Is your household contributing net tax ?

[Pingufireengine]

Following on from the awful disabled people are a drain on society threads...

For those that have children, have you considered this?

Roughly 55-60% of all households aren't net contributors to tax.

That's not to say the households that don't make a net contribution are in receipt of benefits.

Having children entails the following:

(This is per child)

Maternity care on NHS/midwifes,
Birth/delivery £3000-10000,
Post Delivery Care,
Health Visitors,
Statutory Maternity Leave,
Free prescriptions during pregnancy and after birth for 1 year,
Child gets free eye tests, glasses, prescriptions, dentist until 16/18
Child benefit until 16-20
Free nursery hours £2000-7000 per
Free School Milk £30-40
Free school meals: £400-500
School is £7,690 per
Sixth form/college/higher education £4,843

Student loans for university £30,000-50,000+

Yes the loans are paid back, but the initial offset is footed by taxpayers. And around 27% of full-time undergraduates starting in 2022/23 will repay them in full. They forecast that after the 2022 reforms this would increase to 61% among new students from 2023/24.

So instead of looking to blame those who are disabled for being a drain, look elsewhere, and better yet, instead of the disabled, pensioners, the working poor...we should look towards those are govern us, avoid tax.

The UK pension is the lowest in Europe, our wages are low and have stagnanted, working rights and conditions have eroded.

The UK looks asset rich, but it's only a small number who are generating huge wealth for themselves. There are parts of the UK poorer than the poorest parts of Poland. In fact, Poland is predicted to be wealthier per person than the UK in just a few years.

Maternity care is awful, the NHS is broken and on its knees, social care is non existent.

We've had austerity for 14 years, then Brexit, then COVID. Our country is in desperate need of investment into our creeking infrastructure.

Over £119 billion in unpaid tax and 70p in every £100 paid in benefits is fraudulently claimed

Roughly 55-60% of all households aren't net contributors to tax.

Do you not think this is a problem in our economy, and not one that's best solved by getting the remaining 40%-45% to pay even more?

(And I say that as someone who probably is not in that contributing proportion of society so not out of self interest.)

And how are you going to pay more ? Tax you harder? Reduce spending on your child's education? Most people simply cannot pay anymore. We're squeezing people enough as it is.

I get PIP as I am severely disabled but I do still pay tax on my occupational pension plus I paid tax all my working life as a nurse before I had to retire due to ill health.
There seems to be an assumption that disabled people contribute nothing to the economy and live like parasites on the backs of those in work. This is complete nonsense.
Interesting that pensioner bashing threads do not appear when many are extremely wealthy yet still get their old age pension which costs the UK far more than PIP. The pension is seen as just what older people have contributed to all their lives which is true, but the same is equally true for many disabled people too yet we are scapegoated for the countries problems.
The tory government knows full well they can’t attack their core elderly voters as a diversion from it’s financial mismanagement so the right wing press doesn’t print oap hate baiting stories.
As for people saying how much they struggle to pay their bills in these awful times lets remember one of the worst problems is vastly increased mortgage rates and who caused that but Liz Truss our wonderful blink and you’ll miss her prime minister. My lovely handyman’s mortgage has gone from £900 a month to £2000 so he and his family are trying to sell up in a very slow market before they run out of cash.

So should childfree people pay less tax and parents (who pay) be charged more?

NI contributions should go up and a crack down on tax avoiders and tax the rich much more with a cap on inheritance.

Your post really doesn't make much sense. Most of that is child care. Most children grow up to pay tax. This is a parenting site. Most posters have children in school.

Your figures don't state the tax that these babies will grow up and pay, they imply that parents are taking and not giving.

Whilst poorer people are in a net tax deficit, they are actually paying more in tax (specifically indirect taxation) as a proportion of their income (and no accountants to seek out loopholes), so yes, the richest should pay more.

The rich should pay more tax because the situation is currently unequitable and because they can afford it.

"Charity is a cold, grey loveless thing. If a rich man wants to help the poor, he should pay his taxes gladly, not dole out money at a whim."

the whole point of tax is to create a more equitable society. Don't forget, those on benefits help the economy because everything they have gets put back into it. Their £ is constantly circulating, until it is taken and hoarded by the rich as assets.

