October budget going to be painful

[increasinglyconcerned]

Here we go..... I knew it. Labour were promising not to hike our taxes in the election campaign and here we are.... apparently they discovered £22 billion black hole in his first weeks in the role and it's not his fault.

Let me guess, those of us who earn six figures and already pay 45% will pay EVEN more and take home even less. It's the hard workers who will take the brunt. What's the point in working anymore!

I earn a little over £120k and I'm taxed the same as those earrings £500k.

Before people jump in saying they don't feel sorry for me, I work full time to support my family, as of January I will have 2 DCs in nursery, plus my mortgage and get ZERO free hours childcare, whilst they keep promising free childcare but I just pay more for everyone else to benefit.

I cannot afford to pay more taxes to fix this country and especially when so many people are getting a free ride and not paying their way, ranging from millionaires with tax havens to those claiming benefits dishonestly.

Is it bollocks easy to get. If it is that easy to get why are there around 30,000 cases going to appeal every quarter?

The fraud rate for PIP is 0%.

So sick of hearing this ableist disabilty benefits bashing.

@anythinginapinch Remember "austerity"? When the tories got in and said oooh there's no money so the country will have to suffer? And axed funding everywhere? It's not labour who are at fault here.

Keir Starmer promised multiple times that there would be no return to Austerity. He wins the election, says oooh there's no money and in less than 8 weeks we have Austerity Mk.II including benefit cuts for 10m people and funding cancelled or postponed indefinitely:

1. Scrapped all "Restoring Your Railway" schemes
2. Scrapped road schemes (eg. Stonehenge, Arundel)
3. Scrapped New Hospital Programme
4. Scrapped the Investment Opportunity Fund (public funding to kick off massive private investment)
5. Scrapped the Advanced British Standard (for level 3 qualifications such as A-levels, T-levels)
6. Halted the Towns Fund
7. Halted investment for a new exascale supercomputer in Edinburgh which will leave the UK way behind other countries. The USA already has a computer that will take 1 hour to compute something that will take our fastest Archer2 machine 3 days.

Labour have promised to increase total public spending by 1%/year, but as Health, Schools and Defence are protected and will get bigger spending, it means ALL other departments face a 3%/year cut.

Today he says the autumn budget will be very painful, but I have no doubt that at the last minute they will find a few tax rises or cuts that they don't have to make. This is classic old Labour tactics, such as when Labour councils would say year after year that local taxes would go up by 10% but at the last minute they managed a budget with an 8% rise, and present this as 2% cut, and we should all be grateful and celebrate.

There was a lot of the 'fully funded, fully costed' repeated pre GE

It's obviously get in then change and do the it's painful for you line

There's no doubt some people will make this argument until they get all the money for their needs rather than earn it

Did you miss the Labour government removing the winter fuel payment for pensioners? It was the Tories who for the past 14 years have propped up the biggest benefit recipients of all - pensioners - who also happen to be amongst the wealthiest groups in society, and maintained a system with disincentives to work.

Yes, they are horrible people.

Well for starters, the New Hospital Programme hasn’t been scrapped, it’s under spending review, which is not the same thing.

A pensioner on a basic state pension is wealthy?

It's a low amount. Scrapping their WFA and energy going up and no extra support doesn't make them rolling in it. The opposite

If you are physically and mentally capable of working there should be no space in society for you to choose personally not to work but expect the Chancellor to be your main source of income. Especially if you want to have a family paid for by the state.

Again, we are talking about a couple who have chosen not to work for years but have continued to have children. They do not deserve our pity never mind our money.

I don’t understand how the rate of appeal is relevant? (Genuine question and not goading. How is that data even generated?) or How would a fraud rate even be established? Many claimants are never ever seen by anyone. It’s all online forms. As I say I’m a big advocate for those with permanent life changing conditions to never ever be reviewed (as both waste of time for tax payers and cruel and unfair on claimants.) I also think there should be easier and quicker ways for some to gain access to PIP. And in some cases higher amounts of support. However to think there are not those claiming for illnesses and conditions that can work and who don’t just see PIP and DLA as a cash cow is naive. Again this is my “lived experience” through work and personal life so is what I see going on day in day out.

I am not bashing anyone. I am pointing out that a) some people can live well on a combination of state benefits as a previous poster was asking how anyone could live well off 900 quid and of course they cannot (unless live at home with comfortable parents and have no outgoings but this isn’t relevant for UC) but people can live “well” or better than those on NMW on a combination of state benefits including disability benefits and b) some people will lie and are out for all they can get - and will stop at nothing to take take take.

