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!

Pensions 150 billion

So do I actually glad someone wants to do it !

Where did you get that idea? VAT did not go to the EU - it went to the UK Treasury, and continues to do so.

This. Someone should be able to work 1 day a week or 7 the key thing is they pay their own way, no benefits. Then it is of no concern to anyone else.

He shows compassion and commitment and that's his strength. I find him trustworthy.

Luckily we have excellent health services in our area. Plus good education. Everyone, despite differences in political ideology, work together to maintain that.

It is down to the trust. Sigh.

Welcome to Brexit Britain.

''@MidnightMeltdown
People on welfare are recipients of other people’s money''

I have paid my taxes for 25 years and always worked and continue to do so.

But I claim the basic rate of PIP to help me stay in employment and manage my long term health condition.

Many people who receive UC also work and pay taxes. Often they need to claim benefit top ups because employers get away with paying shit wages.

You seem to have a very black and white view of tax payers vs benefit recipients but the reality is more complex.

Welcome to Starmer’s Labour

I think PIP fair enough you have a health issue and it's no-one wants to be disabled.

If employers can get away with "shit wages" isn't that (usually but not always) a reflection of how the market views what a person should be paid for this job. It would reflect a lack of skills, and the fact there's a large swathe of people that could do it?

1 That the highest earning 1% (those earning over about £200,000 a year) pay 30% of all income tax confirms that the other 99% are paying relatively little in income tax.

2 The discussion is about income tax, but you are correct to point out that there are other taxes as well. Standard VAT in the UK is 20% which is one of the lowest rates in Europe. Capital Gains Tax is 20% - where I live it is 30%. Corporation Tax is 25%, which is on a par with all of the other major European economies (although in Germany it is 30%). Stamp Duty is on a par with the rest of Europe.

3 No, not France. I have described the situation in a country where there is a consensus that good public services are a right and that these need to be paid for by everyone - and my figure of healthcare investment being 30% more per head than in the UK refers to public investment, not private investment or private insurance payments. I pay into a compulsory Health Fund - in effect a health tax as it is deducted at source from my earnings, in the same way that National Insurance is deducted in the UK - and employers also contribute (again, very similar to UK NI). The biggest difference between this system and the UK's system is that this money is ring-fenced for healthcare and the whole system is run at arms length away from politicians. Few people here have private healthcare - the public service is so good that there is no need. In the UK, 10% of the population seems happy to pay hundreds of pounds a month for private healthcare so that they can get decent treatment - but are the first to complain at the prospect of paying 1p more in tax so that everyone might enjoy better services.

Would you say that about nurses, paramedics, therapists, social workers? Do you think anyone can do these jobs?

My financial future and well being are changed by what happens from now on and decisions the current and future givernments make. What is past is past. So many here live in the past and dwell on it instead of trying to influence a better future. Look forwards not backwards, you can change one direction but not the other. So many people with chips on their shoulders here.

''@PeonyPatch · Today 09:35
If employers can get away with "shit wages" isn't that (usually but not always) a reflection of how the market views what a person should be paid for this job. It would reflect a lack of skills, and the fact there's a large swathe of people that could do it?''

I am sure care workers, teaching assistants & teachers, paramedics, nursery staff, retail and hospitality staff, nurses, social workers, worker in the third sectors and so on will be delighted to hear that they ''lack skills''.

If I remember correctly the Covid crisis and lockdowns showed that when times are tough we rely on essential workers to keep society going, not lawyers, bank managers or accountants...

It is quite clear Labour have no idea. Last year they told us the Tories left a £20Bn black hole and they needed a once in a parliament budget to fix it which they did.

Now they have created a further £40Bn black hole (that they can't blame on the Tories) and need another "once in a parliament" budget.

So Labour in a single year have created a black hole twice as big as that they claimed the Tories left. Not good after a year is it? These are Labour's figures not mine, they haven't the bottle to fix run away costs like benefits and pensions.

The problem with a role in the public sector unfortunately. The government can suppress wages

I don't want to pay more tax either. I used to work seven days a week to make ends meet but this made me ill. I am now working six days a week as I desperately need one day just to recover from the stress of working all week. Labour needs to look at how they are spending money before they tax us even more. If I had the financial means I would leave the UK. I genuinely believe these civil servants and labour believe money grows on a magic money tree. Many people are working multiple jobs, or if they are self employed, they are working non stop.

Labour need to get a backbone and tackle the run away costs of benefits and pensions, they have shown that they do not have such a backbone. For the record neither did the Tories.

I'll criticise any government of any colour, too many here are very tribal and will defend their tribe regardless.

You've posted an inconvenient truth, mumsnit1, but still you'll get people insisting that getting benefits is well nigh impossible

Even allowing for what you've said though, I've never met anyone who believes the DWP's own assessment that fraud is minuscule - after all lying about an issue means that tackling it can be dodged

... they haven't the bottle to fix run away costs like benefits and pensions

Edited to add the backbenchers and unions won't let them, @Zebedee999 - as PPs have said, too many of these people are their core voters

WTAF??

You do realise there are public sector workers having to use food banks because they’re not being paid enough to live on, and you want their wages to be ‘suppressed’??

Oh, and if people start quitting these jobs because they can’t afford to live on such low wages, where do you think that would leave society?

I just can't bring myself to punish the disabled and hurt the most weakest in society

I'm saying the reason the wages are low is because government does this already.

Neither can I, Brmmmn - after all I have a severely disbaled son myself

However most of us aren't talking of the genuinely disabled, but about a system which has allowed the definition to balloon to a point where we're paying for those who could quite easily work if they chose

It's not just people on welfare, if you are on an average income, you are also a recipient of other people's money. In fact it's only when you break into the top 20% of earners when you stop being a taker and become a giver.
Anyone below that receives more from the state than they pay in taxes.

Labour have not created a further black hole. As they have looked at what the Conservatives have left behind they keep uncovering more issues - the more they look the more they find. Hospitals crumbling, staff shortages in key roles that will take a decade to rectify, schools falling apart, the private owners of vital services (water, transport, electricity) on the point of going bust having sweated all they can out of the assets and now demanding subsidies and price rises.

Decades of under-investment, mismanagement and sheer incompenence have finally caught up with the country. "Trickle down" and the Free Market have been shown to have been illusions that have badly damaged the country. No politician wants to stand up and tell the truth regarding what has to be done - partly because all of the major parties have been complicit and partly because the population doesn't want to hear the unpleasent truth and will vote for anyone who offers a seductive illusion rather than face reality.

Far easier to blame "the EU" or "immigrants" or "people in rubber boats" or even the party that has only been in power for just over a year, rather than look in the mirror and ask who actually mismanaged the country for 14 years, who were the architects of the disaster that is Brexit - and who fell for their lies and actually voted for the caravan of clowns; Cameron, Osborne, Boris, Gove, Patel, Dorries, Braverman, Raab, Hancock, Hunt, Truss et al. Most of whom seem to have scuttled off back where they came from.