To really resent the amount of tax we pay.

[KettleBelles]

I hate it, we pay a vast amount of tax to live in a country where we can't see a GP for a fortnight, feel criminalised every time we go to an airport, pay even more tax again to drive a car on inadequate and over crowded roads. Get squashed on crowded transport which is filthy and unreliable, where criminals seem to always be on the beneficial side of human rights.

I can't be the only one who feels like this?

We pay an obscene amount of tax but it's not great form to grumble because we pay so much because dh earns a fuck of a lot - so we're actually quite lucky. And we have lived in 4 different countries around the world and we made the decision to live in the UK because we like how things are done here.....and we have something to compare it to.
Would we like to pay a higher percentage of tax, no of course not, but if we did you still would never hear us moaning about it.

Jaded I appreciate that - wasn't necessarily thinking about extra needs within what I said but can see all that too

Not having children means I didn't consider any additional needs!

Those expenses are horrendous though, I think the current system and tax is excellent to give that additional support

I don't resent the amount of tax we pay but I very much resent some of the things it gets spent on.

Just this week we have received our quarterly Borough Bulletin. It's bollox - full of pictures of self-congratulatory Councillors "opening" flowerbeds on roundabouts etc. No useful information at all. What a waste of money.

We live opposite a shiny prep school with very smart signage advertising its presence. As I type I can see workmen putting up a Council sign which says SCHOOL. Why?

So much tax is wasted that is what I resent. From reading on here people with disabilities do not get enough help and more money should be spent in this area. If the government waste could be resolved people would not have to pay so much tax. Yes, I am happy to pay into the nhs but there is much abuse of the system which grates. There are plenty of reasons why I think paying tax is good even for things I will hopefully not have to use. It doesn't mean that it's not too much when housing costs are so high in the South East though.

Tax Credits allowed me to return to work as a single parent and establish my career and allowed me to support my little family
Tax payer funded NHS gave my daughter life saving treatment for five years

While you have every right to your opinion for are coming across as a whining idiot
YABU

With reguards to council tax I don't want more services for less I would just like to be paying less for the services we have or actually physically see more of what I am paying my council tax for. I guess as I get older I will use more of these services and when my children get older, but right now I can't see where it's going.

Yes, am I a teacher so I did realise my wages were coming out of council tax ( although not any longer as I work through agencies now)

At a national level I am ok with paying tax for things I don't currently use too much as I like having the buffer for when I do need it and I appreciate it a lot more for instance when I can take my ds to the doctors/hospital or myself at short notice for free.

I think it's a none argument if you moan about paying high rates of tax but aren't using the state run facilities. If you choose to put your child in private school and pay for private healthcare, that's fine, it's your choice but you have made the choice to opt out of it so you should not moan at paying taxes for something that is freely available to you if you want it.

Council tax only raises about 13% of what my council spends on services and benefits. The rest comes mostly from government grants.

It's not possible to opt out of using state run facilities. How do you opt out of the police? The court system? The prison system? Those things are keeping you safer. How can you individually opt out of that?

Nice backtrack Wantsunshine, because your first post didn't mention any of that did it?

I feel I pay too much tax and don't use many of the services.

I don't think I would ever use more than I have paid in.

I guess I would have to use the ambulance... police. I would have to use these almost daily to get out some money back I have put in.

I would love it if I just got something free for once.

As I said, full marks on the backtrack, I hope you've realised the above is the definition of selfish because your first post seemed to insinuate a rather different attitude than it's the amount of tax thats wasted i resent

I meant opt out of the nhs and schools. One poster was saying that they resent paying higher levels of tax because their children are in private schools and they have private healthcare so don't use these facilities.

Yes jaded I have... At St. John and Lizzie's...

We pay ALOT of tax. DC's go to private school (we couldn't get them into our choice of state school). We have private medical care., dental etc. We take v little from the state. I do begrudge it. Not to the extent that I would leave the country (we have lived in the US and Switzerland) . But I would happily pay more if I was happy with where it was going.

The tax rates themselves aren't horrendously bad (though not as low as some people would make out), its the wastage of money, the awfulness of public services and the cost of Council Tax that get to me. Along with the paying twice for some things - health, schools, some roads, etc.. Don't let me get started on the lack of vision in the planning system - does it work on a system of bribes? Although it is probably at the stage where I would say to DH its not worth him going for a promotion at work for 10k a year extra, as he will only see £5k of that in his pocket.

The UK isn't horrendous, but it certainly doesn't offer as high a standard of living as some European countries, such as Germany, The Netherlands and Belgium. Have you seen their roads and sports facilities over there? And their Council Tax is only about 500 Euros a year. My Dutch friend had cancer, and she was treated far more quickly for it than she would have been on the NHS. And in better standard hospitals.

