Welfare spending–Is Govt trying to goad me with letter on how my tax is spent?

[windygallows]

Received annual letter noting how much I’ve paid in tax and how that tax is divided (see pic). I understand the Tories started this practice a few years ago.

It’s useful to see how the money is spent and good to be informed but I can’t help thinking that the Tories done this just to showcase HOW much is spent on Welfare spending in order to reduce this.

Frankly I’m more concerned about (a) the amount we spend on debt - a huge amount and completely wasted money - and (b) how little is spent in the arts and culture (so depressing) and the environment.

Have others received a similar letter and what do they think?

I’ve found a few articles about this below but no opinion pieces, hence interested in people's thoughts- www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/tax/11204213/Voters-to-get-letters-showing-how-much-of-their-money-is-spent-on-benefits.html

This is interesting too - yougov.co.uk/news/2014/11/09/public-attitudes-tax-distribution/

I can't see what's goady about it.

It's entirely factual.

I despise the Tories but can't find fault with them here.

And sorry, just to add I'm not sure 'goad' was the best verb to choose for the headline. Perhaps 'agitate' or just 'get me angry and support the tories.'

Queen - I agree it's probably not 'goady' - bad use of words (it was just shorter than agitate) but interested to know why they've started such an expensive practice. Producing this document for each taxpayer and sending to each one is not cheap.

Yes, I got one too but didn't really read it.

I don't think it will agitate anyone. We need a welfare budget, people get sick and can't work, people get old, some people are simply unable to work for whatever reason.

I don't think it will bother anyone.

I think it’s very interesting and we should know where our hard earned tax is going

It would barely cost anything to send these letters out - the process is entirely automated

Why haven't you binned it, and got on with your day, like everyone else?

I find it very useful and think it's a good idea. Of course, people will have different opinions over where/how the govt spends our money but at least this gives them hard facts. It may well have been introduced for party political reasons but as long as the govt can't massage the figures I don't see the problem. Note that one of the tories key policies is to reduce spending so as to reduce the national debt. You've picked up on how much we're spending to service national debt but are still disappointed we don't spend more on the arts and that welfare is being targetted. We can't have our cake and eat it. We either cut spending somewhere, increase taxes or borrow more. It would be nice if they also provided us with figures showing how much tax is avoided/evaded by large corporates and the mega-rich but i suspect that would be open to a fair deal of subjectivity.

I think it is designed to misinform about welfare. The large amount of money shown in that chart for "welfare" is mostly on pensions. But pensions are not what the Tories are talking about when they say that welfare should be cut.

There would be space on that chart to write "welfare including pensions" if they wanted to, or to split them up.

TooTrue - we spend so little in the arts, I'd rather not cut further.

Candlelights - are you sure you are correct about where pensions are calculated? In this summary pensions are separated out and come in at 3rd largest spend.

Welfare covers pensions as well, which they often gloss over.

Pensions are clearly split out and separate from welfare though. People obviously read what they want to read with these things.

The state pension figure is separate, but I think pension credit is included in the welfare figure at the top.

TooTrue - we spend so little in the arts, I'd rather not cut further.

Well the arts are obviously important to you. For me, in terms of public spending, they are a nice-to-have and way down the list of priorities below welfare, education, pensions, health, defence etc etc. So if you want more spent on culture and the arts, where would you get the money from if it was your decision to make? Would you be happy to pay more tax, purely for the arts? Would you increase our debt and thus future debt interest payments or would you cut spending somewhere else? If so, where?

Pensions are clearly split out and separate from welfare though. People obviously read what they want to read with these things.

^State pensions are split out yes, however things like pension credits and similar are not and are shown under welfare.

The pension costs in total are higher than shown here and the welfare bill covers a large amount of different spending, not just out of work people of working age.

I think housing benefit is included in the welfare figure as well.

but as long as the govt can't massage the figures I don't see the problem.

Which, of course, they can - any government can (and almost certainly do) this.

For example, in welfare, they could include the cost of paying for hotels and meals for MPs.

The tax gap figure is out there and published by HMRC each year. Of course it is disputed by some commentators.

This shows a breakdown of what welfare spending is actually spent on (from the office of national statistics)

Nothing goady, you earn around £40k and have paid around 25% of your income into a pot that ensures you have access to free, good quality healthcare, schools for your children, if you lose your job tomorrow you have some benefits to fall back on, libraries and parks to access for free and the most vulnerable in our society are protected (the poor, the ill and the elderly).

As many have said, and as shown above, I remember the first year they sent these out that it then turned out 'welfare' included pensions (I thought pensions to teachers etc but perhaps I misunderstood?). Definitely sounds like massaging of figures to me. Also seems a massive waste of money when people can find out this online if they want to know.

I think the letter is a good starting point but doesn't really tell the whole truth. It does make it look like pension isn't included in the welfare.

Loud, very interesting to see that only 1% is allocated to unemployment benefits vs 18% for working tax credits and income support. People are working but still needing state support to afford the cost of living and receive a supplement to pay for housing on top. Bonkers!

Public sector pensions are indeed included in welfare spend. This gives a partial overview of what the various sections include, although not exhaustive www.gov.uk/government/publications/how-public-spending-was-calculated-in-your-tax-summary/how-public-spending-was-calculated-in-your-tax-summary (sorry can't seem to do a clickable link from my phone)

Public sector pensions are indeed included in welfare spend. This gives a partial overview of what the various sections include, although not exhaustive www.gov.uk/government/publications/how-public-spending-was-calculated-in-your-tax-summary/how-public-spending-was-calculated-in-your-tax-summary (sorry can't seem to do a clickable link from my phone)

Lady Penelope, indeed. To really understand these tax breakdown sheets the government send round would take an awful lot of time. I don't think they provide good clarity of what's included in each section at all (and I mean all not just welfare and pension ones)