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 true that the pension for older people is less but, if it is your only source of income, Pension Credit will top it up to within a couple of pounds of the newer pension. Plus it entitles you to things like Council Tax reduction, Warm Homes allowance, free dental care, etc. I was originally pleased when I got my notification that I qualified for the full pension but think now l would be better off - slightly - if I didn't. Not that you're going to be well off whether you get the new pension or the old, or whether you get Pension Credit or not.

The Tories have cunningly turned this into a young-vs-old issue. I saw Norman Lamont going on about it on the news today. Really, it's us-vs-them - it's rich-vs-poor. When they say that there are going to be hard decisions, I can guarantee it won't be hard for them or their backers. The lower you are on the ladder, the more you will feel the pain.

His pension is made up of the Basic State Pension of around £141, the rest is extra due to him paying a bit extra National Insurance to benefit from SERPS etc.

My husband gets some extra due to SERPS. I was merely pointing out that state pensions for those retiring more recently are over £40 a week more.

Have you not applied for DLA? If you apply for DLA and are successful the income threshold for UC is often higher than many imagine when there are disabled DC, especially as you also rent. DH earns a good wage, but we would be eligible for UC if we didn’t have savings because of disabled DC and we wouldn’t have a rent element.

Also have you applied for grants? Many of them for things like days out/holidays, tech don’t require a diagnosis as they are based on need.

Only read first 2 pages so forgive Me if this came up already...
Why can't the government raise the tax bracket overall from bottom up ? That way almost everyone benefits . .. lower income and higher income benefits up to say 150 or 200k and then you won't benefit anymore ? Raising the threshold by an amount - I'm not sure by how much but let's say 5k ? And then to fund the gap get the damn companies like amazing Google etc that avoid paying tax here to do the right thing.
I've never understood why the answer is always to tax people doing a bit better for themselves but by no means 'rich' all the time while the super rich don't feel it ever.
The tax thresholds are ancient and in no wag reflect reality. This way you will get a big proportion of people holding onto money they make - instead of just making the shortfall up again in benefits. Not sure I'm explaining it well bug hopefully you get the drift.....
I don't see how dragging everyone down further is a solution - rather raise everyone up a bit and tax where there is clearly only shareholder greed at play😏

100% agree with you OP. There’s a lot of lower middle class people struggling. And they’re the ones who are never looked after, by either Labour or Tory.

We get low rate care for hyper mobile child - but still pending more diagnosis for the 8 year old - ASD/add and fragile x so may increase the amount but not yet - 12 year Old waiting a high functioning adhd assessment and can claim but not until medication has been listed and given.

thanks about the grants I had never heard about these or the UC I did apply previously and they refused - but I’ll try again - thank you so much something to look into x

DLA is based on needs rather than diagnosis, so you can apply for DC1 now, and can ask for a change of circumstances for DC2 if you think they fulfil the criteria for a higher rate &/or the mobility element.

When calculating whether you are eligible for UC you would get the disabled child element for DC2, but you wouldn’t for DC1 without DLA, and you wouldn’t get the the carer elements either.

There are several grants out there for days out/holidays, tech etc. depending on your specific circumstances e.g. merlin’s magic wand. It’s well worth looking in to.

We’re definitely in the ‘middle’ and feeling squeezed every day. Toddler and baby so childcare costs are ridiculous. Mortgage and energy and now higher taxes. Combined income is about £100k (both work full time) BUT this does not protect us from raising costs. Haven’t had a pay rise in 3 years. We get no help at all from the govt. feeling very exposed.

I think the borderline for benefits and help needs to rise considerably.

l bet Rishi and Jeremy aren’t even thinking about it.

A household is only entitled to 15 funded hours childcare (not 30) if a single incone is under £100,000.

I only know this because a colleague told me they weren't entitled to 30 hours (because their DW earnt over this).

I mean over £100k obviously!

Completely agree..... i know many people whose children have left home, single & with salaries in the low 20k's and get nothing at all, they really struggle.

but again, how is it affordable?

..... I'd have a wealth tax of the UK's 171 billionaires, with a combined wealth of almost 600 billion..

Pensions relief costs the UK around 43 billion, why is it given to higher rate tax payers?

No, they wont be thinking about any of this.

This I totally agree with. It’s the people that make millions that dont pay their tax through some tax loophole that need to pay up not ordinary hardworking people.

I wonder if people stopped spending the government would soon take note. During COVID they were desperate to get us back on the High street. I know people are feeling the pinch but they're still spending. If we all stopped it would affect things more and make government listen. At the moment we're all struggling but retail isn't being affected . I think if it was there'd be a panic and an urgency to sort it out.

You only hey child benefit if you earn under £60K - two people can earn £50K and get it. One person can earn £60K in a couple and neither get it.

Payrise for NHS workers now! There's 1.2 million of us on a rubbish wage struggling, I'm so tired of working overtime to make ends meet.

‘It's not going to be popular but I think older people have to contribute more the healthcare, perhaps a charge on the house.
I don't think it's fair for younger generations to pay more & more tax for a lower standard of living’.

Older people have ALREADY contributed. And their standard of living was almost certainly much lower than yours has been. Don’t fall into this trap of blaming others - migrants, Boomers, whatever, for years of crap government policy. It’s evil.

@Loubelou14 I strongly suspect retail is already feeling the pinch due to the volume of discount codes/sale offers that I am being emailed every day. One retailer that I have been buying from for a number of years, has sent me two discount codes in a month. They have never done that previously.

I wonder if people stopped spending the government would soon take note.

Well I have! I have spare money now but I don’t know if we will come April so all non-essential spending has stopped. I can’t risk it when the future is so uncertain.

@OldMam you are right. I think back to bathing once a week as a child, flannel wash other days. Few people had cars, or central heating. Food was mainly home cooked and plain, ‘snacks’ were perhaps a packet of crisps or some sweets once a week. And as I’ve already said, basic rate income tax was 33%.

Houses were more affordable, but little else was. Mortgages were hard to get, and I don’t think we ever paid less than 8% interest. 15% at one point.

It would help if HMRC chased the very rich who avoid paying tax, especially the non dom status should at least be tightened up

@Seymour5 One building society has said that today’s 6% rates are equivalent to 25% in 1980:

www.estateagenttoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2022/10/6-mortgage-rates-are-equivalent-to-25-in-1980-lender-claims

@OldMam they paid for the people that had already retired when they were working. That’s what their contributions were used for. The problem is now that we have an ageing population so there are not enough people working and paying tax to cover the pensions, health and social care for the number of older people today. When you then factor in the huge cost of houses which is, at least in part, due to demand outstripping supply - people living longer do add to this problem - then it is a complete mess.

Nhs nurse get uk average ( median) salary

It's not just nurses who are struggling