I think we should admit we have a massive problem with the public sector in this country being bloated and not serving its citizens but itself. And then the glib marketing that pervades some parts of the private sector is just unbelievable.

I do honestly wonder if some people have ever been abroad to the rest of Europe, and not just Bulgaria on a cheap ski-ing holiday or Amsterdam on a hen night.

Cleoteacher- that was directed to those people who think they don't take much out because they use private health/ schools

I thank the nhs as this week it has saved my life.

With in an hour I was on a drip, bloods taken and told about what was going to happen.

I caused this myself as I had taken an intentional overdose.

I am happy with the amount of tax we pay. In theory, I take very little out of the system - no children, used nhs three times in the last two years, pay for prescriptions, never use public transport, never needed any form of benefits, never been a victim of crime.

However, in reality I do take from the system. I drive on roads which are maintained, my bins are collected, my education was free up to 18, I benefitted from cheap loans to support myself through uni, the police and army keep me safe when I travel on aeroplanes and when I went to the Olympics, the cost of prescriptions is nothing compared to their actual cost, the private doctor I saw was educated at a cost to the state.

I am glad that when my niece cut her head she was treated at a&e without her parents worrying about the cost, that my friend was able to escape DV to a council property (she literally left with two children and a few bin bags of clothes), that my gran had people to help her wash and dress when she suffered a stroke.

Of course there are problems with the state, and they should be addressed, but I'm not convinced that whinging 'it's not fair!' is going to solve anything. You don't like how your local council spends money? Then get involved, become a counsellor, make sure you vote in each and every election, whether local or national.

I think OP is getting - a poss unfair? - mighty overall kicking.

Thread does though serve to highlight the disparities in services (IE the quid pro quo for taxation) depending on where you live and am very of some of the posters here! It's impossible to get a GP appointment where I live for at least 2 weeks; even the last minute 'call in morning' ones are so few that you get engaged tone for 15-20 min of repeated calling only to then get through and be told 'they've all gone'.

Likewise schools, senior state schools where I live are shit at best and dangerous at worst, so DC in private schools (which is the one thing I SWORE I would never ever do as a parent, and I'm doing that at the same time as my taxes pay for state school places too).

Can't agree with the security bit tho, would rather get frisked down and delayed any day of the week than get caught in a terror attack (this bit of the OP seriously has me scratching my head?)

Jade we are now at about the max that we will ever pay for pensions. The reason is simple : demographics.
As the babyboomers are approaching 65~75yo, they are basically dying and there are less and less of them.
Add another 10~15 years when people from my generation (ie the children from the babyboomers) will get retired and we won't be paying as much in pensions (babyboomers have had less children overall so there will be less pensioners coming in, lots of the babyboomers will have died. That's why btw the population in the UK is aging too)
That and the fact that final pensions will be more or less inexistent.

So it's not as if 'If we carry on like this, we will never be able to pay SOOOOO much for a pension'. It's more of a 'wait another 10 years and tings will have settle down a hell of a lot'.
But if the mean time, the governement has managed to convinced everyone that it's impossible to pay so much pension and the number of pensioners has gone down (so less voters!), then we will end up having hardly no pension at all and less pensioners...

Having lived in other countries, I would say that taxes are probably on part with plenty of other european countries.
Overall, roads aren't in great conditions (holes, lack of motorways, esp where I live in the North etc...).
NHS has been run down to nothing. Yes it DOES take 2 weeks to get an appointment unless it's urgent and for a child.
Schools... well the UK has gone down the ranking again re education.
The benefit system is dire compared to other countries.

It's the value for money that I have an issue with.
It's the fact that if you suddenly get ill/disabled/caring for a relative/have a child with SN/are in one of those less privileged part of the society, then you are completely let down by the system.
It's the fact that hospitals now have reduced the care to patients to the minimum.
It's the fact that pensioners, who have always been told they would be cared for by the 'State' thanks to their contributions to the pensions have now little to live on.
There is A LOT of waste in the system and yes some countries are much much better at it.

As far as I'm concerned, the UK is very surely going towards a system very similar than the one in the US. The one that most people on here have said is absolutely horrible ....

It's also the fact that if you live 'Up North' then you get less for your money than if you live 'Down South'.

Since when where you are living in the country should have an impact on how much support from the State you are getting

TheFriar

Wages are, on average, higher "down south" meaning that those that live there pay in more tax than those "up north" anyway... So proportionally it works out the same