AIBU to feel disheartened by earning into the higher tax band?

I agree.

I also find it slightly odd that MN seems to have threads like these where an OP complains about paying tax and lots of other posters agree — and then threads where an OP relates a story about her SIL’s best friend’s cousin who earns £70k a year on benefits (obviously I’m paraphrasing here!) and gets accused of benefit bashing. Do the same people post on both? If so, it’s as if they’re not making the connection between the two…

Don’t think anyone disputes the disadvantaged / disabled/ temporarily unlucky need to be helped but supporting whole communities and generations of benefit claimants is taking the piss and is unsustainable.

Not most, some
32% of UC claimants are in work as at Dec 2025.
Of that 32% most are working part time (the 18 hours or so a week).
Leaving 68% not in work.
To be fair, why would someone work full time when they can work part time and have their wages 'made up'. Two women I work with do this - that is the system.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/universal-credit-statistics-29-april-2013-to-8-january-2026/universal-credit-statistics-29-april-2013-to-8-january-2026#:~:text=Figure%2012%3A%20Proportion%20of%20people,employment%2C%20Great%20Britain%2C%20December%202025&text=Source%3A%20UC%20Collection%20Page%20–%20Latest,for%20December%202025%20is%2032%25.

@Chocolateapot Like others have said, I think you need to adjust your mindset.

In economic terms, you are not really paying the tax, in the sense that you never had the right to all of your income in the first place. You only have the right to whatever you have earned after tax rules have been applied.

So don't resent the amount of tax on your payslip. Just try to be positive about how much you are taking home each month, which must still be more than most in this or any other country.

It’s not worth blaming Labour or Tories. They are both responsible. If you are old enough to remember how the NHS/Education was when the last Labour govt was in, you’ll know they are all responsible.

My DB was a teacher under the last Labour govt and it was horrific. Attacked in (state) school by a pupil, too expensive to expel pupil (as unit place 100k or whatever). He left to work in the private sector as such behaviour would result in expulsion and he’s not longer physically in danger.

I gave birth under the last Labour govt. Sod all staff on maternity, wouldn’t allow me into delivery suite until 20 mins before dd born. Prematurely. Lucky she didn’t die quite frankly.

Presumably you will continue to get promoted / get inflationary rises (inflationary rises on a higher rate are worth more in cash terms than on a lower rate) and will still get ore money on your pay slip.

In the early days we work hard for low salary, pay relatively less tax etc, and get benefits such as child benefit, old tax credits, UC top up, free nursery hours.

At later stages we work hard, get paid a high salary and pay more tax and NI.

How else can support for young families and your future pensions be funded? (by the next generation who will fund your pension once they are earning more?)

Indeed this. I’m not sure why the govt (this one and last one) fail to understand this straightforward set of consequences. Idiotic.

You can definitely spot the recipients on this thread! Telling you how lucky you are and we should all be grateful we are not subsistence farmers etc

A lot of people are going to 4 day/week, taking unpaid parental leave so their income goes lower than £100k. In the end they bring home more this way, if you add child benefits. If you think from a macro economic point of view, It is a huge waste of productivity for the UK as a whole, so it is really really crazy that a nation who wants to increase economic outputs and get out of this economic crisis is incentivising people in middle manager roles and in the working middle class to work less as it is really not convenient to work more. It is unbelievable and it is really the only county in the world where this happens.

But what do you suggest people do when there are not enough jobs for everyone anyway? Im not denying that some people are lazy bastards but there are lots of people looking for work who cant find work. Do we just let these people - and their children- starve and live on the streets? That would be horrible for everyone. Ive lived in the US and it's not somewhere I would like to settle: homeless people, drug addicts, mentally ill people all wandering round - it's just squalid. This is what happens when you remove the safety net and it is grim for everyone, not just those who are living in poverty. It also means crime rates go up. Again, that is shit for everyone. I get people feeling aggrieved but I think we need to direct our anger to those at the top. This really is a problem of wealth inequality and we have to find ways to tax the super-rich. I dont think any of us can imagine how much a billion pounds is. But taking lots of billions out of the system makes us all a lot poorer.

The reason that public services have fallen apart is not the two years of Labour government, it’s the previous 14 years of underinvestment by the Tories. You can’t turn around 14 years of infrastructure disintegrating in two years. Especially when you’ve been left with an economy ravaged by lack of growth and the disastrous Brexit plus Trump’s shenanigans which many want to repeat here for some reason and has resulted in a worldwide economic downturn.

Yeah its very deliberate to increase the tax take, not like they just 'forgot' to review it

You're helping everybody.

I think the cap is VERY outdated. Cost of living has gone up so much that 50k is no longer an amazing wage so to be taxed 40% at that amount is absolutely crazy. I try not to look at pay slips as it’s genuinely horrendous how much gets taken from us.
I genuinely think the cap should go to 70k or just make it 20% for everyone as being punished for getting a good job is wild.

This is how I feel. Although I live in France, which is a whole lot more civilised than the UK these days!

Have not RTFT (forgive me my sins) but I am in Scotland and in the higher tax rate band. Thankfully paid off the student loan 2yrs ago.

I remind myself of how lucky and how privileged I am to earn ebough to pay the higher rate. How fortunate I have been in my career that I am now in a position to be able to pay a higher proportion in tax. The money I pay in tax and national insurance will benefit more people than just me.

It is shortsighted to just complain about not getting all the extra money in my gross pay each month. The social contract is that my shoulders are now broad enough to support paying more into the system. I am proud of the fact that I can do this.

Society needs more broad shoulders tbh, not because other people don't work hard enough but because the cost of living has increased so much that people need help, the system needs to be paid for. The safety net of benefits and support is needed more than ever and I have moved out of needing it into being able to give more to that system.

How much do people get in this situation? I’ve never understood this.

Because we're not having a social conversation about it, I think we'll see many more cases like yours. There isn't necessarily the awareness that the 40% rates will be hitting more and more people in roles where the public hadn't taken that on board, like say a nurse who does a lot of nights or a teacher in London with a good chunk of experience. 50k buys a great deal less than it used to when the bands were last changed.

Glad you agree that it's very unfair that one couple earning 21K and 101K per year (total 122K) with two children miss out on 24 grand while another couple earning 99K each (total 189K) get 24K in childcare. It's a broken system.

It’s not 51% tax though. Firstly OP is only taxed on income earned over the threshold. Student loan OP knows it will always go up in proportion to earnings and again if its plan 2 the threshold is around 29K.

That's the best option but some of us are saving up for things like buying a house

A rough calculation shows someone on £53k with effective marginal rate of 51% would see 74% of their gross income in their pay packet. So they'd work until elevenses for the govt. (Does anyone say "elevenses" any more or did that end when the basic rate of income tax was 33%?)

I am sure there are inefficiencies in the NHS but it seems vanishingly unlikely that there is some kind of re-organisation or common sense process that will transform it immensely for the better.

Labour and "The Left" are often, with some cause, accused of having a magic money tree. But sometimes the idea that huge savings can be made easily by cutting benefits, red tape, reducing migration etc is the equivalent wishful thinking on the right.

I'm sure you are.
Are you also happy to put in the time and study that OP did as well?

I feel the same, I’ve now tipped over into the higher tax bracket and it’s so disheartening. I am a single mum of 2, I own (mortgaged) a very basic end of terrace house and I don’t live an extravagant life at all. We don’t go on holiday etc. although we don’t struggle for basics either.
It feels very unfair that any additional money I earn will be taxed at 40% but yet a couple could earn upto £100k at the lower rate yet life a much more comfortable life than me!