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!

Sorry, not 1 million refugees. Around 1/2 million refugees, from Ukraine and Hong Kong .

’Shoulder the burden’ is a strange way of putting it. People on welfare are recipients of other people’s money. If I don’t donate to Oxfam, does that mean that I am expecting people in Gaza to ‘shoulder the burden’ and ‘don’t care if they suffer’?

I think this kind of over emotional language is unhelpful when many so people are working all hours and struggling with the cost of living themselves. There is only so much that people can pay.

It’s perfectly reasonable for taxpayers (who are actually shouldering the burden) to question where their money is going. Lots of them are struggling with cost of living themselves and would have liked to see the welfare reforms that the government proposed pushed through.

How much do we pay in disability benefits per capita? How does it compare to other countries?

This.

Someone upthread saying they are "just too exhausted to work full time, at 50" so they only do three days a week !! 🙄

For goodness sake, no wonder UK productivity is down. I'm more than a decade older, post-cancer, working full time in a full-on job and volunteering for my community.

Have a medal. PP did not say what her job was. Would you be scoffing at her if she was in a physical job?
My dad quit work in his late 50s. His body could take no more.

OP on £40k you are not even a net contributor. You are lumped in with the net takers such as the people on benefits that you seem to despise.
BTW, you are probably entitled to a UC top up.

The proposed "welfare reforms" were welfare cuts that would have left many people whose lives are already difficult, struggling to feed themselves. I'm sorry you were disappointed that they didn't happen. I guess if that's who you are, it's who you are. But you don't get to accuse people of using "over emotional language" when it's their emotions they're describing.

Imo it’s not about limiting benefits to those with genuine need - it’s about becoming much more efficient with all spending, including welfare spending. The government’s motability scheme as an example has been raised recently as being largely unfair to the tax-payer as recipients are benefitting from luxury cars out of it e.g. BMW. How is that a) fair? b) an efficient way of spending?

I don’t think the average person attracted to welfare cuts is looking to see disabled people starve or suffer, but the mismanagement in spending certainly needs a good look at. Why are we subsidising luxury vehicles? (As an example). That seems like such mismanagement of tax payers’ money for a country with a large debt.

The social contract feels broken in the UK, and when people feel this way, they’re less willing to want to agree to tax rises and supporting others, as they’re not seeing the benefits to their local services and infrastructure- I can understand that.

Sources:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8jrw21lx0xo

The expectation of the state now is insane if you think about it.

My child struggles in school due to autism - state pays for tutors.

My granny needs 24 hour care due to dementia- state pays for care.

My husband has left me can’t afford to support kids on my own now - state pays.

I mean - my god! No wonder as a country we are sinking.

Except they have built it into the schools budgets, exactly as they promised. VAT on school fees was predicted to bring in £1.7 billion. Even though it only started being collected in January 2025, its been baked into the schools budgets since 2024-25.

In 2023-24 the schools budget was £57.7 billion. In 2024-25 it was £61.6 billion and in 2025-26 it is £63.7 billion - a £6 billion increase over the two years.

In the same period, per pupil funding has increased from £7,450 to £8,210 - a 10% increase.

In real terms, adjusted for inflation against 2024-25 in the past two years education funding has been increased by £3.1 billion (2023-24 = £59.1 billion, 2025-26 = £62.2 billion)

Between 2010-11 and 2020-21 it only increased by £5.2 billion in real terms (2010-11 = £49.9 billion, 2020-21 = £55.1 billion).

There was an increase of £2.6 billion in 2021-22 but that was due to Covid recovery rather than investment.

Per pupil funding, in real terms, decreased by £100 per pupil between 2010 and 2021. Post covid it had increased to £7,630 - £260 more than in 2010.

In 2025-26 per pupil funding, in real terms, is £8,020 - a 5% increase in 2 years.

Tory government - average increase in education spending per year was just £0.7 billion including Covid recovery. Average in the last two years under Labour is £1.6 billion.

Under the last Labour government spending on education was increased significantly, both in real terms and as a proportion of GDP. By 2010-11 education spending was at 5.4% of GDP - the highest it had been since pre-Thatcher.

Under the Tory government, that was cut to just 3.9% of GDP - the lowest for decades.

So...how are they 'nasty little liars' exactly? Because the evidence of funding levels would suggest they've done exactly what they said they would do!

Isn't that a good thing?

It’s lovely. But we can’t afford it for the demographics we have.

Doesn’t the scheme come out of PIP payments?

So scrapping it, PIP payments would go up the same amount?

The will increase it and next year more people will be on it

It was me who said that.

Thank you for letting me know how much better you are than me.

You do realise that not everyone is the same don't you?

For my role full time means 60 to 70 hours a week. I work 3 days instead meaning that I can do other things with my life rather than just work and (attempt to) sleep.

As I said before I claim no benefits.

I also volunteer in a local museum which I definitely couldn't do if I worked full time.

And I'm autistic so am masking at work which is exhausting.

Sorry I made you so angry.

Look on the bright side, maybe you will have an accident or develop an illness tomorrow which will leave you with a severe and life-long disability, then you too can live the sumptuous tax-payer funded dolce vita that all us disabled people apparently enjoy. Until then, I suppose you'll just have to struggle on somehow.
Honestly, the number of ignorant bigots on this site blaming disabled people for the country's economic woes is both depressing and tedious.

Given you don't claim benefits at all. Good on you

The tragic thing is, that you can't even rely on the state to be there for you! The difference I have seen in friends cancer care has been huge. The difference we know in schools is massive.

Friend currently working with terminal cancer. Has to wait until she has 12 months left to get her pension. Why is she struggling going to work every day when so many other people don't work?

Thank you. I appreciate that.

I do sometimes beat myself up about being a failure, in that other people manage full time jobs and I can't. I suppose that's why that poster hit a nerve with me!

A few people have said tax rises won't improve public services. Or that there is waste in the system.

What should we do then - just give up?

I was young in the days of Thatcher and Major. I remember people really worrying about not being able to get an ambulance etc. When Labour came to power in the 90s, the NHS did gradually improve. I'm not saying it's as simple as Labour good Tories bad, nor that the NHS was then perfect. But actually investing more in public services does make a difference.

The NHS needs a massive overhaul just don’t think any of the parties have the stomach for it. Need something like European systems not the US one as what we have now isn’t working.

There are very few people that could handle a 60 to 70 hours a week full time (I know I couldn't) and your three days a week would be between 40 to 45 hours which is a lot more in 3 days than the majority do in 5 days (37.5
hours).

So please don't beat yourself up over it, plus you look after your family plus you don't claim any benefits.

You should be incredibly proud of yourself and people such as myself pale in comparison to your work ethic.

What is the alternative to the state in these scenarios?

Universal credit costs the country 88 billion so blaming the disabled is just the media frothing.

Universal credit is one of the govt biggest mistakes ever.

We should not be paying people to be in work. Work should be enough.

Adopting a European style system of health care would cost us billions.

I've no idea what the answer to the problem is though. Thankfully I think Wes Streeting is an excellent Health Minister.