Pandemic made millionaires richer at expense of poor - Yorkshire Post Letters

During the Covid crisis millionaires and billionaires became richer while low and middle incomes decreased.

However, in the Spring Statement, Rishi Sunak lowered taxes on millionaires and billionaires and raised National Insurance, a tax on low and middle incomes.

As a result ordinary working people, already disadvantaged from a decade of austerity followed by Covid, face a decline into poverty worse than anything for the last 70 years while millionaires and billionaires have never had it so good. This is easily avoidable – scrap the rise in NI and instead make millionaires and billionaires pay more of a fair share.

Taxes on increases in the value of assets are levied at a much lower percentage than taxes on income.

Those with assets in the billions receive yearly dividends in the millions which they don’t directly work for and are taxed at much lower rates than a nurse or other front line professional.

There are so many loopholes (eg Mrs Sunak’s non-dom status) that many millionaires and billionaires end up paying virtually no tax on vast incomes. This increases inequality year on year. The economy stagnates as spending decreases. To restimulate the economy and reverse income inequality, introduce a wealth tax alongside stricter tax rules on assets and pay working people enough to live – real levelling up.

As things stand, Government serves the interests of millionaires and billionaires and disadvantages working people. Either get real about levelling up or we ordinary voters must stop voting against our own interests and vote them into oblivion.

From: Jack Gooch, Market Weighton.

I was interested in and strongly support the views of John Chater (The Yorkshire Post, April 13) re the burgeoning wealth gap in the UK. However, John has omitted an important causal factor in this trend which is that too often percentages rather than amounts are used when determining increases.

For example, a salary increase of five per cent on £100,000 is £5,000, whereas the guy on minimum wage (£9.18 per hour) sees his increase at around 46p per hour or £18 per week

This iniquity has got steadily more acceptable over the years and it is way past time that Government, the media, employers and employees recognised the gross unfairness that this system causes. Is there no political party that would at least make some attempt to close this gap?