AIBU to want spending cuts rather than more tax rises?

I can't upload the latest graph, because my IT skills aren't up to it. But graph after graph shows that the losses from "benefits cheats" and/or benefits claimants is absolutely miniscule compared to the absolutely huge tax losses from tax evaders.
If you want to look for yourselves, you can Google: " graphs showing tax loss from benefits cheating vs tax loss from tax evaders", and see what you get.

The only people on housing benefit are pensioners and those on old school benefits. It’s a small amount of people. It’s Universial Credit for everyone else. I’d be worried that she doesn’t know that.

There are also a large chunk of people on benefits who work. You want people stocking supermarkets , serving you food in restaurants and any other low paid job then you’ll need those people living close to their work or it just won’t be financially viable. People aren’t going to commute to London for low paid work if it’s not affordable. The government is holding up this system by paying lower paid workers things like UC or many of these jobs would go unfilled.

The Tories had 14 years to do all of this.

And the Chagos deal is not a Labour deal. It was begun by the Tories and was in its latter stages when Labour came to power, by which time it had become very difficult to deal with due to a mix of legal pressures and shifting geopolitical dynamics. There is the fact that the ICJ has ruled that British ownership of Chagos could be unlawful, but also
American pressure not to cede ownership due to the sharing of the military base. This is another mess that the Tories have left for Labour to sort out, on top of the Brexit induced damage to our economy, our reputation and our ability to defend ourselves.

Good grief, it's not 'politics of envy' when the politics of privilege ensure that all you have to do is not cock things up in order to live well.

Yeah right

Fun fact: it's a pretty reasonable model for people to contribute tax during their working life and then draw a pension when they're old.

That's completely different - and far more reasonable and sustainable - than not contributing enough tax at any point during your life.

Another made up statistic pulled outta your arse. You know they'd just leave and there'd be capital flight.

We need rich people to invest in the country.

Look at the tax gap. It's not done by the evil rich people. The largest part of it is illegal evasion, this is done by SMEs and small traders.

So rather than go after the rich, you want to target some of the lowest paid people ? When pensioners don’t heat their home because it’s too expensive and then end up needing medical care, the savings will be lost in the NhS.

Many people on benefits who work are subsided by the government because they can’t live on the wages. Why not tax the companies then?

The pensioners will go into meltdown if their benefits get cut. Look at the fuss over the winter fuel payment

My numbers aren't wrong. Your IFG graph backs them up. It's a graph on FTE, so the headcount numbers aren't displayed. The graph only goes up to Q1 of 2023 so there's no 2026 numbers to compare. The only number you can directly compare is Q1 FTE for 2021, and both the numbers I've quoted and the IFG graph say that there was around 452000 FTE. The IFG use Civil Service statistics to do their analysis, and that's what I've quoted. You don't understand the graph.

Perhaps these people can try and minimise their expenditure, get a better job or work longer hours. Make their own side hustle. Start something with just a laptop (it can be done). Take responsibility for your own life and make something out of it

"but poor people work hard too" - they might do something physically taxing but the issue is skill and knowledge

Worth a watch. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FvaxRuMGv38

Do you mean the working age people struggling to find work in this job market?

or the majority of benefit claimants who are in receipt of benefits and in work.

I don’t know if you’re trolling but don’t let the chronically dense fool you into thinking that everyone on benefits is a scrounger who doesn’t enjoy working and bought a flat screen telly with their benefits.

There's a thing called the benefits cap. There’s also mandatory attendance. People don’t generally choose to stay at home on a pittance that barely covers essentials and attend a job centre every week to give an update.

This I’d like to see!

Maybe if we took a pragmatic view of retirement as opposed to holding up those who were negligent in preparing for the end of working life…

Triple lock. WASPI women…

Ah the charaltan

It’s very difficult to take seriously graphs that show the extent of something that by its nature is unknowable.

But more to the point why is fraud relevant? The principal problem with welfare spending is that it’s out of control, not that it’s a source of fraud (though that’s a problem too, obviously).

'Hard study, hard work, dedication, taking risks, financial prudence' go a lot further if you're privileged to begin with, though.

How much would you benefit financially from all the cuts you are proposing?

Look if people have made NI contributions they kinda do deserve something back in the end of it. They made some contributions in in the hopes they get state pension at the end of it. But we can't do this forever. Something has to give.