To agree with increasing tax and more benefit cuts to pay for defence

[Viviennemary]

I was surprised to hear that Labour is to spend more on defence. We really do need to with the threats from Russia and run down of weapon stocks because they have been given to Ukraine. All of Europe needs to wake up. But I think they realise this.

The King will just accrue more, and more wealth, while his 'subjects' fight for scraps.

That outfit wasn’t a suit!

given your posts on multiple threads - you expect to be provided for by taxpayer regardless. So the same group of people are expected both to fund you and defend you

How much do you think a disabled person should live on?

I don't want to be defended. I am not worth it and people with your viewpoint on the disbabled like me, are not worth it too
I am disabled and rely on benefits. That is not a crime and like many others like me, am worried about the cuts.

many will lose all pip with the new points scoring system. They will qualify for no disability benefits. not sure what you dont understand. it clearly doesn't affect you hence you don't care - like many others

Benefits are cut to the bone as it is.

For some, yes - I don't think UC with no child element is enough to live on, for example. OTOH I have seen disabled posters with children who claim to receive >£5k a month, which is roughly equivalent to a 100k salary, and therefore only actually earned by <5% of the working population. Coupled with the sheer numbers of people claiming disability benefit now, there needs to be some kind of adjustment. I have no confidence that it will be done well or fairly by this government, but as a country, we cannot afford to just accept that x% of the population cannot possibly work in any capacity.

We need to spend on defence, that is a given. To afford everything else and close the 75bn deficit the government need to be brave:

Everyone - VAT rise 20 to 22%, freeze or slightly reduce employer NI

Lower earners (<20K/year) - no change to income tax
Middle earners (<60K/year) - income tax from 20 to 23%
Higher earners (>60K/year) - higher rate tax 40 to 45% / 45 to 50%

This said, I do think it's time for two middle bands, say 20-35K and 35K-60K, as there's a big lifestyle difference between these two.

If I was extra extra extra brave, I'd also propose:

Replacement of council tax with a local income tax
Regional additional tax for selected post codes in SE England, 1%
Targeted luxury taxes, e.g. SUVs, long-haul flights, etc.

Well if you cut my benefits off I'd die of starvation anyway so I wouldn't be in a position to care if everyone was being taken over by Russians.

I vote you all - in England and Wales - pay the same tax rates with the same brackets as us in Scotland.
Seems fair.

We don’t need to spend more money on defence because we already have the ultimate deterrent, nuclear bombs. Better to spend money on welfare.

The PIP system does need an overhaul, because at the moment it is wasting a colossal amount of money, by not awarding correctly, and people having to go to expensive tribunals, to be awarded the correct level of help. The amount of assessments being carried out in a shambolic manner, with the person heading it, having no idea of the difficulties that the person facing them has to navigate daily. The system is in chaos. They need to look at that, and deal with their unacceptable back logs.

don't blame people who have to rely on the state for support.

They are not all "scroungers" despite, what seems to be a popular view on here.

We entrust our politicians to equitably distribute our taxes to enhance the lives, of us all.

They are, majorly incompetent.

80bn cost to the taxpayer on HS2! For what? To save half an hour from London to Birmingham fgs.

Divide and conquer is the mantra of our politicians.

Why are people displacing their anger in the wrong direction?

eta; and just how many of our politicians have shares in this company (HS2)? I wonder!

I agree so much.

We are never ever going to truly know how much tax payer money is spent in appalling ways that satisfy the top percentage. I just watched the documentary ref multi millionaire Michelle Mone receiving millions in tax payers money inappropriately. Starmer brought it up at some random parliamentary questions. How did this get signed off??!

How much of this is going on? It will be happening all the time.

Yet we all clap at proposals to target the vulnerable. The rhetoric is that people are over diagnosed. We know people really can't even see anyone these days. If ND, you are certainly screwed these days. But the public just believe it. Believe the made up rhetoric.

What's so difficult here is we will never truly know and trust the crap each political party feeds us and we know their mates take the high end big bucks from our taxes.

I have zero doubt that private companies with defence contracts will absolutely have connections in some, probably multiple forms,with politicians who sign off contract commissioning using our tax money.

I don't know the answer to all this.

Are you aware of how expensive being disabled really is? Care isn't cheap and neither is disability equipment. And then there's the electricity to charge the equipment and because some of us need to keep warm.

Yes I am, I have a disabled child and receive DLA for him at middle rate. Its just <£300 per month, which is adequate for his needs in terms of needing help to access education and hobbies. (It's also a lot less than the government receives in tax from my FT job - it is depressing how few of the parents at DS' specialist school work).

And the cost of being disabled is not really the point. We cannot afford to continue paying benefits at current levels. More than half of all households receive more in benefits than they pay in tax. More, and better, scrutiny is required.

More than half of all households receive more in benefits than they pay in tax

Isnt that to do with how much a net contributor earns? Which is about £40k. The vast majority of jobs vital to the running of society are on less than thaf.

Defence of a country is paramount and it protects every one of us and with the proposed increased spending on it i wouldn’t be surprised if some of that comes out of savings ( if there are any) from the Welfare changes.
Although I understood Starmer planned to reduce aid spending to finance it

Why would anyone sign up to go to War when they see how the disabled and veterans are treated now?

There will be a lot more disabled if our government keeps up the warmongering.

If they are going to cut benefits they should start by cutting the 1 billion pounds claimed by so called 'asylum seekers' each month.

Thank I don't know why that poster felt the need to bring up the fact I am worried about the benefit cuts and post about it on other threads.

@Vinvertebrate

Could that, possibly, be because employers are screwing the workforce with zero hour contracts and NMW?

After all, profit!

Approx 90% of disabled people on standard rate PIP are expected to lose their PIP based on the 4 point on something to keep it rule.

Those are the disabled people most likely to be using their PIP to work at least part time, and when they lose their PIP they will then have to be unemployed as they won't be able to afford being in work any more.

Are any of the people who post on Mumsnet genuinely dumb enough to believe that 90% of all disabled people claiming standard rate PIP are really fraudulent claimers who could easily get a job?

You are deluded if so.

If we were not paying out almost 1 billion a month to households containing at least one migrant, we could cut the benefits bill by 12 billion a year.
They actually cost a lot more than that, so we'd save billions more if every migrant had NRPF for life.

Why aren't you suggesting that?

The genuine hardworking, qualified migrants wouldn't be impacted because they don't claim benefits and seem more likely to integrate.

The govt think they will save 5 billion a year by cutting PIP, they could just halve benefits for migrants and still pay PIP plus have a spare billion plus left.

Don't get me started on HS2. I have to drive into Birmingham daily with a disabled child, drive home then drive back in the afternoon to collect then driv home again. Bloody HS2 has added 10-15 minutes on every journey due to being down to 1 lane so huge bottleneck. So between 40 minutes to 1 hour wasted every day. So we might be able to save 11 minutes to get to London. Except we won't because instead of catching train at New Street HS2 will mean we have to get to Cursen Street to catch this train, with no parking very near by. It won't get a lot of use imho.

How about they means test the State pensions of "so called" pensioners?