What could Andy Burnham do as PM to improve daily life?

[Seasidecatlady]

There are some negative threads about Andy Burnham this morning so I wanted to have something a bit more positive and look at what he could do, if he becomes PM, to help improve our daily lives.

For me it would be:

• re-nationalise water and utility companies and trains
• reverse the national insurance hike for businesses so they can start hiring again and do more to support small businesses in general
• a one off wealth tax to add funding to the defence budget
• reform the student loans system, improve access to apprenticeship and also do more to help job seekers over 50.

But I did pay in, I get what you are saying, I paid for the pensioners of the day. But I paid it, are you suggesting I see nothing for that? Private pensions are paid for, they are not handed out for free. My private pension was compulsory and was deducted from my salary.

What's your justification for those of us in the private sector who've both 1) paid national insurance and income taxes, and 2) saved for our own private pensions, not getting the state pension ?

And do you still think public sector workers on defined benefits (final/average salary) pensions - funded by tax payers - should get state pension ?

Put together a sustainable long-term funding plan for the NHS and stick to it. In the short-term, this would reduce the backlog of cases and replace the small minority of hospital buildings which are in an extremely poor condition. In the long-term, the NHS would be able to make efficiency savings by undertaking more preventative work and reducing reliance on staffing agencies.

Put together a sustainable long-term funding plan for social care and stick to it. Expecting local authorities to fund this from council tax and business rates and other local charges is unrealistic - the sums just don't add up. Bring more care provision in house.

Bite the bullet with the NHS, it is never going to be sustainable in it's current form. We have to start paying for some of the services at the point we receive them. I would happily pay to see a GP rather than wait weeks to see some nurse who is not qualified. As a nation we have to realise that there is a limit to what the state can fund especially due to our population size.

Bin off HS2.

Not all water companies are paying lots of money to their shareholders currently. They send comms out to customers about this but customers don’t read them.

It’s not just about debt, it’s about money for investment. Improvement takes time. Renationalisation is likely to reduce funds but also reduce worker numbers, meaning infrastructure improvements and also people behind the scenes working on process improvement will reduce and improvements will take longer.

Also i wouldn’t trust the government to run our water companies tbh, considering the sorry state of the NHS, which is by far one of the most disorganised and behind the times with tech and infrastructure organisations i’ve encountered.

You didn't pay enough. That's the problem. People pay in enough to fund around 7 years of pension after retirement. But people are now living longer, Much longer. And therefore receiving far more pension.

I'd rather we actually invested in some infrastructure.

Well said.

So very true!

We know that, thats semantics though. Because the social contract we have with government is that our taxes and NI contributions fund particular things and those things also apply to you once you retire.

People like to say this as some sort of 'gotcha' that Im not paying for my 'personal' pension when I retire. Of course not, just like Im not paying for my 'personal' GP appointment, or 'personal' state school place for my child, or any number of things I get as part of that social contract.

Progressive taxation on wealth rather than income.

This would be political suicide, for obvious reasons.

Well that's tough, I worked non stop from 16 to my retirement at which time I got shafted as I am a WASPI, I am fucked if I am going to give any more.

My ideas are very everyday really. Sort out pavement parking. Do something about noise pollution. Bring dog licensing and dog wardens back.

On more serious national issues, I'd reverse the reduction in the NI threshold, I think that was a mistake. And the priority has to be getting youngsters into work. Also sort out university funding and the tuition fee system. I'd just do away with it and charge graduates a higher tax rate. There's some unfairness there where some plumbers earn more than some teachers but nothing will ever be 100% fair.

Ultimately do people want better public services? If so, they have to pay more tax. It's that simple.

Also stop playing around the edges and sort out a better relationship with the EU.

On pensions - they are already effectively means tested as higher pension receivers pay tax.

Change the chancellor of exchequer. Rachel Reeves is the worst WORST one we’ve ever had. No one seems to be holding her to account with anything yet her moves with the economy is ruining it all for us all

Nothing. He’s useless. Would rather see Corbyn and I despise him

I agree, she’s woeful. But the other likely candidates (Millipede, tax-dodging Rayner or fuck knows what other third-rate earnest idealogue with sixth-form leftist views) make her look statesmanlike.

This.

Yup, she's got to be the next to be sacked once Starmer is removed. She's hopeless and isn't getting better. I knew she was hopeless when I saw her speak in Parliament about Rishi's exclusion of 3 million self employed/freelancers during covid - she hadn't a clue and clearly hadn't bothered to research the facts & reasons of the exclusions as she meekly accepted Rishi's lies and couldn't challenge them because she'd not done any homework about it. Raising NIC AND reducing the threshold were two of the dumbest things anyone could do when we need to grow the economy!

Straight out of the Labour "handbook of stupidity" like when Brown brought in lower corporation tax rates for small limited companies and his paymaster general said, in Parliament, that she didn't think small sole trader businesses would convert to Limited companies "just to save tax". Closely followed by literally hundreds of thousands of sole traders converting to limited companies, such as window cleaners etc. Duh! What planet are they on??

Raise the personal tax allowance from 12570 to 25k, namely minimum wage. Living on minimum wage, particularly in London, is barely doable. Pay for this in part by making child benefit means tested. Utter lunacy that the rich can claim it.

Child benefit has been means tested for over a decade.

I actually think Brown was right (for once) when he brought in the 10% starting rate of income tax. Trouble was he U-turned on it after a couple of years.

I'd far rather we had no tax free personal allowance but instead had a very low "starter rate" of maybe 5% on the first £12k, then, say, 10% on the next £12k, then 20% then 30% then 40%, to reduce the disincentives to earn more, and at the same time, eliminate all the tax/benefit cliff edges.

Having relatively high tax free allowance such as £25k would invoke "behavioural" changes for people to keep their earnings under £25k so as not to pay any tax. This kind of behaviour is very real, even if sometimes illogical. We've had a couple of decades of politicians giving "tax free" incentives sending the message that it's good not to pay tax. That has to stop. We need to make work pay, and that means a complete reform of the tax/benefits system to remove all the psychological barriers that cause some people to work/earn less.

Jumps form 0% to 20% to 40% to 60% are a real barrier, even though they're "marginal" rates - they're still a barrier as lots of people don't understand that, and many of those that do, still don't want to pay high marginal tax rates often combined with loss of benefits to magnify their "loss".

More people need to pay tax, not less. Child benefit is semi means tested.

No, but the fact is you pay in for the here and now. You're paying for access to GPs at the moment, it's not guaranteeing that the access will still be there in 25 years. Just as with pensions you pay into the system in the here and now. Nothing is promised in the future. I fully expect the state pension to be means-tested at some point in the next 20 years, and I wont be saying "but I paid in" because I understand that tax and National Insurance pay for for the present. Things change. The demographics have changed, pensioners are receiving much more than they ever paid in, and yet many of them are sitting on hefty private pensions.