The 'quality' papers failed to mention the following in their coverage of the Institute for Fiscal Studies report last week. However the Daily Mail and the Daily Express did. This is the relevant passage from the Express's coverage:

LABOUR has penalised parents who work hard to give their children a good start in life while handing huge subsidies to families where nobody bothers to get a job.

The findings shatter Tony Blair's claims that he is on the side of "hard-working families" and blew a hole in his re-election strategy.

Research by the independent Institute for Fiscal Studies found Labour's tax and benefit changes have boosted the income of a typical unemployed couple with children by around £2,500 a year.

But a working couple with children are around £750 a year worse off because soaring national insurance and other stealth taxes have wiped out the benefit they get from the child tax credit.

If this is true, it is important. I can well believe that the working couple with children has been hurt by Labour policies. But I am more surprised by the idea that benefits for the non-working couple have significantly increased. This needs further examination.

(I am grateful to Corin Taylor of the think tank, Reform, for supplying this cutting.)

Posted by James Bartholomew • Indexed in Welfare benefits

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