LIVING WAGE WEEK AND REDUCTIONS TO TAX CREDITS

That this House joins all those supporting Living Wage Week from 1 to 7 November 2015; notes the hourly national living wage rate, set by the Living Wage Foundation, according to the cost of living, is currently £7.85 with a London rate of £9.15; further notes the national minimum wage is currently just £6.70, and the Chancellor's proposal to increase this rate to £7.20 from April 2016 is significantly less than the living wage recommended by experts, and excludes two million working people aged under 25; welcomes the acknowledgement from the Chancellor that the national minimum wage should be increased but believes his national living wage branding is deliberately misleading when his proposed modest increase does not match that set by the Living Wage Foundation; notes the proposed increase in the national minimum wage is the biggest element of the package that Ministers say will help compensate the families hit by the Chancellor's callous tax credit cut proposals; yet notes that analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies suggests the proposed national minimum wage increase would on average only compensate for 26 per cent of the losses due to cuts to benefits and tax credits; and therefore calls on the Chancellor to abandon the proposal to cut tax credits, to increase the national minimum wage to the level set by the Living Wage Foundation and to stop using living wage terminology and branding for any national minimum wage level set below the Living Wage Foundation's expert benchmark.