This may be unpopular - but what about the squeezed middle?

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They are talking about raising taxes on the average person now. Which will really effect lower middle class families who are already feeling the pinch due to increases in cost of food, gas and electic, increasing childcare costs and rent or morgage increases. They are going to increase pensions and benefits with inflation but lots of middle class earners are not having their wages increased with inflation but will now have their taxes increased. What about help for the middle class, especially lower middle class and working class who earn slightly to much to qualify for any help but will now stuggle with all these increases.

It's alright, you can switch off your sneer setting.

It just all seems a bit vague and unsourced. Hunt may not even be chancellor by teatime.

@PigletJohn thats not what a net tax contributor is
Most of us will never pay enough tax to cover what its costs
I.e you have kids , therefore nhs care, education etc etc

Economic modelling isn't the same as modelling an unknown new virus though is it?
Was thatcher wrong to want the UK in the Single Market?

Brexit caused gilt yields to rise (we know all know how important they are) slowed foreign investment, reduced trade amounts.

This all has an economic cost, even Steve Baker of the ERG says we got it wrong with our negotiating stance with the EU.
Lord David Frost admitted on R4's Political Thinking, that Brexit has cost the UK but he thought it worth doing as we have "sovereignty"

BTW pre 2016 he was an ardent Remainer.

Two thirds of our population are overweight or obese. That is not sustainable. You can’t stop people growing old but you can work to help people become more responsible for their own health when they’re young. This includes better menopause care to limit osteoporosis.

Great idea. But I don't think it works in practice. Didn't the government start a campaign to bring down obesity rates during covid once it was found that overweight people were more likely to suffer badly? The vast majority of people that I know (old and young) know what a healthy lifestyle involves but very few can actually be arsed doing it. Most people live for today and don't plan for possible problems in the future. Which means that the NHS is pretty fucked.

If only we had put a pot aside out of peoples taxes over the years for pensions

Then the conclusions @Magn draws are not explained.

You then need more migrants to fund the previous migrants pensions and healthcare. More housing and more schools. Moving the problem forward for our great grandchildren to solve. Kicking the can down the road is what we are best at.

You're completely missing the point that we aren't going to see such a bulge again & there needs to be a softer landing. The school population is sent to shrink by almost 1m, 1 million in the next 10 yrs!!

@PigletJohn she mentioned net contribution. That’s what net contribution means.

If only we had put a pot aside out of peoples taxes over the years for pensions

you pay for those above you, that's the system.

The better way is to give out temporary work visas so they will mostly go home before really needing to use the health system.

free prescriptions over 60 won't be around much longer

Didn't the government start a campaign to bring down obesity rates during covid once it was found that overweight people were more likely to suffer badly?

Yes it did and people complained it was too ‘nanny state’. But with 2/3rds of the population in the category they’re targeting, you can understand why people were against it. So what do they do? People don’t want to be told they’re too fat and lazy and we cannot afford for them to carry on that way, we can’t afford to pay their health costs forever. We have to try better incentives. The campaign they started was piss poor, incentives work better than taxing sugar and removing junk food ads. Covid was enough of an incentive for my DH, he’s dropped so much weight. I just wonder why everyone else was afraid enough to stay indoors but not scared enough to lose weight.

Not in East Asia! Demographic decline without the large scale immigration. But they are healthier to begin with … and lean on family for support

You then need more migrants to fund the previous migrants pensions and healthcare. More housing and more schools. Moving the problem forward for our great grandchildren to solve. Kicking the can down the road is what we are best at.

Yes - it a slower decline meaning tax burden is spread out over more people and possible several generations. It's not a hard concept to grasp - still a decline but over a longer period.

Also not sure about the more schools - as number of children is in steep decline and has been for decades and most immigrants tend to follow the native population and decline in number of children as children tend to be expensive and they have the same pressure against large families.

More housing been needed for decades - and in next 12-15 years population bulge of after war years will start to die off and suggestion are that it will happen in such significant numbers it will act as a 2% decline in house prices a year as supply starts to increase.

@MintyFreshOne Japan has put in policies to plan for it, China are unsuccessfully trying to raise birth rates.

Why is the country in the state it is?

Because every problem leads to a bunch of judgemental pillocks slagging off others, often for things beyond their control.

Obesity is more often found in wealthy men and poor women, slim poor men and rich skinny women are also often recorded. Many people with a an enviable BMI are not very healthy at all - lots of heart disease in some slim, vegetarian ethnic groups.

We need to reduce friction in our society, why are there so few council-run childcare options to enable those who would like to work more to be able to? Why is public transport in rural areas so appalling? What impact do zero-hour contracts have on GP appointments not being affordable? Why are every new hospital and school designed afresh rather than to tried and tested specifications?

Lots of elements of the 'way things are' that those affected could (and perhaps have) be re-designed.

Does squabbling over 'who gets more than me' put MPs under more scrutiny or less?

That’s insane that half the welfare budget is spent on state pensions to some very wealthy people. I would change all public sector pensions to dc schemes too.

Absolutely. By middle I mean a family where both adults work, one higher rate tax payer (40%), supporting children at university. We sacrifice luxuries to support our children and take nothing out. My son is at a top university and is one of the poorest students there. Those with parents on low incomes get lots of help from the uni and those at the top get lots from parents. His partner who is from a low income family will have saved 10000 by the end of the three years!

The better way is to give out temporary work visas so they will mostly go home before really needing to use the health system.

True but whether we'd get people to come and work with that - as frankly many countries will be wanting workers in future so UK will probably have to compete for them even more than now.

Resources need to be allocated. NHS and schools desperately need more - it has to come from somewhere.

Excellent post - a vast improvement on all the sneering.

They'll squeeze it til it pops. And those who can leave will go.

You do realise those govt pension pots are actually used in the present to fund healthcare, social care, education, bail outs, etc. It's not left to sit in a bank somewhere.
As for private pensions, these are invested and re-invested and are very much subject to market forces (as we learned very recently!)
So when people get older, they aren't actually drawing the money they paid in taxes and NI, they are drawing on the taxes/NI paid by younger generations at that time.

This is my understanding, anyway. Someone please correct me if I am wrong about this.

Doubt those plans will happen as the people are quite hostile to foreigners and generally push back against the anemic plans brought forth every now and again by the government. Just my experience tho

True but whether we'd get people to come and work with that - as frankly many countries will be wanting workers in future so UK will probably have to compete for them even more than now.

yep & what will our marketing strategy be, come & work here, you'll get high taxes & high COL but please come 😆