I don't want to pay more fucking tax!

[marthainthemarket]

I am the sole earner in a family of four, earning just under 40k a year and getting probably fuck all or below inflation pay increase next year, if I am lucky enough to keep my job ( public sector and employer needing to make massive budget savings). I barely cope now.

I am so fucking angry that Labour fucked up the disability benefit cuts. Other countries don't have run away disability benefits crises because they have a proper assessment process that means they keep a lid on people getting disability benefits who don't really need them. But instead of dealing with that, they came up with a crap proposed cut that wouldn't have dealt with the actual issues and they couldn't defend.

And having fucked that up they are now raising everyone's tax. I hate them!

Well we have the minimum wage, so we already have a framework. It just isn't really the amount you need to live, which is why there is also a living wage (and a London living wage) and even then I'm not sure how much those factor in housing and childcare.

It doesn't really factor those things in & plenty will argue that the minimum wage is too high. We spend fair more on housing benefits vs other similar European countries.

The housing situation is a complete mess.

Not coming back to discuss further, OP? Too busy punching down?

That probably includes the OP!

Whatever! No reasoning at all with a woke leftie

Another amazing contribution @belovedandpureones & P.S i'm not a woke leftie. You clearly didn't read my posts!

I genuinely don’t believe this. And I know a fair few people on benefits in my line of work. But it’s easier to think everyone is resting on laurels paid for by someone else, than address the systemic failures which have led to people being in a benefits trap.

The latest Work and Pensions Committee report Fraud and error in the benefits system shows that official data shows that there is nearly twice as much error as fraud in the benefits system.
The official figure for fraud is 0.7% yet the general public’s misperception is that it is 34 times higher (23%).
The Committee recommends that to, avoid public confusion, the DWP should publish statistics relating to the estimated level of benefit fraud on a separate day from those related to error in the benefits system.
Dame Anne Begg MP said:
"Statistics relating to benefit fraud are often conflated in media reporting with those relating to error; and people’s perceptions of the level of benefit fraud are completely out of kilter with the official estimate. This is not helped by the Government publishing all of the statistics simultaneously. Whilst we understand that the boundary between claimant error and fraud is not always clear, we believe that publishing separate summaries of estimated fraud and error rates would be helpful."
The report is also concerned how the DWP will manage the housing costs element of Universal Credit without increased risks of fraud and error.

You have given some horrific examples but I have tried to show why turning to the welfare state is not the answer

What if your partner left you with nothing.
You go out to work

What if your contraception failed.
Use two methods. Morning after pill. (Aren't Labour offering it for free)

What if you were raped and it resulted in pregnancy.

Morning after pill, Abortion. Counselling

What if your partner died.
Counselling. Life insurance. Go out to work

What if you have a terrible accident and become disabled.
Legal advice, compensation. Insurance

There are almost zero recorded losses to the taxpayer due to fraud in the disability benefit benefits system, new statistics from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) show.
Personal independence payment (PIP) fraud stood at 0% in the financial year ending 2024. Meanwhile, disability living allowance (DLA) fraud was just 0.1%, which was rounded to £0m.
It comes as the government continues its drive to tighten disability benefits, eradicate “sick-note culture” and crack down on fraud within the welfare system more widely.

But any government that tries to tackle the widespread abuses of the benefits system gets pilloried, from the left!

I'm a basic rate tax payer. I would be happy for 1% or 2% to be added so I'm paying more tax. It seems the least painful way of raising tax.

However will my DC still be on a one and a half year plus NHS waiting list? Yes, I don't think things will change for the better that quickly.

I cant either! I earn less than OP but I rely on the essential services more (social housing, NHS, schools) because I can't afford private!

They need need need to go after all the newly made billionaires, the idle rich landlords, and the aristos who do indeed have money sloshing around. Property prices in this country are huge because some can pay for it. The money is there. It is inequality, corruption, and the greed of the rich that marks Britain out in Europe, marks us out as an American vassal in all but name.

Richard Burgon MP is heading a campaign to tax the wealth. https://www.taxpayersagainstpoverty.org.uk/post/tap-backs-mp-richard-burgon-s-wealth-tax-campaign-and-no-disability-benefit-cuts-petition

Once the money is claimed back from the wealthy (starting with our tax dodging corrupt royal family) it needs to be used to nationalise services to stop public wealth bring leached out into foreign tax havens.

The money is there. It’s not lack of wealth that makes us now poorer than Poland but lack of distribution. Anyone who says otherwise is lying through their teeth and taking the public for fools.

https://equalitytrust.org.uk

This. The Victorians had a very apt expression "It's the rich what gets the pleasure and the poor what gets the blame." It's much easier to crucify those at the bottom as they haven't got the arsenal or influence to defend themselves. They also count for very little in the whole scheme of things. Yet here we are again, plus ca change.

But any governdment that tries to tackle the widespread abuses of the benefits system gets pilloried from the left!

People don't want benefit cuts or tax rises but they all want better services. 🤷🏻‍♀️

you clearly have no idea how hard it is to live outside of a princess palace. Bye 👋🏼

You know what's what but you don't realise that the letter about "no money left" was a joke handed down from Chancellor to Chancellor?

Another oldie “They hang the man and flog the woman who steals the goose from off the common: but let the greater villain loose that steals the common from the goose”.

As then, this all started with privatization of resources and public wealth.

I completely agree that there are people in a benefits trap - for example, people relying on top up benefits. However, in my line of work I also know people do claim fraudulently, particularly for disability benefits, as it is a nice little earner. As soon as the government speak about tackling fraud, the disability rights groups create and gov back down. A strong government would tackle this, weeding out those who can work and leaving more for the genuine!

I want decent services for the people who need them, so I guess I’m resigned to paying more tax.

Surprised how no one’s come on to admonish you for this @eqpi4t2hbsnktd and tell you how lucky you are to have the privilege of working 6 days a week!

You’re paying for the last anti growth budget and higher debt servicing.,

I don’t mind paying tax, it’s part of being a society. What I do mind is that huge corporations like Amazon not paying their fair share. The irony being that they make their enormous profits off the back of not paying wages people can genuinely live on, so those workers are forced to claim in work benefits (which is a huge proportion of the benefits bill.) So companies like that are essentially subsidised by the State AND fail to pay fair taxes on their profits.

Whataboutery at its finest.

I would not mind paying an extra 1p in tax IF services where actually improved and the criteria for benefits was reviewed/changed and loopholes for wealthy tax payers were closed.

But as it currently stands Labour wants to increase taxes for those working to support those who contribute very little and more importantly have no intention of trying and the increasing state retirement age is a massive slap in the face to those who have done the 'right' thing by working and paying taxes or have spent long hours volunteering for their local community.

This will lead to an increasing number of people who feel entitled to support and end up on more per year than someone on NMW and then are stuck on benefits because no job that they could obtain would pay the same amount.