If you voted Reform, I would love to know why?

[AplineDaisies]

I am not here to judge so would just like to hear from Reform voters for their reasoning.

But with the cap in place people continued to have more children, those children just lived in poverty.
In short, it didn't work to stop poorer people having more than two children, it just punished the children by condemning them to live in poverty.

Yes there is a problem with benefit tips up etc but that is because for many work doesn't pay. Why is that? Because many companies & businesses have been happily making profits by paying low wages & using zero hour contracts.
Housing is a huge problem too - rents have been allowed to get ridiculously high & private landlords have been allowed to exploit people. We don't have enough social housing stock.

These are real problems that need time to address and reverse.

@Katypp a lot of your post doesn’t make sense.

They live in nicer areas and are homeowners, so don't see any of the issues around immigration they say don't happen

Wage stagnation has impacted the vast majority of workers. Many labour voters do live in cities and are immigrants or 2nd gen immigrants.

that they have lived through hardship and think it's bloody unfair that they are now contributing to enable more and more people to stay at home with a better standard of living than they have and do it tax free as well.

And yet you couldn’t claim UC but there are millions living better on benefits?

I don’t mind the lifting of the 2 child cap, yes there might be some who get it who are “feckless” but it’s better for society to lift children out of poverty long term. And I say this has someone who felt they could only afford 2 dc.

How can you assume the average labour voter has never experienced hardship?!

There aren’t millions of people having dc for benefits, just look at birth rates. Plus no country has reversed birth rates once below replacement rate despite much bigger financial incentives.

“The number of children in the English school system is decreasing. The latest official forecasts suggest there will be 400,000 fewer pupils by 2030, with primary numbers alone projected to fall by about 7 per cent from 2025 to the end of the decade.”

Its dreadful for many schools as funding is based on headcount.

@27TimesAway Never change, mumsnet.

The two child cap was introduced in 2017, and was applicable to children born after that date. Studies say it reduced births by about 5,600 a year. It’s only just been lifted.

The birth rate has mainly declined because many working people who are not entitled to benefits can’t afford children. They have to save for years for a house deposit before having kids, but then there is little support if you earn a ‘normal’ wage and have a mortgage (rather than rent). If you have children in this scenario you either pay for childcare (which is expensive even with reforms) or one parent drops their income which is impossible for many people.

When you compare their take home, it won’t be much different to a family with 3+ kids on benefits who work the minimum hours to claim UC top ups, and add the amount they receive in housing benefit to pay their rent. In fact the latter could even be better off if they have no childcare costs.

If you do the right thing and save for a house and then take a mortgage before having kids and you’re not a high earner, in many ways you are taking the hard route.

I haven’t read the full thread, and probably won’t, because people who voted Reform tend to be dismissed or sneered at in spaces like this. But for me, my vote came down largely to inheritance tax changes.

My parents-in-law worked incredibly hard all their lives and didn’t retire until their seventies. Under the changes Labour plans to make, my father-in-law’s pension will now also fall into the estate for inheritance tax purposes. Realistically, when they pass away, we’ll likely have to sell their house and hand over a huge proportion of the estate in tax — potentially around £500k.

I know people have different views on taxation, but personally I find the thought devastating. That money could have been genuinely life-changing for our family, and it’s painful to think that after a lifetime of hard work, they will not be able to pass on what they spent decades building.

They’re not left wing. They’re liberal. Right wing fiscally and bleeding heart when it comes to benefits and immigration. The absolute worst of both worlds.

Omg I've never seen a more faux post.

A £500k IHT bill would indicate the estate is worth about £2.4million. So you would still have about £1.9m after that. I have no sympathy in that scenario, even half that would be life changing for most families. Hell, even a small percentage of that would be.

They didn’t spend decades building it either, they (and soon you) have benefited from the housing market going bonkers.

We are not left with 1.9m. The money will be split between my DH and his brother so it will be halved. We will need to sell the house to pay IHT liability which needs to be paid within 6 months. If we want to draw money from the remaining pension be will be taxed at 40%. Then if we die our son will be taxed again on this.

Oh so you’ll only be just shy of £1m better off?

Honestly. My heart is bleeding.

Half of £1.9m is still a substantial sum to get. If you are splitting a house between two siblings you would likely need to sell the house anyway. And it sounds like there are pension funds on top of that making the estate even larger.

It seems a bit crass for you to be worrying like this about your in-laws estate anyway when they’re not even dead yet. It’s their money and who knows, maybe they will need years of care before they die which will reduce the IHT bill significantly. Or maybe they will spend it on cruises before they die, which would be within their right to do so. Maybe one will remarry after the other dies and leave it all to their new partner.