Me my husband have good wages and knew when we voted that Labour would probably raise taxes for higher earners. We are happy to pay more to create a fairer system. I was brought up in a working class family, dad was a lorry driver. He was a great guy (a really hands on dad and great fun) and worked bloody hard, but I know my parents struggled financially. If I can help another family not struggle by paying more in taxes then so be it.

I’m not sure I said someone was not working hard to change their situation. You’re being paid for your intellectual abilities and your sister is not simple. If she turned back tomorrow and was jealous or unhappy that you’re being paid for what she doesn’t have or couldn’t get, she would be ridiculous. No disrespect to your sister but it is what it is. As for whether your job is important, I’ve no idea what you do and I’ll let you be the judge . Some industries command better pay due to economics etc but just because for example a data scientist is not literally saving lives does not mean that a carer/ nurse etc is doing a better job than them. It’s not as straightforward as that. If anyone thinks another high paying job is better than what they are doing, they are free to retrain. I’m sure there’s lots of people who do a job because they actually love it, high or low paying.

If you are physically and mentally capable of working there should be no space in society for you to choose personally not to work but expect the Chancellor to be your main source of income. Especially if you want to have a family paid for by the state.

This comment which a previous poster said is so very true. The benefits bill is completely out of hand.

I don’t understand how the rate of appeal is relevant? (Genuine question and not goading. How is that data even generated?)

If PIP was easy to get, few cases would ever go to appeal. BTW, latest figures show that 70% of cases which go to appeal are successful.

Data on the number of appeals and success rates is released quarterly by His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service. As you say you have a lot of personal and professional experience of PIP, I am surprised you don't know that,

How would a fraud rate even be established?

The fraud rate figure is from the DWP who do, I imagine, know how to establish fraud rates?

However to think there are not those claiming for illnesses and conditions that can work and who don’t just see PIP and DLA as a cash cow is naive. Again this is my “lived experience” through work and personal life so is what I see going on day in day out

PIP and DLA are in work benefits which are awarded regardless of a person's employment status. How can you not know that?

PIP is actually frequently under claimed.

DWP publishes estimates on how much extra money benefit claimants could be getting if they told DWP accurately about their circumstances. These people are already getting some money on a certain benefit but may not be getting all the money they could be eligible for on this benefit – DWP call this unfulfilled eligibility.

For Personal Independence Payment, the unfulfilled eligibility rate in FYE 2024 was 4.0% (£870m), compared with 4.8% (£850m) in FYE 2023.

The proportion of claims with unfulfilled eligibility was 11 in 100 claims in FYE 2024, compared with 13 in 100 claims in FYE 2023.

All unfulfilled eligibility was due to claimants failing to inform the department they needed more help or their condition had deteriorated (Functional Needs)

Anyway. it doesn't matter how much evidence I present, all the disability benefit bashers will continue to insist that PIP is a) easy to get and b) frequently fraudulently claimed.

It's the hard workers who will take the brunt. What's the point in working anymore!

Hang on a minute, I (& I presume many others) work extremely hard at my (very responsible) job in the Public Sector which is piss poorly paid! I think you need to rephrase that!

This is in reply to the post by @TheMoment

And why should she? Work your way through Uni, getting into debt so you can be a high achiever in a good job with great money, to then have to subsidise someone who can’t be arsed, and is happy working the tills at Tesco, but wants the person with the uni debt and high paying jjob, to pay for their poor choices in life? You choose your path in life, so you should face the consequences of those choices, not expect someone else to subsidise you. Get a better job, retrain, raise your ambitions, stop expecting a free ride.

It is true - South East area of the country - Bucks and Berkshire areas

Funny how last week they had loads of spare cash to give huge pay rises to their unionised masters, but this week there's a huge black hole in their budget. Actually, it's not funny. And it's even less funny that they're trying to blame it all on the previous government. The trouble with champagne socialism is that the plebs don't get any of the champagne, just the socialism.

You are being wildly unreasonable. Would you actually like to live in a society where everyone else had your world view? You’d have some heftier bills for sure, if nobody chipped in for our public services. I’d prefer a kinder, more thoughtful society myself.

They won't though. Because only the well paid work hard.
Yeah...no.

We all need people who work the tills at Tesco. No retail worker I have ever met wants anything like a free ride, what appalling snobbery and ignorance.
Earning a high salary does not make you too good to contribute to the common weal.
I say that as a professional person with two degrees.

You're forgetting about the fact that as a society we actually need people doing certain roles. But we don't value them and they get paid next to nothing.

My point wasn't about certain industries being valued. It was about the country as a whole placing less value on roles that, if not filled, we'd crumble without.

It's messed up, and your response proves you're completely unaware of the real problems and only money focused.

Translation: oops, got caught out there, how can I pretend I wasn't?
The rich protect their own, that's why you want them in power. Good of the country? What's that, gimme cash.