the poorest families. But the small print 明らかにする／漏らすs that the extra help will be 基金d, in part, by redistributing the money from wealthier families （人命などを）奪う，主張するing the same 税金 credit.

Families （人命などを）奪う，主張するing a second credit, the working 税金 credit, will also lose out by about £1 a week. In all, better-off families will lose £240m.

In an 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の 試みる／企てる to 正当化する the 決定／判定勝ち（する）, the 財務省 （人命などを）奪う，主張するd that the families losing out 'don't need the money'. The comment put a question 示す over why they were given the help in the first place, when the （ドイツなどの）首相／（大学の）学長 introduced his 旗艦 child 税金 credit only eight months ago.

It has been marred by 行政の 大混乱 at the Inland 歳入, （人命などを）奪う，主張するs that the system is too コンビナート／複合体, and the 失敗 by as many as half am 適格の families to （人命などを）奪う，主張する it.

Critics （刑事）被告 the （ドイツなどの）首相／（大学の）学長 of levelling a new 'stealth 税金' on middle Britain. The child 税金 credit is paid 直接／まっすぐに to mothers, 大部分は by redirecting 税金 paid by fathers.

In part, it 取って代わるd the old married couples' allowance. It goes to families whose 共同の 税込みの 収入s are up to £55,000 a year.

For lower-income families the credit is 価値（がある） more than £1,500 a year but those at the upper end of the income 規模 receive a flat-率 £545 a year. This sum will be frozen year on year, so that its value is 徐々に eroded by インフレーション.

収入s thresholds within the credit system will also be frozen, with lower-earners 利益ing at the expense of higher earners. The 学校／設ける of 会計の 熟考する／考慮するs calculates that a family with a 共同の income of £52,000 would receive £412 in child 税金 credit this year. If all the elements of the system had been uprated with インフレーション they would have received £520 - meaning that they had 苦しむd a 逮捕する loss of £108.

The IFS said 2.9m families would lose out. Those 影響する／感情d are mostly on above-普通の／平均（する） incomes but the y do not 含む 最高の，を越す earners, who are already ineligible for 税金 credits.

A 財務省 広報担当者 said: 'We have 確実にするd that we 的 these 対策 on the families who need it most - the poorest families. If we were to 増加する the whole thing, it would mean that those families who don't need the money would be getting it.'

But Tory work and 年金s 影をつくる／尾行する David Willetts said: 'The 税金 system used to help all families with the cost of children. Now the （ドイツなどの）首相／（大学の）学長 has introduced an even tighter new means-実験（する） which penalises middle Britain's hard-working families.'

Mr Brown 発表するd a £3.50-a-week 増加する in the 'child element' but did not について言及する he would claw 支援する some of the money by 氷点の the 'family element' and thresholds.