I'm sorry if I've offended some of you, that was absolutely not my intention.
Of course I agree that the government is absolutely wrong to cut tax credits. The whole point about tax credits is (or rather, like Child Benefit, is meant to be) that people who are struggling are given extra financial help. In fact I have been battling with the Inland Revenue over a particularly cruel way in which they recently cut tax credits from a friend who has suffered and continues to suffer more than anyone I've ever met.
I also agree that disabled people are treated probably worse than any other members of society - and the government's slashing of the DLA is one of many examples of that.
I also believe, like many economists who know far more about this than I do, that the way to get ourselves out of a recession is to increase spending and increase people's capacity to spend. I don't know whether the government is trying to do this by stealth, which proposals such as this tax cut for hiring cleaners. But unless they work their butts off to increase people's income - through protecting benefits as well as other means - we are going to remain in this recession for a very long time. This is still one of the most expensive countries in the world, and the government has a duty to tackle the ever-increasing gap between rich and poor.
I may be wrong but I think tax breaks are given for employing people, not being employed. So tax breaks or allowances for a disabled or elderly person hiring a carer - absolutely.
It's wrong to assume that working class people are all poor. Class is not distinguished by income. If anything, it's much harder to determine what a person's class is these days, and frankly it doesn't interest me all that much. But I know 'working class' people with a higher income and a better lifestyle than mine, and who also have cleaners.
And what is 'rich'? Those of us in the UK, with free healthcare and education up to age 18, a welfare system (however crappy it may be these days) are loaded compared with over 90% of the planet.
You may perhaps assume someone in this country is 'rich' if they live in a mortgage-free home which they inherited, and have an income of £40k and no partner or children to support. All well and good. For a family of 5 living in the southeast, where an average 3-bed house can cost £1400pcm to rent, with a household income of £40k, that doesn't leave very much to live on. You'd hardly call them 'rich'. If they work in a different city from where they live, travel costs to work will eat a massive whack from the remainder of their income. There will be no foreign holidays, not even on a budget airline. And yachts? Come off it. Do you know how few people can afford to own a bloody yacht?
This family is never going to manage to afford to buy the house they rent, as it will be worth upwards of £280k. If they have a teenager who wants to go to university, they will have absolutely no chance of achieving that. But if they hired a cleaner to help the second partner to earn a living outside the home, that helps the family AND the cleaner. They might not earn enough to buy a house, but they'll struggle a bit less. And as I said before, cleaners should be paid a decent wage.