To happily pay an extra £2000 per year to....

I think trusting private medical insurance is a mistake.

There will be caveats and disclaimers.

I think life was better more hopeful under the previous labour government.

Brexit was a result of the Tories/ David Cameron.

As was the fake austerity.

Squeeze the services that the lower paid rely on (education / health/ transport) under austerity and yet the wealthy get to maintain their education/ health and transport.

They will squander it. They'll take all our £2k's pay one part of the public sector more (as well as themselves) and then realise you need a bottomless pit to meet all the expectations.

I am very cynical about any of the political parties.

My preference would be lower taxation so we can buy more services ourselves, for example medical insurance. With a safety net for those who genuinely cant work.

So would I pay £160 a month extra for those things? Well, a) I can't afford to. b) There is no guarantee we would see any improvement. Remember the Brexit bus and all the money promised for the NHS if only we voted Brexit? It's all just meaningless promises.

Social care and NHS costs are a bottomless pit, however much money is thrown into them, it will never be enough.

There is no doubt tax would go up a lot under Labour, it always does. But there is also no guarantee we will see any real change. They just make promises to get voted in and then do what they like afterwards.

And let's not forget it was Labour who left the country with no money 14 years ago when Tories got back in.

However it's an absolute shit show under Tories now, although a lot of that is the knock on effect of Brexit, COVID and Russia invading Ukraine.

I personally think the best bet is to vote for a local MP, of whichever party, who is the most prepared to work hard for their area, and stand up in H of C and actually advocate for their constituents beyond whatever the current party line is. After all, we vote for the MP, not their party and they are free to change party after election.

No, OP, no! We keep paying more and more taxes, and our money is mismanaged. We never get the desired benefits. I would like to see broad cuts to the budgets, say 15%, and pertinent public sector bodies having to cut their cut accordingly (and getting rid of bureaucratic roles. My point is controversial, but I want to retain a lot more of my money - to not survive, but to thrive!

This seems to be a popular myth on here.

There is inheritance tax (although I think this should be scrapped and replaced with capital gains tax on all transfers on death).

Capital gains tax allowance has been cut from £12k to £3k a year.

Investment property is heavily taxed - mortgage interest tax allowance is restricted. Extra stamp duty when buying a second property.

Investments are taxed at different rates because of the risk involved. A salary is guaranteed income, invest income will vary. Encouraging people to invest in U.K. companies benefits us all in the long term.

That’s the theory anyway.

I would willingly pay extra but any party which says "We will fix the health service and the care system and it will cost every household £500 per year" will never get elected! I would like to see - for example - the basic allowance raided from £12000 odd to £20000 and the rate raised to say 23% to take so many people out of tax. Many people on the full state pension are possibly going to have to pay tax on some of it.

I love comments like these. I have worked in finance and trust me, the wealthy people are just as bad, if not worse at not paying tax 😁

Taxis for children will be for specific reasons.

I want to see inefficiency and waste cut before more money is given. Everything needs to be reviewed. It's ridiculous the thousands spent on taxis to take children to school. Why aren't parents taking their own children to school?

The strain on public services is also due to people not taking responsibility for themselves.

Look at these 2 things first before money is just thrown at issues.

I think more should be spent on public services.

The Tory govt have consistently reduced funding for the nhs since they’ve been in. Initially under the guise of austerity.

I read something that said bus services have reduced by 90pc to what they were. I was shocked at that.

There’s a ridiculous amount of potholes. Even on the motorway. It’s ridiculous.

Do people agree that there needs to be more investment in public services or is it all to do with inefficiency ? Or would posters rather not have public services and let folk choose ?

In theory I kind of agree but in practice I live in Scotland and our household pays a lot more tax than we would in England.

All of those things are still a problem here, who knows what the money is actually going on. I guess its most likely on additional benefits for the lowest paid, but it's certainly not going on universally benecially things (and it would be nice, to be honest, to feel like I saw some benefit at least from the extra £££ that I'm putting in 🤪)

I'd only be happy to contribute more if I had confidence that the benefits you've outlined might actually appear.

