AIBU that working people should be rewarded in the Budget?

[DistingusedSocialCommentator]

As above by way of increasing the tax threshold which has been on ice for a while.

The lower paid will benefit the most as those earning about 125k I think it is dont get any tax reliefe. 2 of the 3 children of ours pay 40% or more in tax plus NI. Therefore, the lower paid will benefit the most

We left worl in our early 50's and yet to reach state pension age.

I've read that many pensioners will soon be paying taxes as many are also being paid a few quid in private pensions they contributed to

so rather than a penny or two cut, raise the threshold of income tax

The gov must also do away with IHT but that is a different subject.

So if you agree with me, then it is I am being reasonable

Nah that's fine thanks. Just make sure that essential public services are properly covered. That's all the reward I need.

Oh and there's many many people who think like me. Which is why the Tories are on the road to a decade in opposition.

@DistingusedSocialCommentator most councils who are in financial difficulty are in that position because the government has cut central funding.

You have no understanding of economics so stop spouting crap. And the idea that if people just stopped buying takeaway coffee they could afford a house deposit is just laughable.

Given your age, you presumably bought your house when the house price to income rational much lower. As did we. Young people these days don't have that opportunity.

They HAVE got such a mechanism and it's called "simple assessment"

You may get a Simple Assessment letter from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) if you:

• owe Income Tax that cannot be automatically taken out of your income
• owe HMRC £3,000 or more
• have to pay tax on the State Pension

https://www.gov.uk/check-simple-assessment#:~:text=You%20may%20get%20a%20Simple,tax%20on%20the%20State%20Pension

They've already "invented" the system - It's called simple assessment!

Meanwhile back in real life the number of people voluntarily paying more tax than they need to is in double digits each year. Presumably they’re all Mnetters.

Meanwhile back in real life the number of people voluntarily paying more tax than they need to is in double digits each year. Presumably they’re all Mnetters.

But I don't want to pay tax than I need to. I just want everyone to pay the right level of tax to support our essential services rather than always trying to get a few quid more and then complaining about the fact that the bins don't get emptied enough or you've had to wait 12 hours for an ambulance. It's really not difficult as a concept.

some people actually care more about others than themselves. Some people are happy to pay more tax to fund decimated public services

These were your words. Only you’ve now qualified what you’ve said to being not more tax than you need to. Which is the same as anybody isn’t it really?

Where I live in Leeds the council are reducing waste collections, but have several millions to spend on road schemes so that anybody with a car or a disability can no longer get around. The buses have had to add 25 minutes to their timetable to get through the city centre. It’s that bad.

Why would anyone want to give these clowns more of their hard earned money?

I misunderstood. It's not the new pensioners, it's older pensioners coming under SERPS who are being affected now.

New pensioners will be affected in 2 years time if the tax free allowance continues to be frozen and the state pension still rises under the triple lock

Be bold and roll NI and income tax together to get more from those with a decent pension income In theory, National Insurance was an "insurance" against being out of work work no longer able to work, hence unemployment benefit being dependent on contributions, and pension being dependent on contributions. So it seems odd to be still paying in to insurance while the insurance is paying out to you in the form of pensions. Rolling it together with income tax would mean working out how to cater for the employers contribution and the different amount paid by he self employed. And the crediting of contributions to those receiving child benefit and not working.

Median retirement income is is just over £18k a year.

My State Pension, thanks to SERPS, is already over the threshold. They tax me via my private pensions.

She is not wrong about the Wilson tax rate in 1974 of 83% on hr income. Not sure about the exodus though.

This isn't 1974 though, and anyone suggesting Labour would do this again is scaremongering.

I did read Hunt has his eye on Non Dom's and cutting relief on holiday let's do both of those options would bring in more taxes.

Agree. 1974 is before I was born, and the UK/world couldn't be a more different place.

For what it's worth I can't ever see bins being emptied weekly again because it's largely been successful to empty them fortnightly. I'd far rather any money saved went on kids services which is being cut by many councils ATM. Adult social care takes most money from LA budgets. We need to tax people enough during their working years to fund this.

Yes people contracted out under SERPS are on old state pension but some will be over threshold rate for tax. Just like other pensioners will pay tax on private pensions.

@pointythings agreed - she is not wrong though that it did happen. Would not happen again though.

We need to tax people enough during their working years to fund this.

I don't disagree in general, but what about people who choose not to work ('choose', not due to disability)?

If you pack in work to be a SAHP and never go back, or not fully, you're just as much of a burden on the state in old age but haven't contributed to the cost to anything like the level that the workers have.

The government can't just keep milking PAYE earners to fund services.

I don't think people in their 'working years' should be the main target here.

I want working people to be rewarded with

A working nhs
Easy access to gp appointments
Nhs dentistry
Courts dealing with criminals in a timely manner
More police
State funded refuges for women
Roads that aren't dangerously full of pot holes
Social care
Rivers that aren't full of shit
Refugees being quickly processed and either sent back, or granted asylum so they can work

Not a single one of these will come out of tax cuts.

1974! 50 years ago. What is the matter with people. Is it something to do with getting old?

The UK is very different. We can't be gripped by political nostalgia. What does the future of the country look like?

I want parity. I.e. people with the same incomes should pay the same taxes, regardless of age, source of income, etc. At the moment, workers pay more than any other group and that's not only unfair, it's helping to contribute to staff shortages and stifling the economy generally.

It's important to learn from history. Cycles repeat themselves over time. A few decades is far too short of a period to compare. Just look at the rise and fall of all the empires over the centuries - all have common themes and causes despite being hundreds of years apart! Same with tax, taxes that are "perceived" to be unfair are generally avoided/evaded, often to the detriment of wider society - look at the old "window tax" - easily reduced by people bricking up a few windows!! Doh!! Anyone involved in tax/benefits legislation should be forced to study human behaviour history!!

Realistically, little will come out of tax rises either! That is until we sort out inefficiency and waste, corruption, etc.

£1k a month?

UC for a single person is a third of that.

The curse of England is its nostalgia. If it learned from it's history that would be different.

Look at the total lack of vision in our economic policy. Since Brexit we have made no progress. People are much poorer.

Learn from history. I think not. 50 years and it is all the same dreary prism of Labour take my stuff and the Tory failure to invest in infrastructure. We are totally infantile.

I am voting for someone, anyone with the vision thing that does not involve referencing a time when the majority of working people were not in work.

What about things they don't pay for, such as rent, childcare, prescriptions, and discounted things like council tax, etc?? The "cost" in benefits is far more than the actual amount of UC paid.