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AIBU?

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Original poster

To think that there is no hope here?

956 replies

Taxed · 28/07/2025 07:36

52.6% of UK individuals are reliant on the State (that is 35 million people). Only 47.4% are net contributors. How did we get here?

AIBU to think that the UK is now a declining economy that will never recover if this continues to be the case?

I am 49 and a high earner (just shy of the top 1%). My husband is also a high earner and we are thinking of leaving. We don't know where but we know we have to as the situation in the UK is getting worse not better. The only thing that is keeping us here is our son, who is still in secondary school. I am actively encouraging him to consider a future outside of the UK.

I genuinely feel that being ambitious and successful is not worth it in the UK. People hate you for it and want to see you penalised. They think that whatever you do to earn the money it must be easy and a breeze. That you are greedy and need to be made to pay for doing well. Just last week, I heard that the government might be thinking of implementing a charge, payable by high earners, to access the NHS. Everything is about taxing the already heavily taxed even more and few want to face up to the fact that this is unsustainable when you have most of your people relying on the State to live.

People complain about the immigrants but they make up a tiny proportion of 35 million.

I feel disliked for doing well and just can't see a future here and it is making me angry and sad. I believe in having a welfare state, in helping those who are in need but 52.6%? The country is on its knees when most of its people are in need. That is like a developing country not a developed and thriving economy.

Sorry for the long rant. I'm just tired, sad and have just about lost hope of enjoying life in the UK.

OP posts:
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8
Heronwatcher · 28/07/2025 09:38

People are asking about the constituent parts of the statistics. Does it matter?

Of course it does!

You could be including people who are 90% self supporting but maybe claim child benefits. Or someone who receives £100 for DLA but is being supported by working parents (if a minor) or working. People who claim free childcare. Someone who is out of work for a very short time and claims JSA before finding a decent job. Or (very likely) pensioners who have been in work for 40 plus years, making a contribution, but who are now retired and claiming a small state pension.

Can you really not see the difference here between someone for whom state benefits are a very small part of their income and who pay tax on the money they earn (so they are contributing, or have contributed in the past as well) and someone who is entirely dependent on the state for their whole life?

echt · 28/07/2025 09:37

People are asking about the constituent parts of the statistics. Does it matter?

Well duh.

You put it up as your, ahem, evidence so you account for it.

lifeonmars100 · 28/07/2025 09:37

Jennps · 28/07/2025 09:17

Let’s not forget that 1/4 new cars are not paid for by the taxpayer for those on disability benefits. You can get a new car now for having ADHD or alcoholism.

It is beyond insane.

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Can you cite your sources and provide links from reptutable sources. I am somewhat surprised to read that someone with a drinking problem can get a car provided for them by the state!

Quirkswork · 28/07/2025 09:36

PandoraSocks · 28/07/2025 09:32

There are umpteen other threads like this on MN. There has been a big uptick in them since last July.

I don't understand why all the high earners who want to leave the UK feel the need to announce it on MN.

Because people are upset. And the government is not running the country for workers in the private sector. They are running the country for people who work for the state, immigrants, those on benefits, possibly the Muslim vote (let's see how the blasphemy vote goes). If you're not one of those groups then life is getting more uncomfortable here. Ironically, given that the private sector is the one paying for everything.

frozendaisy · 28/07/2025 09:36

Swiftie1878 · 28/07/2025 09:35

The U.S.?! 😂😂😂😂😂😂

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Yeah we would go to the US if we could
Skip there!

Original poster
Taxed · 28/07/2025 09:36

5128gap · 28/07/2025 09:28

I'm also tired and sad at living in a society where people like you and your H earn ten/twenty times that of other people who I guarantee will work just as hard if not harder than you. I don't know what you do, but whatever it is, it doesn't make you so much more important than anyone else that you 'deserve' to be that much better off. Everyone in society who works contributes. Some through their labour, the essential drudge work we'd fall apart without, others through their taxes. If you no longer want to contribute to this society, then you should leave. Be glad you are privileged enough to have the choices. People who don't are no less deserving than you.

I don't follow? They are equally deserving of my money as me? I don't think I am more important than any one. I believe in a welfare state not a communist one. You idea is more akin to communism that the socialism that this country once believed in.