Inheritance is not a God given right. and something many parents are not even able to leave behind. It’s just gross for adult children to be seething about the IHT bill they may be faced with when their parents are still alive and breathing.

@SleeplessInWhereverno that will be subject to 40% tax so not just shy of 1m.

Oh no, not the inheritance tax stuff again!

I have little sympathy for people who are upset they aren't going to get the full whack from their boomer parents who did very well thank you in the years of economic prosperity of the previous decades.

Pay your inheritance tax.

This is a pretty small group, even if committed to Labour on here. That loyalty really doesn’t reflect the voting that just happened.

But the 40% only applies over a tax free allowance.

UK Inheritance Tax Explained: Allowances, Rates & How to Reduce Your IHT Bill (2026) - Isaac (isaacmoney.com)

Okay.

But firstly, it’s better than nothing - don’t be so ungrateful.

You haven’t earned a penny of that, your in laws have. All you’ve done is be fortunate to be married to a man who is fortunate to have wealthy parents. You want life changing money, make it. Yourself. Rather than waiting for your in laws to gift it to you when they’re gone.

Secondly, they’re still alive. It’s their money, and I hope they spend it before it becomes someone else’s. Live their life without the obligation to give you their life’s work.

I always think that people counting their pounds of inheritance whilst their relatives are still with them are particularly disgusting. This is no exception.

Exactly this!
To say it's "devastating" is ridiculous!

Newsflash - some people's parents also worked incredibly hard all their lives but were or are unable to leave their children anything.
You are lucky to be inheriting and through marriage too.

This. Inheritance should be seen as a privilege and not a right. Even if someone only leaves you £1 you should be grateful as they didn’t have to.

Too many people are counting on inheritance for their future which is a dangerous and foolish game. Care fees can wipe out someone’s estate very quickly.

No, my post screams expecting everything for free is unsustainable and people will have to make sacrifices juat like I did. I don't think anyone has suggested a US style system in any case?

And please don't tell the woman who has already funded several rounds of private treatment in the UK that she hasn't done her research. That's just insulting and silly.

No, my post screams expecting everything for free is unsustainable and people will have to make sacrifices juat like I did. I don't think anyone has suggested a US style system in any case?

And please don't tell the woman who has already funded several rounds of private treatment in the UK that she hasn't done her research. That's just insulting and silly.

For me, it is far too confusing at times.
I 100% agree that Labour is failing to see the depth of disappointment is spreading around UK. Particularly,
But I cannot see how Reform is going to sort the NHS problem. They do not provide detail enough for my piece of mind. This of charging people for missing appointments... ok, for those who repeteadly miss them. Ok if we have checked the reasons why they sre missing them and it is not because they cannot get themselves there, they did not get the letter or text, or the doctor called early or late, or only rang once. So, for me, if you are repeteadly late or do jot turn up. But we first need to trust the system. That they are sending appo8ntments with enough time, ringing several tomes, adhering to the time slot.
Also, if my GP practice they used to have the number of missing weekly appointments and I always scratched my head. The place was continuously packed. If there are 7 GPs, ok so you expect aroubd 14-20 peoole every 10- 15 min. But there were many many more, more like 40 plus, for more than 30 min, every single time I went there. So... if there was anyone missing their appointment, in those numbers, then it was because it was severely overbooked!
Most of Reform policies involve blaming a group of the population for being entitled leeches, rather than sorting the system out. And I think many of the issues the country has are a consequence of lack of proper planning and delivery of services. Rather than the citizen's fault. Most people are not lazy. Only a minority are.

People are sick to death of the mainstream parties because they feel as if they've been betrayed and forgotten about. That's why Reform won Council seats by the hundreds in England, and they even gained seats in the Scottish and Welsh General elections. People are frustrated and it looks like they're willing to try anything to see if it'll change things.

Exactly.
Why did we have to have sympathy for people who have to pay tax on money they are given?
Your in laws didn't have to work all their lives just to leave money to their children, they could spend it on themselves.

But if they want to be generous to their family, it would make more sense for them to support your husband and his brother while they are alive rather than squirrel it away to be inherited.

But if they do make that choice then the inheritance tax will have to be paid.

Well, years ago (when that last Labour government were in charge, the ones that allowed mass uncontrolled immigration to begin) I was struggling to conceive due to my PCOS. While I was in the same waiting room ironically as it was the then IVF unit, I was waiting for my metformin review due to not being allowed NHS IVF due to my BMI being fractionally too high because you know, I have PCOS 🙄 and there were several couples in with their interpreters waiting for their NHS IVF appointments. That rather peeved me too and was in no way more cost effective for the state.