To reduce hours when labour win election

[Parttimeplay]

I fall into the “60%” tax bracket. With the upcoming elections and knowing the government always hammer the middle ground….woudlnt it make more sense for me to cut my hours for a more relaxed life, eligibility for childcare, reduced tax?

I've been one of the 'hammered' middle earners. It was the most comfortable time in my life, financially. I lived outside of London and commuted in two days a week, worked from home two days, had Fridays off. What you're experiencing op is a disparity between your income and outgoings, primarily as a result of living in London. Yes, if you're finding that you're not as comfortable as you'd hoped you'd be at this point in your life, then it's time to do what millions of other, lower earning families are constantly told to do. Make other choices, make changes.

I never, ever complained about paying a higher rate of tax until the Tories squandered it and plummeted public services into chaos. I'm personally looking forward to my family receiving a better education and health service again.

And you will do this if Labour get in? How can they do worse than the Tories have??

Seriously you must be paid by them to want them to stay on

Is 60% tax for the "middle ground" payee 🤔 I thought that the mean average UK wage was just under £36 000 before tax?

Op you are perfectly entitled to do what you want. But please don't write about working hard etc as if that only refers to people earning over £100 000 a year. A lot of us are wondering how much lower paid essential workers such as teachers and nurses are going to be affected by a (probable) change in government.

Sometimes I think mathematical ability is severely lacking in these people! They seem to truly believe that they'd be financially worse off by getting paid more; it's bizarre.

Yes you pay more tax when you earn more; we all do, but you also have more left over!

Also if you are annoyedthat "all" you can afford is a three bed house in London (do you know how absolutely spoilt that sounds?) How about you join those of us desperate to vote for a party that will do something about insane house price inflation?

Under a Labour government so many are either going to leave the country or decide it’s simply not worth working hard. It’s a massive issue that Labour effectively are killing the ambition and prosperity of this country with high taxes. It’s an old and failed policy as their track record shows. We are planning an early retirement. It’s no longer worth it for us either: we are refusing to pay for Labours woke vanity projects.

Why was the OP posting between 2 and 3am? The same thing happened on Mumsnet during the Brexit referendum, with posters who suddenly disappeared the minute Leave won, and the country’s economy was screwed.

@GreenTeaLikesMe · Today 02:54

Why do people on higher tax have to always be shafted to provide for the people on welfare and any expenses incurred to us by the third world? Why do you feel entitled to our hard earnings? It is not given to us we work for it.

If you're in that tab bracket, you're nowhere near the middle ground. By all means be pissed off but don't go pretending you're a middle earner, you're not and it's insulting to those who are. I'm on much less than you and don't particularly think of myself as a middle earner because I still earn well over double the median wage.

However the tax brackets at that level are utterly non sensical, so if I were lucky enough to be earning in that range I'd be crossing my fingers a new government would change that.

Others may well pay more tax but it's very unlikely that will include you because it simply wouldn't make sense.

Give it a year, see what they do and then yes, by all means cut your hours (but be careful about how you do that - don't fall into the five days of work for four days salary trap).

Got it in one. So many dodgy posts ATM.

In fairness, if you have children in childcare the higher tax rate combined with the loss of funded hours (which not all of the UK has, but anyway) and tax free childcare can actually mean you're worse off for earning more.

(I think - as I say I'm nowhere near that and far too lazy to do the sums.)

I wonder if the idiots realise how many people of their own party would be much worse.

A labour government isn't imaginary but your version of it is as yet.

Actually this is not correct. It’s not attacking private pensions - it’s equalising a benefit which has disproportionately benefited higher earners for years. I am a higher earner for full disclosure.

Also, those approaching retirement are laughing. They’ve benefited from this all their life and have had some of the most generous pension arrangements in history. They have their own homes and have made a pretty penny in the property market. The ones who should be worried are younger workers in the private sector who will find it harder to accumulate savings over time without this reliefs, have a measly 3% employer contributions, and face a housing market where the average price is nine times salary compared to less than four forty years ago. That’s where the real crime lies imho.

No changes will be made retrospectively, but with regards to other taxes, there’s no reason that workers should be subject to punitive policies that are highly damaging for their long term saving prospects when pensioners are not simply because It’s not politically popular to change things.

They don't have anywhere near as much form as the Tories in the last 20 years, do they?

It's not coy, it's playing cards close to their chest until the manifesto is out. We know why - we saw the Tories nick various embryonic ideas as they were mentioned and then screw them up. Let's see when the manifestos are out.

And for the record I think it’s more useful to talk about living standards than salary.

On that basis it’s not entirely unreasonable for the OP to say she’s in the middle bracket.

Yeah, why not if you can afford it - you'll have a better life. Might be able to do some volunteering, spend time with your kid, do some hobbies. Life's not just about turning the capitalist wheel.
I don't see what labour coming in would have to do with it but I say knock yourself out!

Please nobody read those stupid manifestos. They are taking ages to come up with it.

Surely if this is what you've realised, you need to do the same if the tories stay in power too? If you can't afford the things you want under labour, you won't as tories continue the path they want to take the country on. If nursery fees are most important to you, why not vote for a party that has said they will introduce universal free childcare? And that's not the tories.

Agree

Better the devil you know, eh?

And normal sized women.

Oh jeez. This kind of awful bizarre reasoning is rife among certain pockets of Mumsnet.

People who can perfectly well afford an adequate life threatening to cut back hours so they can claim from the state, as some sort of childish tit for tat with those people who actually NEED to claim from the state are pathetic.

and also it defies even your silly logic - a bigger welfare state bill is what requires the higher taxes in the first place. But hey, you just sort yourself out, right? Make sure you’re not working an hour more than is needed, claiming every state penny you can get your hands on, yet still denigrating the very party with the only solid track record in supporting and championing working people (minimum wage), families (sure start centres) and the welfare state you hate but still want your slice of.

But the point is you make the choices. So you do what benefits you and your family. Living in London is out of the question for a lot of folk. I don't think the answer is to subsidise people even more to live in London.