The spending cuts will lead to the loss of at least 500,000 public sector jobs and between 600,000 and 700,000 private sector jobs by the end of this Parliament.
Public spending is an investment, not a debt. Public servants – the vast majority of whom are low paid – deliver vital services to our communities.
If the government cuts more jobs this will only exacerbate the deficit crisis – more people will be unemployed and there will be less revenue.
Addressing the ‘tax gap’ is a vital part of tackling the deficit. Figures produced for PCS by the Tax Justice Network show that £25 billion is lost annually in tax avoidance and a further £70 billion in tax evasion by large companies and wealthy individuals.
An additional £26 billion is going uncollected. Therefore PCS estimates the total annual tax gap at over £120 billion (more than three-quarters of the annual deficit!). It is not just PCS calculating this; leaked Treasury documents in 2006 estimated the tax gap at between £97 and £150 billion.
Richard Murphy of the Tax Justice Network has revealed that 92 per cent of the cost of cutting public sector jobs when we have less than full employment is paid by the state, making it counter-productive economically
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