Labour needing help from IMF according to economists

[CarCostingMe]

Labour may need help from the IMF, economists warn

Headlines like this seem to be popping up more and more. Is there anyone out there who still thinks that benefits don't need to be cut or is everyone now pretty accepting of the fact that big change is coming whether we like it or not.
All welfare benefits need to be cut (inc the triple lock) and the NHS needs made into an insurance based system too.

I have to admit I have started to make loose plans of how I will cope. I'm not on any benefits but I'm due to get my state pension in about 15years and it's fully paid up already. I hope I will still be getting it but am thinking it might be deliberately frozen and eroded in the future so worth less than it currently is.

I am actually ok (ish) with an insurance based health system as this one is not working now and I am fed up with the stress of trying to navigate it/wait for things.
It's not that I want to pay for healthcare but vast parts of it just don't work anymore.

For everyone else (assuming no-one is burying their heads in the sand still) how will you manage. Any tips gratefully received as I have no family to fall back on.

For now my plans are sell house and live in flat to release equity or stay in house and take out equity release (no kids to leave an inheritance to).

If this is not enough have a lodger as well (I will buy a 2 bed flat min). Not ideal but if needs must.
I have private pensions so they will be getting spent carefully and I have to admit I have already started to be very careful with my spending as I feel change is imminent.

I watched an interesting but depressing podcast about how the rest of the world was watching the UK as an example of what not to do (ie we used to be a great nation and now we are paying more to borrow on the bond market than Greece who the IMF bailed out in 2010.

So from your previous posts I recognise that maths is not your strong point but what you are describing is effectively a pyramid scheme.

In order to pay for the pensions of 20 years time you want to increase the population today by immigration (or could be birth rates).

You hope that this additional younger population pays in more taxes than the money they take out - which means everyone of these migrants (or additional population) will need to earn at least £60 to £70k to be a net contributor to the UK tax system.

Then we have the issue that this additional population will themselves get old one day and want a pension. And I presume your suggested solution to this is to further increase immigration / population increase and so on.

We can already see that such an ever increasing population is not sustainable from an infrastructure, housing, healthcare and environmental perspective. But rather than accept this rather obvious reality your response will be that we just need to "tax the rich" more.

At some point whether we wait until we are bankrupt or earlier we have to come up with a plan.
We are over populated. I live in a town in Shropshire. It now resembles Bradford.
They are knocking up houses left ,right and center with absolutely zero plans.
They need to close the borders and slash benefits.

You should be praying reform don't get in. And yes, Labour aren't doing enough. All the money still going to the already wealthy.

'All the money going to the wealthy' - surely this is not true.

Yes there is the age old argument about triple lock and I agree this should be changed.
However large amounts of money (that in my opinion we couldn't afford) has gone to public sector workers (train drivers, doctors). Not saying they don't deserve it but I don't think we could afford it. Is this the wealthy you talk about?

Large amounts of benefits going to working adults - so surely this does not count as going to the wealthy. To my mind these benefits are just wrong. Why on earth is the government (taxpayer) paying part of peoples wages. I mean the whole point of a job is to support yourself. The country just cannot afford this.

Then we have the well talked about NEETS - surely they don't count as wealthy but they must be getting quite a chunk in benefits. Not the answer obviously as they need jobs and careers and ambition.

Then we have all the benefits going to mental health claimants. I guess some faking their claim might be wealthy but I'm guessing most are not. I don't think we can afford these either but that's a different story.

Fraid I don't know who the wealthy are who labour are spending all this money on.

I think we either try and fix it ourselves which seems to mean a reform/restore govt as they are the only ones telling the ugly truth (lets just hope they will actually action it if they get in). So yes I guess I am hoping for a restore/reform govt as the least bad option. I think if not them, then it's the IMF and we lose control completely.

The solution does seem quite simple doesn't it. I agree close borders, slash benefits. I think we also need to deport anyone here illegally, stop benefits from anyone not here for say twenty years, spend more on defence. We also need better police with tougher laws to curb this lack of respect going on in society. We need jobs, careers and apprenticeships for youngsters and yes change the triple lock.

I think the answers are quite easy to write down. No govt wants to be Mr Unpopular so keeps lying and kicking can down road. So we wait.......

We always have our best growth the first quarter of the year and then it tends to flatline for the rest of the year. Between that and rising unemployment, political infighting and inflation as the lack of fertiliser comes through to food prices it is going to be a bumpy ride.

Yes bringing in more people when the country is already bursting just can't be the answer. We have more than enough people here. If every working age person was not on any benefits the economy would grow and taxes could be cut but raise more income. Then we pay down debt and invest in defence and police.

We don't need more people. We just need them all in jobs and off benefits. Benefits for working people is just the daftest idea. Not a single british person should be unemployed/claiming benefits if a single immigrant is being let in. We should only be letting people in if every single british person is employed first. If we don't have the skills, then flippin train them.

The thing is there is always going to be worldwide events which an individual govt has no control over. That isn't going to stop. Which is why we need reserves of money, a strong economy and lower debt to be able to withstand these events.

Agree!
But I also think that some of the changes since the 1970s meant we are less reliant on oil (though it is still extremely important and it is still hurting the economy) so the impact of the closing of the Hormuz strait isn't as bad as it could have been. That's also due to changes in the rest of the world as well. But so far there haven't been rolling power cuts, or queues at petrol stations. Touch wood.

It's like you don't notice if you drive down the road and there isn't a pothole because it was fixed the day before. And if you take statins you don't notice that you didn't have a heart attack on a particular day. We don't notice the things that insulate us from global shocks, just the ways we are exposed.