In reality I'm so cross that I'm drastically increasing my pension contributions so I won't creep into the next tax band up- at least that way I will see something back 🤣

2k can’t fix all that unfortunately, I’m not sure that will even cover the increased costs of the state pension.

Taxes are too weighted on PAYE in this country, wealth needs to be looked at. With an ageing population we don’t have enough workers for one.

Absolutely, yes. That is the kind of society I would want to be part of. And that is whether some of it benefits me directly or not.

Because if I paid more tax today the Tories would squander it on their mates.

Really? Because health insurance would cost me £100 a month (yes I looked into it). The private psychiatric assessment I've paid for my daughter is £900 and ongoing appointments are £100 each, which I'm doing because she attempted suicide and CAMHS still haven't seen her 4 months on. £2k doesn't scratch the surface.

You’re mistaken.

DH and I have come from nothing. DH has experienced poverty like none of you probably ever have. He slept on a broken mattress with no bed sheets. Had one jumper in his wardrobe and no other clothes. He barely ate anything other than bread.

His mother declares herself a hard working mum. She took tax payers money to stay in bed until 4pm and to pay for booze and fags. Her kids were neglected…. But everyone celebrated her for being a single mum raising 7 kids. DH still won’t talk to her. She genuinely believes she was doing her best though.

I don’t care if I’m short sighted. Everyone has had the same opportunities as DH and myself. I’ve EARNED the right to be selfish. And I’m not ashamed that I feel I already give enough of my family household money to pay towards society. I do enough. Don’t ask for more.

@CountryBear that’s quite a sad short sighted take.
Then again self made folk are often like that. No idea about other people’s struggles. No understanding that some people function differently. Typical mean spirited claptrap. Maybe spend sometime helping out at a food bank, work with the homeless, CAB. Not everyone is a work shy scrounger. Not everyone can ‘pull themselves up by the bootstraps’.
Maybe vote for the Tories then. You’d be happier. No make it Reform actually, they really will cut benefits if people don’t accept the first job they are given.

I know. I’m not voting Tory. They are a waste of space, as are Labour.

I can promise you this, Labour will get in on July 4th and nothing, absolutely nothing, will change. Because they are all self serving liars, who are just looking for a big pension and an easy, phenomenally paid job after four-five years “work”. Same as the Conservatives.

None of them care about us, the people. They don’t care about the middle earners or the poor.

Nothing will change and we’ll just continue to flip flop between two incompetent governments.

So all I want is for them to take what they currently take from me and leave me alone.

ETA: oh, and for people who think that a working six figure (just) household should pay more back to society to buggar off…I shouldn’t be paying more, I should be going to Bali.

I’m no expert on tax/maybe but from what I understand the UK tax system is deliberately setup to tax hard earned income (of any amount) but doesn’t tax “wealth” as much ie. Those with inherited wealth and investments and properties. If that’s the case - the whole system needs to be sorted. Because right now it’s discouraging many people to earn more.

The Tories have consistently raised taxes (with nothing to show for it).

That’s exactly what I want. Everyone to have personal accountability. If you want a good standard of living, work for it. Don’t expect anything for nothing. (With the exception of people with severe disabilities or short term emergency situations).

That’s what my husband and I have done. We’ve never had a big inheritance to help us, or handouts. DH’s dad died when he was 8 and his family were dirt poor. But he watched his mother spend their grants and help down the pub and on cigarettes, so he doesn’t believe in hand outs. We’ve worked and we have to make work pay.

If they raised my taxes now, I’d drop as many days as was possible to negate those taxes. And I’d perhaps start enjoying my life a bit more and let others pick up the slack for me.

I was thinking the same as a pensioner. I would rather pay tax on the proportion of my state pension that exceeded the personal tax allowance than wait on a trolley in a corridor should I become seriously ill. I’m not that impressed by parties arguing that they won’t raise tax, although I would like reassurance about how the money would be spent.

The issue is that the top 10% earners pay 60% of income tax receipts in this country. If you start constantly pushing at people earning 50K+ then you disincentivise people to earn that and pay higher rate tax so they cut their hours etc.
What we need is a total re-think of the taxation system. You shouldn't be in a situation whereby the majority take more than they put in otherwise you will never achieve improvement in public services.

@TheThingIsYeah what’s your answer then ?