To think that working people should get help too

[cantthinkofabetterusername]

I read today about another COL payment next year for people on benefits, pensioners etc. Now I completely agree that the most vulnerable in society need help and i don't begrudge them a penny. My AIBU is working people are struggling too! I work 30 hours a week, dp does 50 therefore we get no government help as we apparantley earn too much. In reality we're scraping by most months due to increasing bills and general cost of living, I'm aware I may come across as jealous, I'm not im just bloody frustrated that working people who don't get government help are seen by the government as not struggling

I agree. Where are the measures to improve productivity? My last post re. equalising things for single people and funding childcade properly like in most comparable European countries would be a good start. And massive investment in education (not the measly real-terms cut announced today as if we should praise it). And some significant financial incentives for businesses to invest in productivity gains. Or indeed invest in the UK at all given that investment has understandably dropped off a cliff since Brexit. Where is the push to rejoin the single market which would instantly increase productivity and the value or GDP and investment?

People would rather fight like rats in a sack than put pressure on their MPs to take the glaringly obvious steps to improve things. Which I suppose was precisely the intention.

Perhaps minimum wage needs to be raised so that less people in full time employment are reliant on benefits for topping up?

I have tried this and have started badgering my MP. He literally doesn’t care. I haven’t had one response. Not one.

Yep

I have tried this and have started badgering my MP. He literally doesn’t care. I haven’t had one response. Not one.

Same. But that's my point: not enough people are doing that. If everyone did, they absolutely would listen. They are very scared of an inbox full of angry constituents because it means they'll be out of a job.

It's depressing that so many people here would rather argue on the internet instead of doing this simple thing that would make a difference, if they all emailed their MP demanding the things I have suggested.

Everyone needs help but we are not going to get it. Now is the payback time for Covid cost and people wfh and on Covid leave saving their salaries and buying new sofas etc. Where did everyone think it was all going to come from? The money tree?

This line is constantly trotted out on here, but is there any evidence that these people are working full time? I expect that most aren't, but simply prefer to top up their wages with benefits.

When my children were young the Government introduced a new benefit that would top up low wages, but more importantly if you got that benefit you could get free prescriptions and free school meals. We earned about £10 per month too much. We were therefore amongst the poorest people in the country, and it was very hard, so I do sympathise. We had friends who came just under the threshold so received the benefit and were SO much better off than us. I sympathise with you, @cantthinkofabetterusername

This would mean being proactive and sensible and actually identifying themselves, instead of hiding behind their anonymity on MN to make outrageous, insulting, judgemental comments against the wrong people. They're not brave enough to be held accountable for their opinions to the actual people who caused the problems in the first place.

What about a template email for others to send to their MPs? Something constructive on this thread

They don't tend to listen to templates. If they receive tons of indentical emails they conclude - probably rightly - that the people sending them don't really care strongly enough about the issues to even write an email so it's unlikely to affect their vote.

The issues aren't complex to express, even as a bullet pointed list of demands. I've explained simple steps that can be taken to massively improve the situations in my few short posts here. If anybody cares enough about how awful things are and wants improvements, and clearly has time to write posts on Mumsnet without a template, then why couldn't they email their MP?

Even if just to say you need to:

*Tax incomes on a household basis
*Rejoin the single market
*Increase funding for universal childcare

And express anger that these obvious solutions to many problems have been ignored. It doesn't have to be complicated!

But what percentage of these people work full time?

Simply trotting out the line that 'many people on benefits work' is meaningless nonsense. Many may only be working one or two days per week,

I’m all for governments paying benefits to the sick, disabled and carers and have no problem with them increasing with inflation.
However, I think the idea of governments topping up wages is ridiculous. It stops people working more if they think they’ll lose benefits because of it and it means employers get away with paying lower wages than people deserve. I think the money spent on topping up wages by government should be redirected into (1) making childcare more affordable for parents and (2) into helping people train up to get better paying jobs. Education is too expensive if you’re trapped in low paid work.
Most people work because they get paid more than they would on benefits, but there isn’t much incentive to keep doing it if all your wage goes on paying to work and having nothing left for anything nice. I understand being angry at not getting handouts when it seems like everyone else is, but I think most of the anger should be directed at employers (and the government for letting them get away with it).

And the majority of the time this will be for good reason, ie childcare, disability etc.

I agree about the pensioner aspect. Next week my parents (in their early 70s) are going on their 3rd long haul guided tour holiday this year, never had a mortgage on their 4 bed detached house (in the rural north) and get "free" travel and TV licence. They still get the pension uplift, extra funding for fuel payments etc which they definitely do not need and would not apply for if you had to complete a form because they wouldn't think they deserved it due to their higher than average disposable income. Yet because it's just given to them directly via their bank accounts they take it because there isn't a way to opt out aside from donating the equivalent amount to charity.

I don't begrudge them as they both grew up on council estates, did well academically and subsequent careers so now want to enjoy their life whilst they can... Yet the cynic in me (and them) knows that they only get all of this extra "stuff" by default because the government thinks they will vote for them as they're old.

@Dontbelieveawordofit

Any evidence to back that up?

What about working pensioners, my state pension is part of my tax free allowance the extra 10.1% will mean that I will just pay more tax, I may not pay NI anymore but I pay more in tax alone than I did tax and NI combined when I was working age, my company announced today we will all be getting a 12% salary increase 5% from next month and 7% from next April but again as my tax free allowance is only £2,000 a year I will be paying more of it out in tax, I am not complaining in fact I realise just how lucky I am but I do resent all this nonsense about how young working age people are paying for me, yes they may pay for my pension but I spent 51 years paying for the generations above me, they are not doing any more than I did and my taxes also help pay for things that go towards working age people's needs and I have no problem with that either

You show me yours and I'll show you mine

It depends how much tax you paid over those 51 years. Without knowing what you were earning then or now it's impossible to know whether you coveref your own costs over your lifetime, let alone subsidised other people. This misconception that paying tax means you've paid for the state pension is nonsense. The vast majority of pensions paid nowhere near enough tax to have done that, let alone to have funded other people's too. Perhaps you are one of the few who did but given you're still working at state pension age, it seems unlikely.

That's not to say that you shouldn't receive it. I think everyone should receive a more generous state pension. However, this would entail everyone making contributions sufficient to cover their own withdrawals, not expecting other people to fund it for them then claiming they paid for it if they paid a few hundred pounds of tax per month over their working life.

@Dontbelieveawordofit

I'm not the one who made the statement

People on here keep saying that 'most people claiming benefits are in work'. I simply asked the question, what percentage are in full time work?

If you're making some random claim that most people have good reason not to be in full time work, then surely you should provide some evidence to back this up? No?

Otherwise you've just pulled this statement out of your arse.

As I say repeatedly more money should be taken from the super rich whose wealth hugely increased under covid. Standard of living is dropping for everyone else.

To add to above, capital gains tax should be increased to be in line with income tax too.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/oct/26/why-capital-gains-tax-reform-should-be-top-of-rishi-sunak-list-budget

Just one thing about benefits they have been frozen for a long time starting with Cameron and Osborne people on low incomes couldn’t take any more losses, but as said I know everyone is suffering except the v rich.

I work 37hours, above min wage and I’ve had 1 cost of living payment, another due end of this month. Pretty standard situation, don’t need evidence