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!

The Greens are doing the same to the left.

Actually Labour is more the reason people are going elsewhere, but still the vote will be split.

😂😂😂

Exactly.

With respect, that's nonsense. Those who don't learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.

No one has said that you need a diagnosis. I was just observing that not all diagnostic processes are equally robust.

Nobody is blaming you. If you are genuinely disabled you have nothing to worry about.

I agree and as a remote worker I am taking my salary and leaving

You want DLA, you want a free NHS, you want your sen kids to have EHCPs, you want school to be as good as fee paying independent schools, you want police on the streets but you don't want to pay for it. How do we fund all this stuff?

Perhaps it is in a fair system. We have not had a fair system, not for 50 years. We have had neoliberalism. Which has very deliberately penalised workers and producers in favour of capital, enabling those who had it at the crucial time to screw the rest of us over for ever more with the rentier economy.

We need the capital, amassed by fleecing working people and public assets for 50 years. It was ours, they took it. We need it back, before another generation grows up thinking that 8 hours wait for an ambulance when you’ve had a stroke is perfectly normal and all that 3rd-world-Britain can manage, while people like Andrew get given more and more 30-bed mansions. We need the wealth taxed.

And no, to answer some desperate divisive right winger upthread, that does not mean going after the few who have worked and earn just over 50k. That gets you nowhere in Britain now. The boomers paid 3x income for a house, 3x 50k is only 150k in a country where the average house price is over 300k now.

We need to tax the real wealth, the wealth that the likes of Thames Water are still being allowed to suck away from us, for water that falls from the skies ffs.

https://actionnetwork.org/forms/tax-wealth-at-the-autumn-budget-fund-emergency-action-to-tackle-the-cost-of-living-crisis

This is very true. I worked a contract last year in an educational institution where we enrolled young people. One week, the head of the dept, who is from a science background, suggested we try a little experiment for the week: We held up a regular lanyard and a sunflower lanyard and asked the student which one they'd like. With the exception of 5 student, everyone else (circa 30) took the sunflower lanyard (disability).

The number of young people identifying with disabilities (namely mental health ones) is truly staggering. As I said in my previous post, the Mental Health crisis with is going to be like a tsunami, is coming. These are generations that will not be working, paying taxes, etc. They are going to be a major drain on the economy, and the other end will be people living much longer, which is why they keep talking about raising the retirement age to 70.

We pay 50% tax. Just how much more tax should we pay for minimally functioning services?

Name me the last chancellor who was "qualified for the job"? And what terms of qualification are you using?

60% according to some...

What do you mean it hasn't been raised in 50 years?? It was raised by Jeremy Hunt just before the last GE. We (those who contribute opposed to the 53% who are net takers) already pay record levels of tax. Disgusting that those contributing will have to pay even more to pay for the inflation busting public sector pay rises that Labour approved as well as their pathetic failure to secure welfare reform.

Unfortunately a quick read of MN over the last couple of days will tell you that many think wealth is over 45k or owning your house outright.

Absolutely! With one of the lowest pensions in Europe, it was needed. That's also why Brown brought in the WFA, if I remember right, instead of raising pensions properly in line with the EU.

Hmmmm. Sounds like I should just quit my job and live off the welfare state then?

Some facts about Brexit:

Key Impacts

1. Trade & market access

Trade openness (trade / GDP) has fallen more in the UK than in comparable countries since leaving the European Union.

Goods exports to the EU have dropped significantly (e.g., food & drink exports down ~34% since Brexit for that sector).

Services trade (especially financial, transport) has also been hit, though in some cases less than early worst-case predictions.

Additional paperwork, customs declarations and non-tariff barriers have increased business costs.

1. Investment & productivity

Business investment has stalled or grown more slowly than it might have, in part due to uncertainty around the new arrangements.

Productivity growth (output per hour worked) faces headwinds: a less open economy, less labour supply from the EU, and more trade frictions all weigh on future potential.

1. Labour market & migration

Free movement of EU nationals ended; this has led to reduced supply in some sectors (agriculture, hospitality, drivers).

While overall migration into the UK has sometimes increased via non-EU routes, the shift has had sectoral impacts.

1. Overall growth & living standards

Some quantitative estimates suggest the economy is several per cent smaller than it would have been without Brexit: for example, one study said ~5.5%-smaller by a certain point.

Because of slower growth, real wage growth and improvements in living standards may have been weaker than they would otherwise.

The cost of doing business/importing goods is higher than before in some cases, which can contribute to inflation and higher consumer costs.

1. Sectoral and regional effects

Some industries are hit harder: e.g., advanced manufacturing sectors relying heavily on cross-border supply chains.

Regions/metros with large financial services or EU-centric trade may feel more acute effects (for example, analyses of London’s economy have highlighted job losses tied to Brexit).

The reality is the labour government are weak, weak, weak.

Reeves only called the press conference this morning to appease the markets. Starmer and Reeves have done absolutlely nothing since they came to power, they don’t run the country - the civil servants and big business (the market) does.

We need someone who is prepared to make big changes, and I mean really big changes, like abolishing business rates, outlawing private schools, banning anyone not resident in the UK from buying UK property and sending our house prices up, get rid of stamp duty, abolish inheritance tax, create a new import tax for physical goods, abolish pension credit and making a simply pension system where everyone over the state pension age gets it (and make it income tax exempt) while abolishing national insurance and increasing income tax and corporation tax to offset the NI loss and balance the books, and significantly increasing the personal allowance, child benefit to be paid for every child irrespective of parental income. And get rid of loads of the civil service.

@mumsnit1 Clearly you haven’t a clue about how PIP works and you’re repeating the media propaganda.

Having ADHD does not automatically qualify you for disability benefits. PIP is not based on diagnosis, it’s based on medical evidence of how your disability affects you. Whether you believe it or not, PIP is medical evidence based, you cannot get PIP just because you write in and say “oh I have ADHD and I can’t do this or that”. It doesn’t work like that .

The idea that you think it does, is laughable. It just shows that people are making assumptions without knowing how it works. It’s easier to blame the ones getting “free money” when the reality is very different. The reason PIP fraud rates are so low is because it’s so hard to claim in the first place. It’s nowhere near as simple as you believe it to be; as for “it doesn’t have to be fraud”, again, nobody is getting PIP just because they ask for it.

They want more.

I find it so unsettling when I hear exactly the same language being used by multiple people. It's kind of freaky really because what else would you be prepared to parrot - where, if anywhere, would it stop?

I think it was the shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions who first talked about "mild anxiety and ADHD" in an attempt to pretend that people with mild anxiety are being given free cars but who knows? It could have originated from anyone in a position of power with an agenda.

But they haven't raised everyone's tax. They haven't done anything yet. The budget isn't out yet, is it? Why is everyone so ragingly angry about things that haven't happened? Is it a bot thing?

Why don't they just do the wealth tax if it will fix everything?

Did you miss Reeves’ press conference today?