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.

Ikr and it’s about children. So odd.

I think the world and the country are just a bit sad and dreary at the moment.
And Labour aren’t helping because they are a bit dreary too. It’s easy to pin all our crap on them (don’t get me wrong, I think they’re doing an abysmal job). Take me back to 2012!

Sweden didn’t lockdown in Covid and burden themselves with an incredible debt from furlough (which Labour thought the Conservatives didn’t go far enough with).

The NI increase massively impacted the industry that I’m in (food production). It meant huge increased costs for companies, who then made mass redundancies (including me), and the companies also passed on cost price increases, making our food prices higher, which we see in the inflation figures.

It means that eating out prices have risen massively, so we don’t eat out any more.

I also didn't get it last year, only those on pension credit got it last year. Maybe as you obviously aren't in receipt of it you don't know anything about it.

Do you honestly think public sector workers are immune from being effected, local authority workers had years of pay freezes and then below inflation pay rises and it isn't a job for life like everyone makes out, since 2011 there have been more restructures with redundancies than I can count.

Yes, they can lower thresholds. But we have had austerity coming out of our ears and it has not worked. Austerity is a neo-liberal solution to falling growth and it does not work because the economy is driven by people being able to purchase stuff - if they cannot (or won't) then growth will stall. Enmiserating lots of people cannot force those who are not working (for a variety of reasons including ill-health and having several children under 5) into jobs which won't exist because no-one will invest in products/services when there is no indication that anyone is going to buy them. If you have a market economy (as we do) then the people have to be able to afford to go to the market. We now have a situation world-wide where a great many people can't afford to go to the market to buy and this has a knock-on effect on investment = no growth. (Compounded by war and over-egging the 'climate emergency'; whenever I hear the words 'worst in a 100 years' I think, 'oh, this happens roughly every 100 years, then' - as was the case with the Spanish floods which the fascist Franco tried to guard against (bad for the economy and so for wealthy people) and subsequent generations have 'forgotten' about).

I’m a civil servant and totally agree. As an example, a decade ago, an HEO salary in my department was more than double minimum wage. Now it’s about 65% more and to be double minimum wage would have to be around 10k a year higher than it currently is.

Biggest risk is surely losing young educated people we have invested in? So if we do not help them and many leave, we are even more demographically screwed. I really do not think the attitude that they are so easily replaced will wash. We need every single young educated person to stay. I reckon this is the last of Gen X politicians in charge. Once the Millenials are in politics, things will go pro young completely - nothing else is sustainable long term. And yes, we need immigration of skilled and hardworking less skilled. It is more about values and integration.

Although the WFA was reinstated and all pensioners will get it shortly, those with pensions and investment income over £35k ( I think that’s the cut off) will have it taken back through tax at the end of the financial year.

Although that applies to me as although my pensions are not that high I do have savings accrued through very hard work in the last 15 years of my working life. I OK with that as I think that the WFA should be given to pensioners on a low income who are struggling to have heating on.

There are lots of ways being discussed in the papers today that might be in the Budget that will affect me more and which will really upset my careful financial planning but I’m trying not to speculate or worry ahead of the Budget.

It’s upsetting to a lot of people, not just pensioners, who have made some sacrifices to save for their futures through hard work, not through family money or inheritance, and might see the Gvt clawing back significant sums through increasing taxes, council tax, stopping tax free allowances on pensions etc.

Millennials aren’t young any more.

I'm not worse off because I'm a prepper by nature, always planning for worst-case scenarios. I've always done, am doing, and will continue doing whatever is legally possible to protect my interests.

For those who want to ensure they only contribute their fair share to the public sector and government, I recommend exploring all legal options to protect their assets. It's important to invest time in thorough research and studying what is legally possible to safeguard your wealth.

However, I hate the satisfaction that Labour supporters seem to get from ruining businesses, wealth creation, and personal choices of those they disagree with, as well as destroying opportunities for people who don't want to spend half or more of their income on taxes.

To be fair, people driven by political ideologies can be terrible, often trying to harm those who hold opposing views, no matter which side they're on.

Let's see how AI evolves to bypass political ideologies and become better than humans in the future.

It is an amount of money that Employers can knock off their NI bill at the start of each tax year. It started off at £1,000 and had gradually risen to £5,000 then last year it doubled to £10,500

Youngest millenials are early 40s and more native digitals as part of their teen years. Much stronger instincts on where the world is heading than the last of Gen X which is Reeves & Co.

Shredded hope.

I don't think either those who voted Labour or those who didn't but were happy they got in instead of the Tories were expecting them to fix everything overnight - but there was a hope from many that they would show a path they intended to take to heal the issues that came from so many years of austerity.

They not only haven't done that, but they regularly shred what little is left of those hopes and dreams with nonsense and corruption. They're so busy trying to win over Reform voters that their base and the country are left in the dark as to how we're going to get to better days.

I don't think the Tories would be better, they would have twisted the knives into people in a different way. Even as someone who didn't vote Labour, I thought Labour would be better than this.

Let's see how AI evolves to bypass political ideologies and become better than humans in the future.

AI as it is at the moment is riddled with political ideology as it is trained on stuff that is riddled with it. How is it going to avoid a self-destructive loop as the only material available to train it is increasing AI derived? It is already making stuff up - including ‘legal cases’ that barristers draw on in court and ‘scientific citations’ including those relied on by doctors. It seems to me the bigger danger of AI is not taking over jobs but the wholesale corruption of information on the internet.

