AIBU to say that I have had enough of this government and Its grabby supporters.

[Ihavehadenough1345]

I have name changed for this and am prepared for the pile on, backlash, kicking I am going to get but I have had enough!

My tax bill was £80,000 this year. I am self employed. I pay £16,000 a year in VAT. I have a valuable asset. I own my own home.
no mortgage. I have worked bloody hard. No inheritance, no Oxbridge, no privilege and no luck!

I pay for private school for 2 DC.

I am asset rich, cash poor. I have enough money to pay all of my bills, no debt, I’m not extravagant. If you met me you wouldn’t know my financial situation. I am normal.

But my tax contribution is not enough for this government and its supporters.

I read all of the posts of all of the threads regarding VAT on school fees, UC, the cost
of living crisis and on and on and on!

I have had enough.

And I do not need therapy and I do not have ADHD or bipolar.

Let the games begin!

Exactly. I work extremely hard for an extremely average income.

There's this entitled attitude among high earners that they must be working harder than everyone else. They're not.

But surely on her income, OP could afford to buy a house in an area with outstanding state schools?

Agree - but if she can afford to send two kids to private school, she's still one of life's winners. She's just begrudging not having as much as she wants to have.

These millionaires who up and leave the country because they want to keep more of their insanely high salaries always make me wonder - do they not have the same concerns as the rest of us? I’d not want to uproot my kids from their current school and current friends and move abroad. I wouldn’t want to move away from my elderly parents who I support. I wouldn’t want to move away from my friends and family either.

Millionaires though just seem to trot off without a backwards glance with nothing to keep them here. Do they not have family and friends? Or is money more important to them than people?

I'd imagine it's way easier to keep involved with your friends and family when that wealthy. Especially if it's not too far away, not a long haul flight. Easy to see each other a lot still.

They've probably got multiple properties abroad and have already arranged their affairs so they're paying as little tax in the UK as possible, using shell companies etc. I always treat the 'millionaires leaving the country' statistics with a massive pinch of salt.

It's about tax receipts. If they go down we will feel it as others will have to make up the tax lost.

It has gone down early this year but not sure by how much. That's what will be looked at.

I’m not sure that’s the answer though. I saw that living abroad where every child in the catchment area got a place. So that was very much a good thing however all of the money got poured into those affluent areas schools.
My children’s school had a sailing club, with School owned dinghies. But if you went further into the more deprived areas it was like something out of the 1960s.

I was so busy not liking “grabby” that I missed “working hard”

@Ihavehadenough1345there is very little correlation between “working hard” and “being rich” whatever the Tory Song Book says.

Because most benefits fraud is done by sophisticated foreign gangs. Half of posters talking about reporting their neighbours for pretending to be disabled etc don't even know their neighbours full business.

If someone WAS actually committing fraud/pretending to be disabled they wouldn't tell anyone

Perhaps not working hard. But definitely working more cleverly, efficiently and in a riskier way potentially.

Money lost to benefit frays is a drop in the ocean to money lost by tax avoidance and evasion. But what get the press coverage?

I work not very hard for a very good income and my job is also very flexible. I just work in an industry who happens to pay very well. I know lots of people who are both more or as highly educated as me who work a lot harder than me for a lot less money.

I think the solution is to put the 45p rate to £100k, but give everyone the personal allowance.

Limited cost, should be politically neutral, removes impact of cliff edge at that point.

I also think they should make childcare universal as that makes an even more severe cliff edge.

All of this will become a bigger political issue as inflation takes more people over these frozen thresholds.

The ultra-wealthy should be taxed properly. Higher earners should not be penalised for their hard work. I live in a diverse urban area. My friends on UC are on average much less stressed about COL than those who are working - many of whom are considering or have already left to move to a cheaper area.

do you have any friends who work hard for low salaries?

The middle class and upper middle class are feeling the cost of living crisis, indeed. It is frustrating.
But so are the working class, down to those on minimum wage!
We have been catapulted some stations down from where we were before covid. All of us!
How to fix it? Growth, accompanied of proper management of the services, avoiding waste. And bringing back common sense to the level of profit and bonus that corporations and big fish give themselves.
At the end of the day, if you earn a living making product B and there is no enough people who can afford it, then you will not make the money, will you?
Increased taxes, to try and get us back to a sustainable level do not sound crazy to me. Re-adjustment of the wages ratio to housing and food and basics cost is what we need. Whether labour is taking the right and optimal steps to do so.. well, I think increasing the taxes to companies, not workers, is a step in the right direction, for example. I do not agree with everything they do, but I cannot get yhe arguments against the new tax budget.
Addressing the fact that Mr CEO does not need 4 million pound in bonus this year would be the next step, maybe. Of course they work hard, but if them taking those numbers off the system means that the company will not have customers in 2026, because we cannot longer afford to buy the item, then what?
It is not being easy for anyone. That is the reality.
The other huge issue is the ratio of pensioners to workers, the healthcare costs of pensioners, and the increased welfare costs if we want 65 year olds to work stocking shelves in the supermarket, but they do need a hip replacement and they do not get it for years and years on.
Aging, combined with a NHS faling to prevent people getting seriously ill is costing us a lot indeed.

I think the reason for lower earners being a bit less stressed in some circumstances is the cost of houses in UK. If you do have a low wage, you get a reasonable mortgage. But for those caught in the rise of interest recently, I do feel for you. Some people are talking of increases in their mortgage that are higher than my mortgage! It is an investment in your future, but it is crippling at present indeed.
But, I have not spotted anyone asking questions from the banks. Do they really need that many extra hundred and thousands of pounds off you each month? For the same debt?

I'm no big fan of the banks, but the interest rate rises impact them also. What do you expect them to do? Lend people money at a loss to themselves?

Low earners can’t get mortgages at all! They’re stuck renting and paying their landlords’ mortgages for them. Or even still living at home.

Loss to themselves LOL. That is a good one!

Millions?

• Some 7.8 million people on disability benefits. Cost: £56 billion
• 4.1 million people on incapacity benefits. Cost: £34 billion
• Over 1 million children on disability benefits. Up 24 per cent from now
• Some 2.2 million working age adults on benefits for carers. Nearly 200,000 more

Source - The Spectator

You're suggesting that people on disability benefits are 'healthy people doing absolutely nothing'?

Well these aren’t healthy people are they