Sexism And The Taxation System

EDM number 1092 in 1994-95, proposed by Harry Barnes on 09/05/1995.

That this House notes that a married or unmarried man with at least one dependent child whose partner is totally incapacitated is able to claim the additional personal tax allowance in respect of the difficulties of care involved in her disability whereas a woman in similar circumstances cannot; further notes the recognition, in a letter to the honourable Member for North East Derbyshire, by the honourable Member for Ealing, Acton, on behalf of the Government that `... the provision may well be regarded as anachronistic' and `... not a wholly satisfactory state of affairs'; regrets, therefore, that the Government has decided to retain the provision and not to extend the tax allowance to women on the same basis as it is available to men; and calls upon the Government to review this sexist and discriminatory position by making it available on an equal basis, in line with the claim in the Taxpayer's Charter that all taxpayers are to be treated with equal fairness.

This motion has been signed by a total of 50 MPs.