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Home NATIONALKids, pensioners to feel the pinch of austerity
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Tue, 02 Jun, 2015 12:59:41 AM
FTimes-STT Report, June 2
 
File Photo Lehtikuva.
The recently agreed upon government cutbacks and tax changes will affect pensioners and children the most, according to calculations by the Ministry of Finance.
 
According to the ministry, the next to face cuts are the unemployed, the only group who benefit from the new agreement.
 
The calculations show that 16 percent of the cuts are aimed at pensioners and 15 percent at families with children. 
 
The greatest impact to pensioners will be the freezing of the pension index. The effect on families with children will consist of, among other things, changes in day care benefits.
 
The calculations show how the government's actions affect various groups of the population, but do not reflect, in actual euro amounts, the effects on benefits.
 
File Photo Lehtikuva.
The parliamentary group chairman of the Social Democratic Party, Antti Lindtman has called for, in the name of transparency, the Sipilä government to publish immediately the government negotiation memos.
 
However, Lindtman's demand for the memos was not the cause of the issuing or publication of the ministry calculations.
 
The ministry aims to do the calculations routinely, but this time they were supplied because of requests.
 
A finance Counsellor of the ministry Tuulia Hakola-Uusitalo said that not even a draft of the calculations was known at the time of the government's decision.
 
"No accurate calculations can be made before the decisions are made," said Hakola-Uusitalo.
 
In the calculations used are measures for reducing spending totalling almost 4.7 million euros, with an increase in spending of only 460 million euros. 
 
Social Democratic Party parliamentary group chair Antti Lindtman. File Photo Lehtikuva.
The Ministry of Finance points out that not all the tax changes have been taken into account, and that the government programme's overall impact will depend very much on those changes.
 
Meanwhile, a report commissioned by the Green Wire said that the upcoming tax changes benefit the most the 30-40 percent of the population with the most access to money. 
 
In terms of euros, the top 20 percent see the greatest benefit. The top 10 percent of richest Finns will see a benefit, but not as great. 
 
The tax changes benefit the least the poorest fifth, both in terms of euros and in relative. 
 
The matter was clarified to the magazine by the Parliament Information Service.
 
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