to think that it's appalling that society has come to this

[floraloctopus]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-48119099

The school is described as the 4th emergency service (yes, I know that's the coastguard/lifeboats) as they are providing a food bank service, helping get rid of head lice, running training courses on cooking on a budget, meanwhile they are having to make staff redundant because of budgets.

It shouldn't be like this, children and families are suffering whilst the rich get richer thanks to the government policies which take from the poor and give to the rich.

Umm, well I know ofd someone who is shall we say in need but she still manages to run a car, latest iphone and other tech, goes on hollday abroad at least once a year and yet still calls on the food bank!

You sound like an old friend of mine who knows of someone who makes over £30k a year begging on the streets of London.

People make things up/misrepresent things or misinterpret them then they get passed on as Chinese whispers. Don't believe that what you hear is always the truth.

The top 1% of earners income pay 28% of all income tax

FTFY. You can't earn that level of income. A footballer or a chief exec doesn't deserve that amount. They may be that rich through competence and hard work (though many aren't) but mostly it is luck.

That doesn't mean that capitalism doesn't work (it does) or that we shouldn't praise and reward success (we should). We also need a tax system which squeezes as much as we reasonably can from the rich and, more importantly, focuses spending on creating an equal society and stopping inequality reaching the harmful levels we are seeing now.

When societies become very unequal and when social mobility stops (as is happening) then the poor stop putting up with it and a reaction occurs which is much worse for the rich than just contributing fairly (and often bad for everyone).

I’m sure that if the individual finances/circumstances & budgets of parents at this school were analysed in detail, it would be found that they had plenty of money to care for and feed their families. Cooking from scratch is rarely taught in schools, so expensive takeaways & fast food seem appealing. Many of these parents will think that owning the latest phone, a TV subscription and a couple of bottles of vodka a week (and drugs) are a right to be paid out of their benefits.

Justaboy for every 1 person you know who lives like that I can show you at least 20 children I have personally known whose only meal is the free one they get at school. They literally starve during summer hols.

It shouldn't be like this, children and families are suffering whilst the rich get richer thanks to the government policies which take from the poor and give to the rich.

How do the government take from the poor and give to the rich ? Poorer people probably take more out fo the system than they put in taxes e.g. school fees; NHS.

the opposite is true, the government takes from the more privileged and rightly helps the poorer.

Hear, hear @donquixotedelamancha (even though as a rabid socialist, I don't necessarily agree that capitalism works, I 100% agree with everything else you said and couldn't have said it better myself).

The head sounds lovely and the situation sounds awful

The top 1% of earners pay 28% of all income tax and pay more of it than the bottom 50%

As far as I know the top 1 % earn more than 95% of the amount being earned or something along those lines and on that basis they should be paying more than 28 %.

or parents not knowing how to cook

It is help with cooking food on the pittance not just "how to cook".

Speckledhen10

Many of these parents will think that owning the latest phone, a TV subscription and a couple of bottles of vodka a week (and drugs) are a right to be paid out of their benefits.

What an ignorant post. Just because they are poor or unemployed they are drug addicts and drinkers? It would be difficult these days for anyone to live without a phone so making out it's some fancy gadget is ridiculous.

I don't think that this article is about the government not collecting enough income tax. Since Labour left government the top rate of income tax has gone up from 40% to 50% then back down to 45%; those earning over £100,000K have started losing their tax free allowance, making their effective tax rate over 60%; the tax free allowance has increased for those earning under that has increased considerably.

It is about the fact that a lot of people are struggling with the cost of living, which has gone up hugely while pay and job opportunities have largely stagnated. The poorest are the most vulnerable when price increases outstrip wage growth. Benefits can plug the gap, but most people in employment would rather stand on their own two feet and feel that they are worthy of a wage that is sufficiently high to cover the cost of living, rather than being dependent on government support. The official inflation figures don't seem to reflect the lived experiences of people trying to make ends meet. It is a serious problem.

