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CSJ - Baroness Stroud welcomes ‘listening’ Chancellor

Baroness Stroud (Chief Executive, Centre for Social Justice) has welcomed the Chancellor’s announcement that he will abandon proposed changes to tax credits.

Last month the CSJ, the think tank which devised Universal Credit, wrote an options paper for the Treasury setting out how it could avoid dramatic changes to tax credits and still turn a surplus by the end of the Parliament. In an ‘Open Letter’ to the Chancellor on Monday Baroness Stroud called on the Chancellor to abandon his plans for cuts to tax credits and protect work incentives within the benefit system so as not to damage Britain’s ‘jobs miracle’. 

Commenting on the Autumn Statement, Baroness Stroud said:

“The Chancellor has listened to all the voices asking him to ‘think again’ on his proposed changes to the working tax credits. As the head of the think tank behind the Government’s Universal Credit reforms I wrote to the Chancellor on Monday asking him to protect work incentives within the tax credit system. Work incentives are the foundation of the Government’s welfare reforms and jobs miracle”

LINK TO ‘OPEN LETTER’ FROM BARONESS STROUD TO THE CHANCELLOR: http://centreforsocialjustice.org.uk/UserStorage/images/Publications/Open-Letter-to-Chancellor-from-Baroness-Stroud-(003).pdf

LINK TO CSJ ‘OPTIONS PAPER’ ON TAX CREDITS: http://www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk/UserStorage/pdf/Pdf%20reports/Reforming-Tax-Credits-full-report.pdf

The Centre for Social Justice

The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) is an independent think tank established in 2004 to put social justice at the heart of British politics. In June 2013, the CSJ was awarded UK Social Policy Think Tank of the Year at Prospect magazine’s Think Tank Awards.

Last year the CSJ published Breakthrough Britain 2015, which set out almost 200 evidence-based policy recommendations to tackle poverty in the UK. This included solutions to worklessness, educational failure, addiction, family breakdown and problem debt. 

The CSJ has published dozens of seminal papers which have shaped government policies, including Dynamic Benefits, which has led the Coalition’ welfare reforms. Further to this, the CSJ manages an Alliance of over 300 of the most effective grass roots, poverty-fighting organisations. The CSJ is able to draw upon the expertise and experience of Alliance charities for research work and media inquiries. Journalists wishing to conduct grass-roots research into social problems can be put in touch with front-line charity directors and staff

Baroness Stroud

Baroness Stroud of Fulham (Philippa Stroud), was an original founder of the CSJ in 2004. Philippa Stroud served as Director from 2004-2010, before leaving to become Special Advisor to Rt Hon Iain Duncan Smith MP (Secretary of State for Work and Pensions) in Government from 2010-2015. Philippa Stroud was ennobled by the Prime Minister after the 2015 General Election and became Baroness Stroud of Fulham and a Conservative Peer in the House of Lords. Baroness Stroud re-joined the CSJ in October 2015 as Chief Executive. 

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