The work and pensions select committee asked the Resolution Foundation and the Institute for Fiscal Studies about the options available to mitigate the effect of tax credit cuts. According to the FT, Torsten Bell and Paul Johnson told them there aren’t any. This bit made me laugh, especially the last paragraph:
Frank Field, a veteran Labour welfare reformer who now chairs the committee, suggested that a delay might give people “more time to scramble around to try to mitigate the consequences” by raising their working hours.
However, Mr Johnson argued that rules under which people receive tax credits if they work 16 hours a week for a single parent, or 24 hours a week for a couple, meant there was little incentive to work longer.
Mr Field argued that the changes to tax credits might amount to “shock treatment” and that people “might just cast themselves adrift from the…
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Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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