Which taxes should Burnham put up?

They really need to look at DLA. Not for people who really need it but for the parents requesting adhd assessment via right to choose, getting a diagnosis then applying for DLA. Then applying for an EHCP. The requests we get for EHCNAs sometimes include the DLA letter and families are receiving £400 a month for a child who is absolutely fine, going to school etc. yes they may have adhd but I have no idea why this needs £400 per month

Controversial but scrap the minimum wage for disabled peeps, I know people will say it’s exploitation but in my son’s case (AuADHD plus lots of other things !) he’s a qualified mechanic so no ‘big’ employers, he can do the job well but probably not as quick as the next person, no employer will take him on at minimum wage when he’s doing £7 an hours worth of work - they are going to take on the other person, but if they where allowed to take him on at £7 we’d all be happy! The alternative they spend a lifetime on pip/uc. I work in this arena and see hundreds of disabled young people who do nothing and unless someone comes along and gives them a chance will continue doing so. Scrap the new employees Nic / pension rules. They just can’t afford to take people on. Years ago employers had to take a percentage of disabled people on, bring this back. Stop taxing private health - more people would buy it bringing the nhs lists down. Get more nhs dentists, thousands of people have bad teeth health which later correlates to bad health outcomes! Overweight? Give everyone WLI - the costs would be minimal compared to the long term health issues it costs. Inheritance tax should be paid by everyone on the estate, inheritance should be a bonus not an expectation. If you taxed everyone’s estate, more of the older generation would spend some of it, instead of sitting on it for ‘their children’

get more mental health professionals out there, on UC for anxiety etc you need to seeing a MHP otherwise you’re not going to get better! Time limit UC for these issues unless they are engaging with professionals. On UC and ‘able’ then make them do voluntary work - grass needs cutting, signs need cleaning, walls painting etc etc

Controversial but scrap the minimum wage for disabled peeps, I know people will say it’s exploitation but in my son’s case (AuADHD plus lots of other things !) he’s a qualified mechanic so no ‘big’ employers, he can do the job well but probably not as quick as the next person, no employer will take him on at minimum wage when he’s doing £7 an hours worth of work - they are going to take on the other person, but if they where allowed to take him on at £7 we’d all be happy! The alternative is sitting at home forever on pip/Uc - which helps no one. I live in this world and see it playing out everywhere. I could possibly name 200 young adults caught in this trap and it’s not going to get any better. In the old days employers had to take a percentage of disabled people on. Scrap the new employers NIC / pensions, small business just cannot afford young people. Tax all estates regardless of value, inheritance is ‘extra’ (and I will benefit from inheritance). Stop taxing private health cover, more people would pay/use it and it saves the nhs a fortune. Sort out the nhs dentists, thousands of people are living with bad dental health which in turn has health implications. Overweight ? - give them WLI free, the long term health savings would out weigh the costs. Put solar panels on every roof.

The country is on its knees due to record high tax rates and spiralling welfare spending. We are so far round the laffer curve any further tax increases will result in less tax being paid . We need tax cuts , particularly corporation tax and deep cuts in public spending to have any chance of avoiding the IMF stepping in and imposing massive restrictions.

Extremely rocky road ahead , buckle up folks

There is a lot to cut back in that list.

Thought it might be useful to see where it’s all currently spent:

UK Welfare Spending Breakdown
(2025–26)

State Pension £146.1 - 45.3%

Universal Credit £60–65 - 18–20%

Housing Benefit £37.3 - 11.6%

PIP £24–26 - 7.5–8.0%

Child Benefit £15–16 - 4.8–5.0%

ESA £14–16 - 4–5%

Attendance Allowance £7–8 - 2–2.5%

Pension Credit £6–7 - 2%

Carer's Allowance £4–5 - 1.2–1.5%

Winter Fuel Payment £1.5–2.0- 0.5–0.6%

Source: Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), Benefit Expenditure and Caseload Tables
(Spring Statement 2025), with forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). Figures
are rounded and percentages are of total welfare expenditure (~£323bn).

The burden wouldn’t be shared fairly.

Hospitality as a sector would be disproportionately affected as they pay close to the VAT rate on all food sales. Almost 0% is claimed as a VAT refund as the stock in (meat, veg, fish, cheese, flour, rice, pasta, sugar, dairy etc) is 0% rated but the product out is currently 20% and by this proposal 22.5% rated). None-alcohol food businesses would be paying over 20% of their turnover (not profit) straight to HMRC on top of the disproportionate impact of NI reforms, energy rises, food inflation, min wage rises etc. Hospitality is already going bust at an alarming rate. I know many on the left sneer at small business owners but every time one of them closes down you get more unemployment and another shop standing empty on an increasingly desolate high street. The pie becomes smaller.

