What’s Going On With Bonuses In The UK?

Data from the Office for National Statistics reveals that since financial crisis, bonuses will top £100bn by the end of financial year.

The Robin Hood Tax campaign reveals alarming figures for the financial sector. Bonuses are out of control. By March, and since October 2007, Banks and insurers will have given £100bn in bonuses. Only last year, £15bn were spent in bonuses by Britain’s financial sector. This issue has been sparking debates around the UK’s unreformed financial sector.

While it is the time of the year where high street banks are revealing their bonus pots for 2014, some people and organisations are fighting to apply taxes to the financial sector, and in this way make them accountable for the problems they are blamed for. Although the financial sector makes up about a 10th of the Kingdom’s economy, it accounts for over a third of all bonuses being paid out.

The Robin Hood campaign is calling on the UK to introduce a financial transactions tax that is expected to raise revenue and curb some of the sector’s most alarming excesses. After meetings in Brussels that took place the past month, ten countries in the EU renewed their commitment to introducing such tax. However, since some are concerned about the impact of this taxation scheme, the European commission has been asked to provide technical advice.

About the Robin Hood Tax Campaign

The Robin Hood Tax campaign is a group of 119 UK organisations including Barnardo’s, Comic Relief, Oxfam, Friends of the Earth, Stamp Out Poverty and the TUC. The head of the campaign is David Hillman. The aim of the campaign is to reduce poverty and to tackle climate change by taxing financial transactions. Supporters say that this tiny tax on financial transactions has the potential to change the world.

Supporters of the campaign blame the financial sector for a big part of the economic crisis and recession that the UK is in. They therefore believe that banks, hedge funds and the rest of the sector should pay their share to overcome this situation.

Dear European Leaders,
We urge you to take the lead on implementing a Financial Transactions Tax and use the revenue to create jobs in public services, save lives in developing countries and combat climate change.”

The Robin Hood Tax, also known as a Financial Transactions Tax (FTT), is a tax of about 0.05% on transactions like stocks, bonds, foreign currency and derivatives, which could potentially raise £250 billion a year globally. The money raised with the tax will be spent mostly on fighting poverty in the UK (improve housing, child poverty, libraries and so), 25% will be spent on fighting poverty in developing countries and 25% will be destined to fight climate change in the UK and abroad.

You can read more about the campaign on robinhoodtax.org.uk.