Get you up to speed: Reform wants to make overtime pay tax-free with £5,000,000,000 break | News UK
Reform UK, led by Nigel Farage, proposed a £5 billion tax break for workers doing overtime in a plan aimed at increasing productivity and appealing to Labour’s former strongholds. The proposal was announced following the local elections across England, where Reform UK and the Liberal Democrats made significant gains at the expense of the Labour Party.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage’s proposed ‘hard work bonus’ aims to introduce a tax-free allowance for overtime for workers earning less than £75,000, at an annual cost of £5 billion. The party intends to offset this expenditure through a £40 billion package of cuts and savings, a strategy already met with scepticism from both Labour and the Conservatives.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage announced a £5 billion tax break aimed at rewarding workers who put in extra hours, targeting Labour’s former strongholds. In response, Treasury Chief Secretary Lucy Rigby questioned the feasibility of the proposal, stating, “If Reform wants people to take their unfunded, back-of-a-fag packet plans seriously, they should come clean about where their £40 billion of cuts would fall.”
What remains unclear — Reform UK has not specified which public services would be affected by its proposed £40 billion cuts to fund the tax break.
Reform UK proposes tax-free overtime pay with £5 billion cost to government
Nigel Farage’s Reform UK have promised a £5 billion tax break for workers doing extra hours.
The ‘hard work bonus’ would create a tax-free allowance for overtime above a 40-hour week for workers earning less than £75,000.
Reform leader Farage said the plan would ‘restore the appeal of a strong work culture’, with overtime becoming tax-free for 90% of employees.
The party said it could meet the expected £5 billion annual cost of the policy through a £40 billion package of cuts and savings.
But both Labour and the Tories questioned where Reform would find the money.
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Still, Farage said: ‘I’ve grown increasingly aware of the deep frustration felt by hardworking people who put in the extra hours yet see no real reward at the end of the month.
‘They look around and see that work simply doesn’t pay, that benefits often match or beat what they earn, and that ordinary families are being dragged into higher tax bands with nothing to show for it.
‘Today we’re announcing our bold new policy that will finally make work pay, drive up productivity, and restore the appeal of a strong work culture once again.’
Reform has aimed the plan at winning more voters in Labour’s former industrial heartlands as it seeks to prevent Labour’s Andy Burnham from winning the Makerfield by-election.
It said a warehouse worker at the South Lancashire Industrial Estate in the seat working six hours of overtime a week would be £700 a year better off as a result of the tax break.
A Band 3 prison officer at HMP Hindley in the constituency, working eight hours of overtime a week, could be £1,300 better off.
Treasury Chief Secretary Lucy Rigby said: ‘Nigel Farage pretends to stand up for working people, but in reality he wants to cut back our NHS and strip away the hard-won boost to workplace rights Labour has delivered.
‘If Reform wants people to take their unfunded, back-of-a-fag packet plans seriously, they should come clean about where their £40 billion of cuts would fall and which public services would pay the price.’
Shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride said: ‘Hard work should be rewarded, which means getting taxes down in a fair and responsible way.
‘Reform’s proposal sets out no new savings to fund the £5 billion price tag. Reform do not do the serious thinking, which is why they keep promising things they cannot deliver.’