My daughter is a student on full loan so I guess the increase in tuition fees will affect her. But I am glad they have increased fees as universities such as the one my husband works at need it in order to maintain standards. I don't think they have increased them enough, but it is a start.

True

On the positive side my private pension pot has soared by far more than inflation.

on the negative side my DC who both graduated with First Class degrees in good subjects from Russell Group unis cannot find permanent employment.

Agreed. Hopefully, AI will advance to the point where it becomes independent of human ideologies. And hopefully, they won't develop political ideologies; otherwise, they'd be no better than their creators.

That’s a valid concern, and it’s one the AI community is actively addressing. A feedback loop of AI training on AI-generated data could indeed turn the internet into a giant echo chamber. It’s like photocopying a photocopy repeatedly — eventually, the quality degrades to the point where you can’t trust it.

The “political ideology” issue, however, is less about conspiracy and more about sociology. Models inherit biases from human data — media, academia, online discussions — and since humans are inherently biased, it reflects in the output. The solution isn’t pretending neutrality exists but diversifying data sources and enforcing stronger provenance checks.

As for hallucinated legal cases and scientific citations, that’s a real and embarrassing problem. But it’s also why serious AI applications in fields like medicine and law now include verification layers, retrieval models, and citation tracking. The issue isn’t that AI lies — it’s that people keep treating it as if it’s an all-knowing Wikipedia.

So, the risk isn’t Skynet; it’s spamnet: floods of synthetic nonsense, SEO garbage, and half-truths dressed as legitimate facts. The challenge isn’t just creating smarter AIs but teaching humans to maintain critical discernment.

Simply put, the danger isn’t AI taking over — it’s humans handing it the mic and walking away.

Youngest millenials are early 40s and more native digitals as part of their teen years. Much stronger instincts on where the world is heading than the last of Gen X which is Reeves & Co.

Generational theory is about as useful and scientifically sound as a newspaper horoscope, I'm glad more research institutions are doing away with the concept and leaving it to memes, marketing and poor journalism; however, based on most definitions of millennials - those born between 1980 and 1996 - that places the older people who could be called their mid to early 40s with the youngest ones at about to turn 30.

I've no idea how having digital experiences as a teenager leads to one having stronger instincts as to where the world is heading. If anything I think the government relies far too much on digital solutions and seems far too detached from wider reality or even just information security.

I also don't see how those in their early 40s would automatically be entirely pro-young. There are plenty of us who are as concerned to where we're going as well.

The benefits systems is more than just disability payments. There is waste and and gaming.

So probably how poorer people felt for the previous 14 years. If you weren’t affected by the ideological austerity imposed by the Tories then you’re lucky. The problem now is that said austerity meant the economy didn’t recover after the 2008 crash (although it was recovering before the 2010 election and imposition of austerity) and there’s nothing left to cut from the poorest, so those starting to suffer and worry about what’s going to happen next are those who have generally been quite protected by their own circumstances regardless of the flavour of government.

I am sure Rachel has a plan for the unfair wealth hoarded in your private pension.

I think it’s important to mention the following about employers NI - very tiny companies of 1 to 4 or 5 people won’t pay it , unless someone is on an absolutely enormous salary - there is an allowance by HMRC and it’s £10,000 annually , ( employers NI benefit) this government doubled allowance from £5000) so I employ myself and my H - we don’t pay any . Employers NI is also a tax deductible expense for those bigger companies that ‘are’ paying it - it is a total offset against corporation tax, so those companies saying they can’t pay it are borderline insolvent and not making any money anyway and were probably in difficulties as it was- it isn’t great for cash flow I accept, but as you are meant to be allocating profit for corporation tax, which isn’t due and payable till 9 months after a company year end then you should have this money available to pay it - and then reduce your corporation tax due and payable accordingly.

problem is the media just announce these things without offering up any balances or info - so the average Joe who doesn’t have a business has no idea of this. They just see the headline figure-The other thing is plenty of companies looking to make cuts generally will then use it as an excuse. It’s not employers NI, it’s other aspects, they simply want to cut staffing costs.

for this reason to do with ‘companies giving any old excuse’ I wouldn’t have done the employers NI rise - I would still have doubled the allowance taking many micro companies out of paying altogether - I would have put 2% on basic tax but upped personal allowance to £15k and I would have brought back child allowance regardless of family income -I think it should be a universal benefit - I would also allow nursery funding regardless of income ( as is the case in Scandinavia) to me it’s unacceptable that someone can be a non contributor or getting UC if working and receiving from the system, gets these allowances -whereas someone on £120k gets no allowance and pays a ton of tax and NI and after paying for childcare may as well be on the £55k person who gets the lot.( and believe me I’ve never been the £130k person off my own back and nor do I have nursery aged kids)

oh and to the pensioners who say well there’s nothing in it for me apart from a tax rise - you would get a higher personal allowance and plenty of you seem to be doing just fine - given the thread about stuffing away savings - maybe now’s a good time to think that with a bit more tax in the system basic things might get a bit more funding - be that police, local authority services, mental health services, medical or whatever - you cannot have Scandinavian style services on Dubai tax money .