To happily pay an extra £2000 per year to....

[Fatcish]

• see a GP f2f without a wait of 4 weeks and efficient onward referral as needed to sort the issue
• have my children taught by subject teachers and supported by TAs
• drive my car without hitting numerous potholes and missing road markings
• enable my elderly disabled neighbour to have more care at home (1 hour a week at the moment)
• ensure my son doesn't languish on the CAMHS waiting list for two years getting more and more broken
• pay public sector workers properly so they are not run ragged covering endless vacancies and schools and hospitals are viewed as aspirational and supportive places to work
• support government led, empowered oversight bodies of our water, rivers, trains and buses
• help the MNs on here with heart breaking experiences of seeking support with their SEN children

And on and on...all for £2k a year per FAMILY. I assume I will pay more as a higher earner. FINE. let's make it fair not equal.

Do people agree that there needs to be more investment in public services or is it all to do with inefficiency ? Or would posters rather not have public services and let folk choose ?

I think more should be spent on public services.

The Tory govt have consistently reduced funding for the nhs since they’ve been in. Initially under the guise of austerity.

I read something that said bus services have reduced by 90pc to what they were. I was shocked at that.

There’s a ridiculous amount of potholes. Even on the motorway. It’s ridiculous.

I want to see inefficiency and waste cut before more money is given. Everything needs to be reviewed. It's ridiculous the thousands spent on taxis to take children to school. Why aren't parents taking their own children to school?

The strain on public services is also due to people not taking responsibility for themselves.

Look at these 2 things first before money is just thrown at issues.

Taxis for children will be for specific reasons.

I love comments like these. I have worked in finance and trust me, the wealthy people are just as bad, if not worse at not paying tax 😁

I would willingly pay extra but any party which says "We will fix the health service and the care system and it will cost every household £500 per year" will never get elected! I would like to see - for example - the basic allowance raided from £12000 odd to £20000 and the rate raised to say 23% to take so many people out of tax. Many people on the full state pension are possibly going to have to pay tax on some of it.

This seems to be a popular myth on here.

There is inheritance tax (although I think this should be scrapped and replaced with capital gains tax on all transfers on death).

Capital gains tax allowance has been cut from £12k to £3k a year.

Investment property is heavily taxed - mortgage interest tax allowance is restricted. Extra stamp duty when buying a second property.

Investments are taxed at different rates because of the risk involved. A salary is guaranteed income, invest income will vary. Encouraging people to invest in U.K. companies benefits us all in the long term.

That’s the theory anyway.

No, OP, no! We keep paying more and more taxes, and our money is mismanaged. We never get the desired benefits. I would like to see broad cuts to the budgets, say 15%, and pertinent public sector bodies having to cut their cut accordingly (and getting rid of bureaucratic roles. My point is controversial, but I want to retain a lot more of my money - to not survive, but to thrive!

So would I pay £160 a month extra for those things? Well, a) I can't afford to. b) There is no guarantee we would see any improvement. Remember the Brexit bus and all the money promised for the NHS if only we voted Brexit? It's all just meaningless promises.

Social care and NHS costs are a bottomless pit, however much money is thrown into them, it will never be enough.

There is no doubt tax would go up a lot under Labour, it always does. But there is also no guarantee we will see any real change. They just make promises to get voted in and then do what they like afterwards.

And let's not forget it was Labour who left the country with no money 14 years ago when Tories got back in.

However it's an absolute shit show under Tories now, although a lot of that is the knock on effect of Brexit, COVID and Russia invading Ukraine.

I personally think the best bet is to vote for a local MP, of whichever party, who is the most prepared to work hard for their area, and stand up in H of C and actually advocate for their constituents beyond whatever the current party line is. After all, we vote for the MP, not their party and they are free to change party after election.

They will squander it. They'll take all our £2k's pay one part of the public sector more (as well as themselves) and then realise you need a bottomless pit to meet all the expectations.

I am very cynical about any of the political parties.

My preference would be lower taxation so we can buy more services ourselves, for example medical insurance. With a safety net for those who genuinely cant work.

I think trusting private medical insurance is a mistake.

There will be caveats and disclaimers.

I think life was better more hopeful under the previous labour government.

Brexit was a result of the Tories/ David Cameron.

As was the fake austerity.

Squeeze the services that the lower paid rely on (education / health/ transport) under austerity and yet the wealthy get to maintain their education/ health and transport.

@Pinkfluffypencilcase I agree, however I don't think Labour can fix the problems. I think taxes would have to be increased massively to provide the wish list. There seems to be a big difference between expectations of public services and what people are willing to pay.

It will seem steep after the years if underfunding by the nhs.

During covid it was amazing how much money fell out the mythical money tree. I also thought that if labour had been in government there’s no way they could’ve spent what the Tories did as I think that the right wing media would’ve led an outcry.

I agree. Cunts like Sunak and his wife who use loopholes to get out of paying their dues.

Come on - you can’t possibly believe that will Spend all that money on that sensible list! They will take the money tho - probably spend it on building some park no one uses. HTH.

Didn’t they pay their taxes in the end, it’s Angela two homes raynor in the hot seat right now.

It was deemed that she hadn't broken any rules.

@Theweepywillow yeah an ex council house in Stockport must have made Ange a million 😂
Again Tories lying, manipulating the truth.

Sorry but I’ll vote for my local Labour MP.
Think you’ll find that the the country had no money because of a global downturn caused by misselling of subprime mortgages in the US.
It was a shit show before Tory Brexit, Ukraine war and COVID.
Tax has already gone up, historically at its highest ever. Last 5 years our taxes have gone up by £13k for every working household.

I don't understand people saying they can't afford to pay any more tax. It won't be a choice- it will be a done deal. 🤷‍♀️

Doesn't mean they can afford it. It'll mean some pretty hard sacrifices like less/no heating in the winter, not eating enough or not eating a balanced diet, food banks, people selling belongings, people not being able to afford maternity leaves etc. There's only so much people on low wages can continue to cope with.

@AnnieSF - you're wrong, people do have a choice, there is a myriad of things people can do to reduce the tax they pay:

• reduce their hours
• stop work altogether
• pay more into their pension
• move overseas

There is a thread on exactly this.

Frankly I think a lot of people think they pay too much tax anyway, esp when you see how it's squandered.

People will tighten their belts and that's not good for the economy and growth,

What, it's going to all get squandered in 3 weeks?. Come on. Make that call to HMRC. Do it today.

How? The reason they're not paying tax is usually that they don't earn enough, how can they pay in what they don't have?

That would be 10% of my just above minimum wage job. Which is a lot when especially when I already pay taxes and the CoL and prices going up