NHS funding is a completely different thing from the problems raised in this article, but it is equally serious. Our NHS needs a c.5% increase in income every year just to tread water. It needs considerably more than that to respond properly to its ever increasing remit. As a country, we should be talking about what it means to fund all health and social care through taxation verses funding a narrower range of medical care. Are enough tax payers who are net contributors to the Treasury willing to pay the taxes that a comprehensive NHS requires? Or will those increased tax rates cause a reduction in actual tax take as high income jobs move overseas?

donquixotedelamancha

......so what would you consider to be a acceptable maximum salary?

It is always children that the tories target with their cuts. My late dh's national insurance contributions would have been converted to Widowed Parents' Allowance until 2017 until my children left school, as he will never benefit from his national insurance contributions via a state pension. Instead a token amount is paid for only 18 months and all the rest is withheld by the government. Probably to be put towards a bung to the DUP or No deal brexit preparations or perhaps heating benefit/TV licence/free transport for a millionaire pensioner somewhere.

@Backwoodsgirl you didn't ask me, but the highest earner in any company shouldn't be paid more than a reasonable multiple (10x is a good start) of the lowest paid, bonuses included. 100% inheritance tax with exceptions for adult children who need support due to disability. Massive taxes on capital gains. Massive taxes on any form of wealth hoarding, second homes, etc. Lots of good ways to address systemic inequality but that's a start.

I'm happy for pensioners in need to get help, but i agree with this report

www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-politics-48046595

YANBU. Appalling, shameful state of affairs. It makes me embarrassed to be British, quite honestly. On the other hand, big, big kudos to the headteacher, what a fantastic human being.

Oh, and everything that donquixote said.

Yeah like Surestart and youth clubs are gonna stop county lines. Some people live in a stupid bubble and have no contact with reality.

The real social problem is the unfair distribution of wealth. Nothing involving the taxation of income can ever really address that. We need taxation of wealth otherwise nothing meaningful will ever change.

Completely agree Snuffalo. I’d just ban owning more than 2 homes outright. Cap on how much house prices can rise by. If it wasn’t for the inequality in the size and standard of housing across the country I’d support nationalising all housing

The EU were joining together to crack down on rich tax avoiders. No wonder certain people were desperate to leave the EU.

@HomeMadeMadness

My family is high earning and I'd happily pay more tax than I do

What’s stopping you paying more now? You can easily make additional voluntary payments if that’s the way you feel.

Put your money where your mouth is.

even though as a rabid socialist, I don't necessarily agree that capitalism works

It is by far the most efficient system we have for distributing goods except collective goods and goods with poor market information or high barriers to entry.

We need the right system for the right goods:

• Coffee (personal good, low barrier to entry, easy to get good market info): Capitalism works great; state run starbucks would be madness.

• Parks (collective good, expensive to build, hard to shop around): State run is best; private parks would be madness

• House buying (personal good, very hard to get good market info and only bought very rarely): strictly regulated free market works best

To fetishise capitalism as a goal in itself is nuts, but so is thinking the system itself can't work at all. (ends rant :-)

Too right, TheColonel.

The question 'who benefits?' is always the best one to ask when wondering why an agenda is being pushed.

I do agree that this is awful and from what I’ve heard about UC a terrible scheme affecting the poorest and most vulnerable in society.

I do think that many families would benefit from being taught how to cook from scratch and how to budget. Cooking from scratch is far cheaper than ready meals/takeaways and whilst not the solution may help.

@Snuffalo Ok, I feel The socialism oozing out of your post. Wouldn’t that just make everyone equally poor as the rich leave the country. What would be the incentive to better yourself?

As you may have guessed I am at the other end of the chain (libertarian.....tax is theft)

@donquixotedelamancha I'm a Socialist, not a Communist, a regulated free market for consumer goods and some services (like haircuts and dog walking but not health care) is fine. Big-C Capitalism - low/no taxation, unregulated markets, privately owned public services, etc. is what doesn't work (at least not for anyone other than the most wealthy). I'm confident we agree more than we disagree here.

@backwoodsgirl fair enough, I don't discuss anything more intellectually taxing than the weather with 'libertarians' as it's a political philosophy for children.