According to reports, the foreign secretary has said that if she becomes prime minister she will launch a review to allow households to be treated as single tax entities.
This would allow individuals to transfer their personal allowance for tax-free earnings within their household. It would mean an earner could keep a higher proportion of their income before it is taxed while someone they live with focuses on caring duties. An individual can earn £12,570 before they start paying tax.
While no decisions have been made on what proportion of an earner’s personal allowance would be transferable, reports suggest the policy could save a couple up to £2,514 a year.
Truss has said that her ‘top priorities as prime minister' would be ‘easing the tax burden on families’ and she wants to ‘make sure the tax system works for them.’
However, campaign group Pregnant Then Screwed has criticised the proposal, arguing that it ignores the ‘childcare crisis’ and would incentivise women to stop working.
In a tweet, Pregnant Then Screwed said, ‘If you create a policy that saves families money for staying at home with their kids, while ignoring the childcare crisis, then we will see women (not men) fall out of the workforce in droves as it will make even less financial sense to work.’
Likewise, Labour MP Stella Creasy has accused Truss of ‘plotting to take the UK back to the 1950s’ by considering using taxes to ‘make women stay home’.
The MP for Walthamstow said, ‘Families across this country are crying out for affordable childcare so that they don’t have to choose between their career and their kids – instead of helping them and investing in provision, Liz Truss seems to think taxes should be used to make women stay home instead.
‘It shows you this Tory party wants to take Britain back to the 1950s, not help everyone thrive in the 2020s.’
