AIBU to wonder what on earth the government is doing with our money?

[Lapland123]

So we have higher taxes than ever

yet we have all public services at an all time low, with everyone involved striking due to poor pay, which is causing a vicious circle in terms of recruitment of new staff and retention of existing staff

Teachers, firefighters, criminal law barristers, doctors, nurses, university staff etc all striking

What on earth has the government done with all the money we give them?

Aside from the blatant theft such as the PPE scandal, how are they draining the taxpayers money?

Because the one thing we are sure is that it isn’t reaching the workers delivering public services we all need.

HMRC make it very clear where the tax I pay goes tbh

@ChorltonWheelie yes! That's what I was referring to a few posts below you.

It is clear to me where my taxes are going assuming the document is accurate (which is a whole different discussion).

The NHS absorbs a lot - £180 billion in the last year alone.

And do you trust that the government are working in step with HMRC to accurately document all of their spending?

Lining their pockets and those of their cronies!

Throwing large number around is all well and good, but we spend less per person on healthcare than something like 17 other countries. And despite that lower spending we have better outcomes in some areas than countries that spend a lot more, which is testament to our great NHS.

If you asked many people they'd say we spend more than any other country, when the truth is we get remarkable value for our relatively low per capita spend.

Spaffing it all up the wall I suspect.

This is classic MN ‘.what-aboutery’. I am a liberal before I’m accused of being a Tory but the thread is about income and expenditure of taxation, not value to the system.

A simply huge amount went in furlough payments, and in the resulting drop in GDP. Add in all the extra cost of covid care/resource to a system that was already at capacity.

We're spending a lot on defence at the moment helping Ukraine which sadly I think is necessary. And other defence, social & nhs commitments made previously.

Cost of living payments as a result of the oil price.

I earn over 50k and yet I am only just a net contributor in financial terms. So there are a lot of people below that level. We all contribute in different ways but in purely fiscal terms there is a lot to pay for

That we spend 7.6% of income on debt interest is depressing. Such a drag on everyone's quality of life.

People being taxed IS value to the system.

Not really - it's not a credit card, and we get back much more from that borrowing than it costs us.
The Tories have done a good number making everyone think it's like getting a loan from the bank when it really isn't.
It's a great technique to deflect people's thinking away from their corruption and incompetence.
Very few nations exist without theoretical debt of this kind.

Did you know France spent more than us on furlough?

Their GDP didn't drop like ours did. Their inflation didn't fly up as far as ours.

What have they done right that we didn't?

@MaryMcCarthy you're changing the goalposts now. OP was asking what the government spend our taxes on, and seemed to be under the impression that it wasn't possible to find out.

Whether that information can be trusted is a different matter and a different thread but the 'whataboutery' on this thread suggests there is a lot of assumptions and shooting from the hip going on.

I am no fan of our government but it's unfair to throw accusations at them like "no one can tell me where my taxes go" or "that document isn't accurate" without having even a basic knowledge of the subject.

How specifically are debt interest payments a drag on your quality of life?

Do you see the national finances like a household budget? You need to get away from that simplistic school of thought. It doesn't correlate with reality.

I can see your thought process here, but it might help you to do a bit of research into this. It isn't like a bank loan.

I have a basic knowledge of the subject. It's possible to find out the top level figures via fairly rudimentary statistics.

My point was it would be absurd and naive to kid yourself into thinking you know where every single penny of tax revenues go. Of course you don't.

Those ‘rich old people’ will be paying income tax on their pensions. Lots of ‘not rich’ pensioners also pay income tax. As a not rich pensioner no longer paying income tax, I’m more bothered about the lack of work ethic that has become more widespread during my lifetime, and about the absentee parents (mainly fathers) who leave the rest of us to support their children.

@babyroobs I get what you mean.

If those old people paid their NI as per the government contract at the time, then they are entitled to their pensions.

Ageism won't change that. My dm had a pension from my df that I will never equal, but they both fought a world war, and dm was required to give up her job when she married. She wasn't allowed to attend university. Her ability to provide for herself was intentionally restricted.

I have no right to say she didn't deserve her pension. She lived through a different age.

Every time a politician talks about change annoys me. Usually it tinkers with something with lots of rules and exceptions. So the complexity and therefore cost to the government, but also companies and individuals is massive. Usually for little gain.

I have worked in the civil service and seen this from the inside.

Get the basics right and stop messing about!

The public sector has grown significantly over the past few years. You may not think they get paid enough, but there's a whole lot more of them to pay than there used to be. More and more people are getting additional help too e.g. energy bills etc. I'm not saying this is wrong, but it has to be paid for somehow.

It is the private sector that is creating the 'wealth' to pay for this. Without the wealth-generating part of the economy, there would be no money for any public sector spending. And the incentive for the private sector to create wealth is to get some of that wealth for themselves.

Lack of work ethic???? The unemployment rate is at its lowest since 1974.
Or were you talking about the politicians, sorry....

They are absolutely entitled to their pensions.

That doesn't change that it's where a sizable chunk of the government budget goes (more so than Brexit or Furlough for example), which is the question OP asked.

An awful lot of money seems to get spent on the fact that so many seem to be unable to sort their own lives out/don't see why they should.

Benefits, social services because people won't raise their kids, courts because people can't sort out their own relationships, CMS because people won't pay for their kids. Special attention and schemes for this, that and the other. It's endless.

I just go to work, pay my bills and quietly live my life. Feels like fewer and fewer do by the day.

And the question I was replying to was about people who don’t pay tax.