I speak as someone who was recently in the higher tax bracket and am now barely making enough to have to pay tax. As a higher rate tax payer I was glad to pay more income tax. I still felt extremely wealthy, despite being nowhere near the MN average six-figure wage, because my indirect taxation remained the same.

The following links explain about indirect taxation and although the easy-read ones are quite old, the ONS link is the latest and describes how the situation continues.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/personalandhouseholdfinances/incomeandwealth/bulletins/theeffectsoftaxesandbenefitsonhouseholdincome/financialyearending2022
https://citizen-network.org/library/graphic-poor-pay-the-most-tax.html
https://equalitytrust.org.uk/news/britains-poorest-households-pay-more-their-income-tax-richest

Corporations need to pay more...it's not right that eg bricks and mortar retailers pay significantly more tax than say Amazon, Google and Meta who cream billions out of the economies of the countries they operate in but pay risible amounts of tax.

We need to tax individuals less and taper benefits, so there is more incentive to work, rather than face punitive sanctions if you go £1 over the limits.

We need more people working - and feeling able and well enough to work, but we need huge investment in mental health support to tackle the epidemic of anxiety and depression....which is caused by the hopelessness of the housing situation, low wages, poor public services, decline in the state of everything.....but there's no money...so round we go again!

We are definitely net contributors...I was 😳 when I saw how much PAYE tax DH paid last year...so I feel significantly less guilty about having 4 children...😉

@Pingufireengine People see this as an entitlement, when in reality they too are on a benefit.

@Blackcats7 State pension’s the welfare states biggest expense. They all say they’ve worked all of their lives & paid in. But they weren’t expected to live that long, & have therefore took a lot more out than they ever paid in.

No, I see it as your own costs as a child, children's costs are their own.

People with over a certain amount of income or assets should not receive state pension. They all say they've worked so hard but really they simply profited from the property boom. Those who genuinely worked very hard (coal miners) will be poor and die young from broken health.

Yes, statistically pensioners get more out, than they've paid in....do we call them scroungers? Spongers ?

It's divide and conquer tactics. We are in fighting with those equally poor and disenfranchised. It means we fight and see difference, instead of working together to fight against the cause of our problems.

Put it this way..you give the government money to buy a pack of biscuits (yes I know, just go with it) and the government buys a pack of biscuits with 10 biscuits. The government take 7 biscuits and does whatever, eat some, give some to their friends, throws some away. The government then says look at that disabled/single parent/poor/pensioners/non white they are trying to steal your remaining 3 biscuits.

You are so right OP. Children are nothing but parasites draining the economy🙄

Let's stop having any children we'd all be so much richer.

I've wondered the same about me, although I'm not in the UK. When I moved here I went to language school for 4 years, then had a baby, went to uni where I paid no fees and had a small grant which was enough to pay for the massively subsidised childcare, had another baby and went back to finish, was unemployed for a year and a half. I wonder if I will ever payback the entirety of what I got out.

I'm not saying that.

But we need to stop seeing anyone and everyone as parasites.Disabled, pensioners, single parents, minimum wage workers, poor people.

We all take and contribute, we all give and share, it's not us Vs them

With the rich i do think it's them versus us. The hypocrisy and sanctimony is repellent.

I'm not sure what your point is about being a net tax payer. I'm a net tax payer in part because I had my DCs before a lot of the benefits such as free nursery places existed.

The problems Britain is experiencing are repeated across large parts of the 'wealthier' world: aging population caused by low birthrates and longer lives.

They're determined to shout about how every penny of their millions is so well deserved. Being a supermarket worker is every bit as hard as being a banker.

Our government are very good at spending Billions on failed projects, PPE, NHS track and trace app, hs2, literally throwing and wasting money...it's honestly shocking what they get upto and warrants greater scrutiny and accountability

I recommend:

www.amazon.co.uk/Blunders-Our-Governments-Anthony-King/dp/1780744056?dplnkId=fdd68028-e0eb-4759-b260-482300a8b24b

Why do people own more than one property and rent it out to someone on housing benefit and rake it in? Who's the actual scrounger?

Saying people don’t pay of their student loans is daft when the interest and principal are so high. If you borrow £50k and pay pack £70k but still have £40k left when it’s written off the government has still made their money back on you. Not to mention a chunk of that initial £50k will have gone back via vat as well

I wouldn't mind as much if they didn't beat their own drum and pretend that it's not them who are the greedy spongers.