The Truth:
Ignore the scare stories in the press. No pensioner will pay a single extra penny of tax under these plans.

Because of the triple lock guarantee that the Liberal Democrats campaigned on in 2010 and then introduced in government, pensions have risen by 5.2% this year – the biggest increase ever – and will never fail to rise below the rate of inflation.

What George Osborne announced in the Budget will only affect people who will become pensioners over the next couple of years who will keep working and earn more than £9,205 a year. No one else is affected. This will only affect a very small proportion of pensioners in each area.

Only ‘tycoon pensioners’ will be only £256 a year worse off under these changes. If you have a part time job to tide you over you’ll pay an extra £80 worse off a year. But you can’t take that in isolation. Compare that to the rise in pensions.

Because of the Lib Dem ‘triple lock’ guarantee, pensioners are more than £500 better off a year than under Labour – that’s £9.80 extra every week.

After just over two months of the year you’ve already got more money from the Lib Dem triple lock then you’ve lost through George Osborne’s tax changes. By the end of the year you’ll be at least £430 better off!

As well as increasing the state pension the Coalition is protecting key pensioner benefits such as Winter Fuel Payments, free prescriptions and eye tests, free bus travel and free TV licences for older pensioners.

We’re on the verge of something special. It’s over a decade since the Liberal Democrats first campaigned to take the lowest paid out of paying income tax altogether.

We’re closer than ever to making it happen, but we need your help.

Our plan will put £60 every month back into the pockets of hard working people. Of course, there are those who want a tax cut for the millionaires rather than the millions. However, for the first time in our history we’re in a position to make a real difference. We’ll only win this fight together, and I want you to take part.

Tell me today what you’d do with an extra £60 a month.

By telling me how you’d use that £60 tax cut you’ll not only be spreading the word, you’ll also be telling those who oppose our plan that the time has come for real action.

Help make this happen today.

Once you’ve told me how you’d spend the £60, forward this item to some friends and ask them as well. Together, we can make this happen.

Clegg has called on the government to go faster to lift allowances, claiming lower income groups were in a state of emergency due to a squeeze on living standards. Photograph: David Jones/PA

The Liberal Democrats have started examining ways to raise billions in higher taxes on the rich to fund Nick Clegg’s call for the government to go faster in lifting the personal income tax threshold to £10,000.

Clegg’s officials admitted that the rate at which the threshold could be increased would depend on what schemes can be developed before the budget to fund the proposal. Tax avoidance, aviation taxes and wealth taxes will all be examined by the Treasury.

In a speech on Thursday Clegg called on the government to go faster in lifting allowances, saying lower income groups were in a state of emergency owing to a squeeze on living standards. Alex Henderson, tax partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, suggested each £100 increase in the personal allowance cost the government at least £500m, and raising the threshold from £8,105 to £10,000 would cost £11bn.

No 10 reacted calmly to Clegg’s call, pointing out that the goal of a £10,000 personal allowance threshold is existing coalition policy. But Tory MPs were divided, with some warning the chancellor, George Osborne, not to let the Liberal Democrats grab credit for the policy and others warning the idea was expensive and unlikely to boost business confidence.

David Ruffley, a Conservative Treasury select committee member, warned: “There are no free lunches here and I think many of us believe the best way now to boost business confidence is not pushing it up to £10,000 to put some more money in the household pockets, but to actually go for payroll taxes.”

On the left, many analysts argue lifting the threshold is not as progressive as it seems since it is not aimed at household income.

Clegg will be delighted that he has highlighted what is a relatively simple tax policy, saying in his speech: “Cutting income tax is one of the most direct tools we have to ease the burden on low and middle earners.”

The income tax threshold was raised by £1,000 to £7,475 in the 2010 budget, and the government plans to increase it further to £8,105 this year.

In his speech Clegg continued to insist he was interested in a mansion tax, even if some of his officials doubt that such a radical policy can be pushed through the Treasury by the time of the spring budget.

Lord Oakeshott, the Liberal Democrat peer, urged Clegg to stick to his guns on the mansion tax, saying: “If we really want to tax the wealth of the super-rich, mansion tax is the game changer – the only tax the nondoms and City sharks cannot dodge.”