To think there is no more money?

People, mainly older women who worked part time or did not work when their children were little as there was no childcare support. Have been encouraged to pay extra NI to increase their state pension. If they were no longer eligible, these mainly women would want that additional NI reimbursed.

What about everyone else who paid NI?

Well we have the wrong people in government then. Tax hikes yes, but the benefit system will definitely have more money thrown at it.

People, mainly older women who worked part time or did not work when their children were little as there was no childcare support. Have been encouraged to pay extra NI to increase their state pension. If they were no longer eligible, these mainly women would want that additional NI reimbursed.

@Circumferences

"Suddenly there is a fucking magic money tree for the pandemic and no one says anything."

The fucking magic money tree for the pandemic was actually called increasing the national debt by £500 billion from £2 trillion to £2.5 trillion. So much so that the interest bill on this debt is the same as the entire education budget.

To put £500 billion into context if you dropped a pound in to a very large jam jar every second it would take 11 days to get to a million. To get to a billion would take 31 years and to get to £500 billion would take 15,500 years or 13000 BC which was the Stone Age and a full 10,000 years before the pyramids were built.

I would also sue for the extra NI I paid.

How would that work?

@Mumoftwo1316

"A country's money is way more fluid, you can sell more bonds or tweak the interest rates or whatever."

Selling more bonds (which are effectively IOUs with interest) is simply increasing debt. Tweaking the interest rates is no longer possible since the independence of the Bank of England. And even if you did manage to tweak them then the exchange rate markets would drop the pound causing higher inflation.

The OBR and ONS publish nearly all the data which analysts use all the time so Labour would have known what was going on.

Means testing pensions would accelerate people early retiring who would just be over the means test. Spend pension, then get state pension. This is what i would do.
I would also sue for the extra NI I paid.

There will come a time they will need to.

No, I’m really not.

People say means testing pensions will never happen because older people won't vote for it but what would happen if all parties put it in their manifesto?

Cant see the Tories turning off their core voters.

Like many others I pay more into my pension to reduce my tax burden, Should I not do this?

Even if not true of the past though, I think going forward everyone need to be slow to go to the state for help & try first to manage without

I just think there’s too much nuance. Is it wrong for the cash poor pensioner in the 1m house to claim pension credit? What about the nurse who earns a decent wage but is paying high rent so needs housing benefit. I guess I’m asking where is the line re getting help from the state?

You're evading the point.

You haven't got a clue how much money is there! Neither has anyone else except the government itself. Are you choosing to believe dodgy sources making a statement like that? Labour have been in power for only 3 weeks and they've already done a lot of good. I know it might suit some voters to believe the worse in them but after only 3 weeks it's ridiculous, I didn't vote Labour by the way

We are 29th in the world but wanting public services of the top few.

A lot of these things can be partly to blame it is not either/ or

The only way is to completely alter the economy and that would take cross party support ( so never going to happen ).

People say means testing pensions will never happen because older people won't vote for it but what would happen if all parties put it in their manifesto?

It is poor, yes. Sorry.

Your reading comprehension is very poor. Please read my post again before being confrontational and only quoting what you choose to.

Why should a spouse/partner pay for the disability of someone else?

But DLA/PIP is not a safety net that means no one will starve. It is a means to get disabled people on a level field with the non disabled. Many people on PIP can only work and contribute tax etc, because they are on PIP.

I believe David Cameron claimed DLA.

True in some times & places! But also far less in others, and certainly people earning good money I don't think would have been trying to milk the taxpayer for every penny.
Only anecdotal, though, and I don't have any hard evidence so perhaps wrong.

Even if not true of the past though, I think going forward everyone need to be slow to go to the state for help & try first to manage without

I disagree. It needs to be means tested. Why take money when you don’t need it?

I never once said anything about single disabled people, in fact what I said was When someone reaches adulthood and needs support with no other form of income of course our benefits system should support them

Did you miss that part?

If someone is married and their partner is on a high wage why should they get support? Of course if they left the relationship they should be entitled to support but if they are in an abusive relationship then of course they’re entitled to help.

Don’t try and twist my words. PIP/DLA really needs to me means tested on household income.

Why have you quoted that bit and not the part that’s actually relevant?:

its like this after every Tory government (facts can be found in gov stats if anyone doesn't believe me).

I do think the economy is weak, but then, you know, Covid, Ukraine, energy crisis. But the economy was mending under Hunt, so I’m certainly pleased that Reeves is giving signals that she’ll broadly continue Tory fiscal policy. 👍

@Towelmode my point wasn't that they're the same, but rather that the mindset we have in this country is the problem.

Not necessarily saying we need to means test (don't know enough to comment) but we do need to have a cultural shift to where claiming benefits is a last resort & people feel the pride of providing for their own families.

Not sure how we manufacture a cultural shift, though!