To think that there is no hope here?

[Taxed]

52.6% of UK individuals are reliant on the State (that is 35 million people). Only 47.4% are net contributors. How did we get here?

AIBU to think that the UK is now a declining economy that will never recover if this continues to be the case?

I am 49 and a high earner (just shy of the top 1%). My husband is also a high earner and we are thinking of leaving. We don't know where but we know we have to as the situation in the UK is getting worse not better. The only thing that is keeping us here is our son, who is still in secondary school. I am actively encouraging him to consider a future outside of the UK.

I genuinely feel that being ambitious and successful is not worth it in the UK. People hate you for it and want to see you penalised. They think that whatever you do to earn the money it must be easy and a breeze. That you are greedy and need to be made to pay for doing well. Just last week, I heard that the government might be thinking of implementing a charge, payable by high earners, to access the NHS. Everything is about taxing the already heavily taxed even more and few want to face up to the fact that this is unsustainable when you have most of your people relying on the State to live.

People complain about the immigrants but they make up a tiny proportion of 35 million.

I feel disliked for doing well and just can't see a future here and it is making me angry and sad. I believe in having a welfare state, in helping those who are in need but 52.6%? The country is on its knees when most of its people are in need. That is like a developing country not a developed and thriving economy.

Sorry for the long rant. I'm just tired, sad and have just about lost hope of enjoying life in the UK.

And switch off the lights….

Going back to that post and no cash, good luck when people are in groups who wish to protest and control is applied. Look to Canada on that one.

Lord yes remember the farmers protests their accounts were frozen. Chilling.

Agree with @MyNameIsXwhich posts are you referring to exactly?

Well I've no idea. Paranoia roaming free.

There is a big difference between 52% relying on the State somehow and 52% not net contributor.

You can be both.

fiscal drag is a con. it makes people complain when they have had a payrise.

Some pay rises are so derisory they need complaining about.

Good point. I’ll take that.

Benefits should be paid in stamps, for food and utilities, including phone service. They should be traceable back to the person/family to whom they are issued.

Funny that.

So you think you’re best placed to decide how disabled people spend the disability benefits designed to support them. If cash benefits are swapped for services only there are going to be a lot of disabled people who can’t pay their gas and electricity bills, and will go without the necessities of supporting their conditions. Tell me you know absolutely nothing about being disabled without telling me…………………. I predicted this thread would descend into benefit bashing. Wasn’t wrong was I ?

Which sets us back decades and is designed to identify benefit claimants and shame them. Including disabled people who can’t simply swap stamps for the things they need. Critical thinking needs to be applied here.

Been there, done that.

This. There is an element on here who only want to punish and shame benefit claimants, regardless of their circumstances. God help them if they ever find themselves in similar circumstances and get a dose of reality of how the benefit system actually works instead of the distorted MN view of them being handed out like sweeties.

Yep. And it doesn’t work. Expensive to administer and ends up punishing and identifying/shaming the most vulnerable. There really are some disgusting opinions here from people who are probably privileged enough to have no idea of what the reality of a life on benefits actually is.

Would love to see how this would work for recipients of child benefit and other child related allowances. It’s bollocks and rooted in deep seated contempt for those who can’t support themselves.

I think maybe we all need to stop engaging with them. Nothing will change their minds except perhaps if their circumstances change for the worse.

Damn bad idea. That would mean I can't spend my Carer's Allowance on wine.

The people who work hard on NMW will, in the main, also be claiming UC, so will be entitled to the same things unemployed people claiming UC have access to. And if you’re going to tax assets are you going to include the homes people are living in. Because if you are, more people are going to lose their homes and be reliant on the rich and greedy landlords who bought up cheap properties for buy to let, pushed the rents up and are raking it in via UC rent payments.

Pause the whole asylum system for x amount of years

Slow down the net zero here which is making us poorer while having minimal impact on the planet

How much does that save? Make people pay for health care and raise their taxes. What with? Everyone is skint paying for ever increasing energy, food and housing. Rents and house prices off the charts because we insist on importing millions of people, the majority of whom are a huge net drain and also keep wages down.

The social contract is broken. The British people will not have tge piss taken out of them by paying more taxes to house illegal migrants in luxury hotels with everything given to them..if it meant things actually worked in this country then they might.

Large numbers get top ups due to low wages. Large companies, national and international being subsidised by taxes. Maybe the rich could get on board with ensuring that anyone they employ is paid a proper wage that supports a family.

Well it's your own fault X They probably think you're Elon Musk 😂

Reading an article on USA food stamps it doesn't work anyway no supermarket employee challenges the contents of your trolley when you present the stamps over there. Those days are long gone.

They'd just hire less staff so it's more people on benefits. Or they'd move their business elsewhere.

AI will take more and more jobs as it is, while we laughably keep importing millions of people and most of them are on benefits and we wonder why we're skint.