Do you think it is okay for 52% of adults (a growing number by the way) to be reliant on the state? You think this is the right direction for the country. Does it not bother you that we can't afford this to the tune of billions? That the economy is not growing? That pension age will have to increase and eventually we can't afford to pay anyone a pension hence state pension will have to be scrapped? Does none of this bother you? You think I am morally suspect for pointing that out and saying it is getting hard for me to stay here because I and others like me are penalised for doing well?

OP posts:
Shessweetbutapsycho · 28/07/2025 09:36

FloraBotticelli · 28/07/2025 07:52

How are you calculating that 52%? Because if it includes things like children’s free prescriptions or tax free childcare then I can understand the figure and think it doesn’t paint the picture you’ve set out.

Yes I was wondering what source the OP used for her data… it has a slight whiff of Daily Mail about it 😂

LadyKenya · 28/07/2025 09:36

Jennps · 28/07/2025 09:17

Let’s not forget that 1/4 new cars are not paid for by the taxpayer for those on disability benefits. You can get a new car now for having ADHD or alcoholism.

It is beyond insane.

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So is the nonsense that people keep repeating. People who have, not the slightest understanding of the PIP system, but will spread misinformation, all the same.

Swiftie1878 · 28/07/2025 09:35

Taxed · 28/07/2025 08:41

I don't know yet. We think the US but it has it's own problems. I hate to jump ship but I just feel exhausted when I look into the future here. I feel not enthusiasm. For me personally, it just isn't worth it.

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The U.S.?! 😂😂😂😂😂😂

echt · 28/07/2025 09:35

PandoraSocks · 28/07/2025 09:32

There are umpteen other threads like this on MN. There has been a big uptick in them since last July.

I don't understand why all the high earners who want to leave the UK feel the need to announce it on MN.

I just wish they'd fuck right off.

Full disclosure: I live in Australia but pay taxes in the UK and am sick to the back teeth of the "net contributor" threads and posts.

Anyone would think it was bots posting this whiny shite.

Shallwedance2000 · 28/07/2025 09:34

@Taxed if you think doing a self assessment in the UK to pay back CB is a hassle you have only reinforced my impression that moving abroad and dealing with all the new systems is not for you.

frozendaisy · 28/07/2025 09:34

If we could wave a magic wand and live anywhere we would move to Seattle in a heartbeat.

I don’t know if we can get into America, we could work there for a bit, not a problem, we are going to try and persuade the kids to move across the Atlantic

But if money and immigration laws were not an issue we would move to Seattle.

lifeonmars100 · 28/07/2025 09:33

HI OP, can you help me work out if I am a burden on the state. Always worked, always paid income tax and still pay it on my pension so have been contributing for about 58 years and will contribute until I die. I know it is nothing like the contribution that you make but it is proportional to my income.

PandoraSocks · 28/07/2025 09:32

There are umpteen other threads like this on MN. There has been a big uptick in them since last July.

I don't understand why all the high earners who want to leave the UK feel the need to announce it on MN.

Heronwatcher · 28/07/2025 09:30

I think you need to take a hard look at how those stats are calculated.

Also can you name a few places with better prospects- the only places I might consider living would be France (but only once my kids are older) or Scandinavia and they have their own issues. Plus have you seen tax rates in the Scandinavian countries? I wouldn’t move to places which deliberately try to attract the rich with low taxes because frankly they are not great in terms of a functioning society. Then you’ve got vast areas where climate change is starting to take a toll.

I’m not saying things are perfect here. We’ve definitely got issues with young people not being able to cope with life, and some areas having horrific levels of economic inactivity but I think there are ways to solve it. These do not involve believing every headline you read about benefits scroungers and immigrants.

Personally I think having high earners get some kind of subsidised health insurance is actually a very good idea. I’d also increase maternity benefits and sort out some proper childcare funding which actually works to keep women in the workplace to start off with. Then I’d look at education- why SEN children are being failed and why so many kids are coming out of school without decent qualifications.

CremeBruhlee · 28/07/2025 09:30

Taxed · 28/07/2025 09:18

I have always been a net contributor. I don't want to go into specifics as it might introduce an element that might be something people use to attack me rather than focus on the issue.

We once received the money you get for a child (can't recall what it is called) and under David Cameron was asked to pay all of it back if you income was above a certain amount. The added kick was that we had to do a self-assessment to be able to return the money to HMRC and from that time onwards, we have been asked to do self-assessments. A real pain but I digress.

