Farron - cutting your taxes by £825

Today, the personal tax allowance was increased to £10,600 meaning that during this Parliament Tim Farron and the Liberal Democrats will have delivered a tax cut worth £825 for thousands of workers in Cumbria.

Cutting taxes by raising the personal allowance to £10,000 was on the front page of our 2010 General Election manifesto. 244,000 people in Cumbria have had their tax cut as a result of this policy and 7,600 people have been lifted out of paying tax altogether in Westmorland and Lonsdale.

The change came about as the new tax year began today.

Under our manifesto plans we will go further and increase this to £12,500 by the end of the next Parliament delivering a further tax cut of £400. This means that anyone earning the minimum wage will not pay tax on that.

Tim said: "Being able to cut taxes for people on middle incomes and having the chance to lift the poorest people out of paying tax altogether has made a big difference.

"We live in an area which boasts one of the lowest unemployment levels in the country; however a huge proportion of those employed here are living on the minimum wage. With an average salary of less than £24,000 changing the tax threshold has put a £825 back into the pocket of the average South Lakes worker!"