As a proportion on income, the poorest pay the highest rates of VAT. People have to buy basics such as clothes and energy even if they avoid VAT on food by never buying a biscuit or packet of crisps or an ice cream or some sweets. While someone buying a £60 coat will currently pay £12 VAT (proposed £13.50) whereas a rich person buying a £600 coat will pay £120 VAT (proposed £135) so the rich person pays more, there are more options for the rich person to buy a different coat for £500 (VAT £100/£112.50) whereas if you are shopping in the £60 market and want something actually warm and waterproof and that will last a few years you have fewer places to go in the £50 price bracket. I think it’s already a bit of a pisstake that someone buying a £60 coat is actually buying a £48 coat and handing £12 to HMRC as it is without increasing it. The store owner maybe bought the coat wholesale for £30 (VAT £6) so makes £24 after VAT on a £60 sale whereas if it was £60 worth of steak and chips with ingredients costing £30 they would make £18 but would have higher staffing, energy and equipment costs than clothing retail. Tbf, the mark up would be higher (maybe the ingredients would be £20) and their google reviews would be full of economically illiterate half wits saying “I paid £35 for steak and chips but you can buy a steak in Tesco for £9 and spuds barely cost anything. Absolute rip of! Avoid!” without any consideration for any other expenses plus the, frankly enormous and unsustainable, tax burden.

Absolute bollocks.

Ah, you missed the memo. The ceiling for nice things is rented accommodation and £39k a year. Do keep up dear.

There is immense bitterness and hatred of others success in this country.

Just look at the delight in sticking it to the private school parents (that includes me) with VAT.

If you want nice things you need to earn it.

"You get less of what you tax"

I don't blame you.

I am sick of people who are largely immune to the consequences of their own policies using the productive as a scapegoat.

I'm not even close to earning six figures (an age quirk) but we are at the wobbly point where we are not sure whether we are above or below the published ranges. In our case, it is all earned. Everything we inherited has been transferred down a generation by deed of variation.

A year or so ago I was personally paying over £50k a year in income tax and employee NI. I have now dropped my earnings to under £100k. Paying 62% marginal income tax and NI for a broken state was just too much.

Charge private schools more 🤣

Well, as commercial rent is not subsidised, and my commercial tenant wants the building long term, they pay the rent agreed in the lease they signed several years ago. As I said above, I would NEVER deal in residential property.

Similar age here and I am seriously considering this too - I'm fed up of working full time for what feels like little in return. I might see what benefits I am entitled to.

"You get more of what you subsidise", as the saying goes.

Until the ideal council housing is built, at the huge scale required, I would like to know how you would accommodate people needing housing. I am a commercial landlord, and there is no way on earth that I would be persuaded into letting residential accommodation. There is a reason that private landlords are selling up.

We spend more or less the same on welfare as a proportion of GDP as we did in 2010 under austerity and as we did in the 80s under Thatcher.

Context is everything.

I wrote this earlier:

A fairly stable welfare spending figure as a %of GDP is useful, but it doesn't tell us what happens next. It doesn't tell us what happens as the population gets older, healthcare costs rise, people live longer, or there are fewer working age people paying into the system.

No comparison with the Thatcher era changes those facts. The UK today has a much older population and far more people depending on those of working age than it did in the 1980s. Looking only at welfare spending as a share of GDP without taking that into account risks drawing the wrong conclusion.

A statistic can be accurate and still not tell the whole story. Without the wider context, it doesn't answer whether current or future welfare spending is affordable or sustainable.

And that’s why as a 59 year old higher rate taxpayer who has been paying tax continuously for 43 years I’m reducing my hours so I no longer pay higher rate tax. I’m sick of paying for this yet if I want a gp appointment I have to wait weeks. The money is being spent wrongly and isn’t helping me.

i have many friends doing the same. People are so fed up with this.

They shouldn’t have raised the 2 child cap.I am so sick of this c**p party who do nothing for working class people

A welfare system that is too generous nails it for me. When society makes it easy to do nothing and still pays benefits, then it is unfair to anyone funding the benefit payments. I know there are people who can't walk or talk and who need 24x7 care, and I am excluding anyone in that category from this post. But most of the rest could, under slight duress, work harder and earn more. I don't hate disabled people (that's normally the riposte) and there do need to be accommodations and workarounds. If you can work, you should work.

Lots of reasons, ageing population (less workers), larger ethnic populations many who don’t work (especially women), benefit tourists (free NHS use), many who work for minimum (16hrs) for pocket money and no real benefit for the economy, abuse of the sickness benefits system, and generally a welfare system that’s just been far too generous.

Because what’s the point of working when my dh and I are leaving for work and nursery drop off at 730am… paying basically a grand for nursery and holiday childcare.. when others don’t work, get to stay at home and with the baby, be
there for all school runs and sports days and concerts, get extra money in the school hols?…

Increase VAT by 2.5% so we all share the burden