Can someone explain to me why/how the Labour government has directly made them worse off in the last 15 months?

[MotherofAdults]

Can someone explain to me why/how the Labour government has directly made them worse off in the last 15 months? I see this claim a lot on these pages, but I don't understand why. Sorry if I sound stupid, I am just trying to get clear.

I totally understand that the cost of living keeps going up - that inflation keeps rising (3.5-3.8%?) and that mortgage interest remains relatively high, but I don't understand why or how this is the fault of the current government? What have/haven't they done? Are people angry that they haven't curbed inflation? What should they be doing?

If we could avoid mentioning the things that didn't actually happen (eg the Winter Fuel Allowence cuts) and speculation about what the next budget will do (doubling of council tax, rise in minimum wage etc), that would be really helpful. I am looking for actual changes made by this that have directly affected your financial situation since Labour got it.

Lots of schools took mitigating measures to prevent closure. This means real people with mortgages like me lost thier jobs or had thier hours cut or pay freezers or pension options worsened.

School closure isnt the only measure of impact.

The measures were in quick succession after a period of inflation (high interest and fuels costs for schools) many would have been fine with these measures introduced one at a time, or after a period of stability. Its incorrect to say they were all about to close immediately anyway. You just need time to adjust your cost base to a smaller role (again redundancy but also renegotiating loans contracts etc)

No idea.

She wasn't part of the government then.

It's like Kemi Badenoch promising to abolish stamp duty on main homes, not gonna happen.

The winter fuel allowance is now means tested, so I don't get it.

At a household income of 70k ish...

So, this was acceptable lying?

Hiring on Facebook. New local business. Wage above the national minimum because they want to keep valued staff.

There's no need to debate this, as I said. The OP asked who'd lost money as a direct result of this government's actions, & WASPI women did. Job done on this thread.

Not acceptable, just pointing out that what people say when they're not in government is often different to what they do when they're in government.

I don't understand why those who haven't got a secure, high paying income would send their children to private schools. The fees are circa £20,000 a year, possible discount for two, for a bog standard school. Private schools in Europe are way cheaper

The days of scripping and scrapping to send a child to be privately educated are long gone.

Why this government specifically? Haven't successive governments denied restitution?

And you can't lose what you technically didn't have.

The change for WASPI women was made by a Conservative government.

And I got the letter.

I personally think that we have too many taxes, that are too easily avoided, and fall unfairly on those who work for a living.
A Financial Transaction Tax for everybody would be possible and would tax crime. This if operated universally could reduce everybodys' tax rate to as little as 0.4%.
Just imagine if Amazon, et al, paid some tax in this country!

Hi, I was trying to verify this 25% figure but I am not sure about it - do you have a reference? According to the ONS in July 2024 unemployment was at 4.1% and in August 2025 it's at 4.8%. That is a 0.7 percentage points, or a 17% (I think) rise in total.

Your point stands that this is the highest level since Covid, and seems to be rising though, but I am not sure about your reasoning.

fullfact.org/economy/employment-jobs-explainer/#:~:text=What%20do%20the%20figures%20show,Mulish

Absolutely. It was easy pickings for Labour to pretend that things could be different and that they supported WASPI women.

But they did say the last budget was a one off tax hike, so whilst in government.

“What's your point, exactly? That people have other options? So what? Lots of us have other options.”

@MrsBennetsPoorNervesAreBack - I do not think my friends with kids in private schools are adverse to taxation in general, far from it. Just adverse to a spiteful ideologically motivated tax on their children half way through a school year, that would never ever be imposed in their other heritage countries. It is a tax that stinks to the roof and makes you lose faith in the political system you find yourself in. That was my point. That and Brexit is the type of thing that makes people assess their other options.

To add to my previous comments, we have had the need for additional workers in our business but due to the costs now associated with employment, we've done what I have never wanted to do - we've outsourced offshore. We've been struggling to compete with our local competitors because they all did it years ago, but as time is getting tougher, we've had to join them.

For the cost of one semi-senior employee here, we can get two more senior people overseas, without the worry of HR issues. Sure they come with other challenges, but as they also run their own business, they're currently more willing to impress and work harder that some of the employees we've had in recent years!

It might actually mean that I eventually end up better off personally, but it's not exactly doing much to support the British economy as a whole!

Sorry if I wasn't clearer, I meant changes made under this government that made you worse off. They may not have addressed the WASPI pensions, but those women were made worse off under the previous government.

WFA though was stopped as a universal benefit last year yes, and is now means tested and only for those with a taxable income under £35k, so if you are over £35k and you used to claim it yes you may well be worse off. Not sure anyone has yet identified that as an issue for them on this thread, though I may have missed it?

The context here is really important though. Later in that link it says:

However, the number of people in employment has also increased—by more than half a million (632,000) between June 2024 and July 2025, while the rate of employment has seen a 0.4 percentage point increase.
So, this data suggests that the number of both employed and unemployed people has increased under Labour, and that the rate of both employment and unemployment has increased too.

This means that 79.9% of the population are working or available for work, compared with 78.9% in 2024. It means fewer people are economically inactive. There are 257,000 more unemployed people but there are also 632,000 more people in employment which means 889,000 more people are economically active.

Would be interesting to know why

Agree

@BloominNora - thank you for that, I was struggling with all the caveats and the maths!

I'm not adverse to taxation at all

When i first migrated here and got my first job I was so excited to pay tax and be a functioning member of my adopted homeland that i got DH to take a photo of me with my payslip.

It's everything else that is piled on to the 'broadest shoulders' which actually means 'the ones we can get away with the most because they can't argue as much and they don't vote for us anyway'.

As others have said- 10% pay 60% of the nation's tax. It's unsustainable. And when you couple that with being told you are a rich fucker, scum and an arsehole for [insert reason] ... well then. I, for one, am looking forward to walking away.

Two friends, both in trades, are doing very well, last winter was quiet for both but going forward, they have full order books.

My partner works for a military contractor, just had an across the board 6% pay rise, business is booming and hiring externally.

Fuel duty the same, all individual taxes are the same, VAT too, wage rises are higher than inflation

There seems to be a full frontal attack to make out Labour have made us all far poorer, its simply not true.

Evidence for this is consumer spending is up, inc on the High street.

Do people really think the minimum wage is too high?

It's £10 if you are 18-20

Allowing for inflation it's the equivalent to £5 in the early 00s.

And what does that wage get you? No wonder so many young people are disenfranchised...