I wholeheartedly believe in a welfare state. What I don't believe is right is when 52% of adults and growing are net-reliant on the state and the diminishing net-contributors are expected to pay more and more. Woe be them if they say it's too much for them now and the burden is breaking their backs. We are expected to shut up whilst more burden is piled on us. Salaries are barely keeping up with inflation. Public services are not even that great. So what is in it for us? We're suppose to shut our mouths in case one day we are in a car crash?

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You didn’t have to receive this and do a self assessment. You just shouldn’t have claimed it at all. Often people do as they think it’s worth more to have in their pockets for a year when in reality it’s a ballache. That’s on you if you claimed it in the first place. You can choose not to like most higher earners do

Quirkswork · 28/07/2025 09:30

FrazzledHippy · 28/07/2025 09:26

Fuck off you think living in a war zone is better than living in the UK.

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She said "safer". Presumably she is Jewish so I don't think she is the only one that finds a lot of people in the UK threatening at the moment. That's another thing that needs sorting out.

Original poster
Taxed · 28/07/2025 09:29

People are asking about the constituent parts of the statistics. Does it matter? The point is regardless of who sits within that figure, it is unaffordable and way too high. The billions in shortfall to fund it and the need for radical measures that our welfare state never thought it would need to do, is very telling. 52% and growing is unsustainable regardless of who make up this figure.

The figure cannot be zero but 52% and growing? The solution cannot be to tax the decreasing numbers who are net contributors more and more. All this does is shrink the economy and increase the that 52%. Our economy has not grown according to the latest figures.

I don't know what the solution is. What I know is that the country is declining and it is getting harder to be motivated to do well here.

If we do not leave, we would be better off being less successful.

OP posts:
LemondrizzleShark · 28/07/2025 09:29

FrazzledHippy · 28/07/2025 09:26

Fuck off you think living in a war zone is better than living in the UK.

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If they are moving over there as West Bank settlers, it is likely they will be very insulated from the war and will probably have an absolutely lovely life in whatever house they have nicked, with the full support of the IDF behind them.

Jennps · 28/07/2025 09:29

LadyBracknellsHandbagg · 28/07/2025 09:25

As I said to the OP earlier, stop reading the DM.

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How original. That ‘slur’ has never been used before.

5128gap · 28/07/2025 09:28

I'm also tired and sad at living in a society where people like you and your H earn ten/twenty times that of other people who I guarantee will work just as hard if not harder than you. I don't know what you do, but whatever it is, it doesn't make you so much more important than anyone else that you 'deserve' to be that much better off. Everyone in society who works contributes. Some through their labour, the essential drudge work we'd fall apart without, others through their taxes. If you no longer want to contribute to this society, then you should leave. Be glad you are privileged enough to have the choices. People who don't are no less deserving than you.

Rosscameasdoody · 28/07/2025 09:28

TheyFuckYouUpYourMamAndDad · 28/07/2025 08:03

Where is your source for these statistics? Because quite clearly 52% of working age adults are not unemployed. If, by ‘reliant on the state’ you are including things like child benefit, that’s a totally skewed statistic.

The unemployment rate in the UK is just shy of 5% (1.6 million working aged adults). Anyone else in ‘your’ figure is doing their best and needing some kind of top up to make ends meet (like the above single parent poster).

Wind your rich neck in! 🤬

This. It will inevitably end as a benefit bashing thread.

Quirkswork · 28/07/2025 09:28

LadyBracknellsHandbagg · 28/07/2025 09:25

As I said to the OP earlier, stop reading the DM.

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Which of the points I made do you disagree with though?

Jennps · 28/07/2025 09:27

Cannongoose · 28/07/2025 09:25

I am so tired of the turn the UK is taking in terms of a split between “taxpayers” and people who can’t help but require benefits because that’s how fucking capitalism works…
You earn what you can while you can, you can stockpile wealth but the one thing no economic structure has in its back pocket is whst to do with those unable to work to full capacity or at all.

It’s not how capitalism works. It’s how math works. No amount of rainbows and fairies and fluffy ‘feels’ about being kind pays for real stuff.

Welcome to reality.

thepariscrimefiles · 28/07/2025 09:27

PurpleChrayn · 28/07/2025 07:57

It’s bad.

DH and I are seriously considering moving to Israel. Even an active war zone seems safer and better than the UK right now for us.

Off you pop then!

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