To wonder how the UK will look in 3 years time?

[Labradorlover987]

I was inspired to write this after reading the UC post that was just reported - the govt’s welfare bill has passed but was watered down so unlikely to make any real savings.

I earn 40k, have a school age child and just feel like I am living hand to mouth 😩 I 100% think there should be a welfare systems that supports people on low incomes but I wonder how the current system will be sustained in the long run?

Just wondered what other people thought.

I actually wouldn’t mind paying more in taxes if we could be guaranteed more in services etc - for example my council tax just went up and the services seem even worse this year than usual.

How would they tax wealth? How would it work?
Property (council) tax is based on value of property.
VAT is paid on what we spend.
We have IHT payable on anything we leave.
The only thing most people own is their home. If you need care you have to sell it. If you leave it to your children they pay tax on it. If you need carers to visit you have to pay for that. If you have enough money to pay for your care home, you pay twice as much as the LA pays for one room, so you subsidise someone who can't pay.
I am not sure what the wealth tax would be, but genuinely would like to understand.

We can’t build more houses until we invest in drainage and sewer works, the former relies heavily on the latter or there will be more shit and piss floating around in seas, lakes and rivers.

@frozendaisy 😆😆

It has

It’s fucked everything

Neighbours go to war over fences! No one likes anyone being in their gardens it’s fucking madness

personally I already pay enough in tax! The trouble was raising taxes it never goes where it’s needed! Road tax is a good example it was supposed to go towards keeping roads in a good state, but only a fraction does now! Services rarely improve, what needs to happen is that it needs to be worthwhile people working as the more people in work generate more tax!

Where do you live??
I work in a GP practice and 80% of requests patients are responded to same day, the other 20% the next day. Same at the practice I am registered with. I put a form in for an issue with my knees (non-urgent), called the next day, seen F2F the next day. Ref for an MRI and 2 weeks later thats already booked. The NHS is busy and some departments have long waits but if your GP is that crap vote with your feet and register with a proper one!

yes the majority do, were already a country that's busting at the seems. not enough housing, school places, dentists, doctors. roads are already cram packed. we really do not need any more people on this tiny island.

I think people believe all migrants are bad/costly/illegal. I am here to encourage people to use language more carefully and accurately. Some migrants who may not be contributing yet are here as refugees (remember how we left plenty in the lurch by our hasty and unplanned withdrawal from Afghanistan, despite the fact they had been working with the British army and were now in massive danger from the Taliban?). Should they go? How long do we give them to start paying taxes? And what about if they are children (families were in danger too)?

Things are much more nuanced than some people want to believe.

I am also not sure that if all illegal migrants were sent away, that it would solve all of the problems facing the UK today.

I was wondering if there was a typo somewhere in that sentence.
“Not much”? Sorting out the NHS alone would be massive project.

How would they tax wealth? How would it work?
Google it, lots of suggestions.
Property (council) tax is based on value of property.
And these values are relevant? when are they from?
We have IHT payable on anything we leave.
There are thresholds so it's not on anything, but again Google can help you here.
The only thing most people own is their home. If you need care you have to sell it. If you leave it to your children they pay tax on it
Most people don't end up in care homes & if you do you don't always have to pay. Care in the home should be charged too, similar to Teresa Mays policy. See previous point about IHT thresholds.

We can't increase income tax anymore particularly when younger people are paying more in & getting less out. older people haven't paid enough in to the system & the demographics are now working against us.

Yet British Gas etc keep posting their record breaking profits so if it's because gas and electricity costs so much more (it doesn't) then their profits wouldn't be so sky high.

Of course not. Do you think that in order to have practical, workable policy suggestions you have to do it as a job?!

Are we seriously saying we don’t expect the general public to have enough knowledge to make informed suggestions rather than just throw out sound bites?

It’s simple to understand, The more you have the more tax you pay! Anyone with a private pension how ever small pays tax at a minimum of 20% on it! The value of you private pension is deducted from your tax allowance, so the tax allowance is currently 12,500, someone with a private pension of say £12000, will only get a tax free allowance of £500! We need to move away from the concept that every pension is wealthy!

I am also not sure that if all illegal migrants were sent away, that it would solve all of the problems facing the UK today.

I am. The difference would be virtually indiscernible and different scapegoats would need to be found.

Exactly this! I’ve never had a problem with a GP appointment and not every appointment needs to be face to face. I had a ruptured Achilles tendon and needed my certificate extending, I don’t need a face to face appointment for that a telephone consultation was more than adequate!

Islamic courts aren’t secretive, neither do they hold any legal power. They’ve been operating since the 80s to support muslims with dispute resolution. They’re basically mediators who advise Muslims under Islamic teachings, of which plenty of non Muslim services are also available.

the same process operates off rabbinical law.

what is the problem with them?

yes the majority do, were already a country that's busting at the seems. not enough housing, school places, dentists, doctors. roads are already cram packed. we really do not need any more people on this tiny island.

our population is ageing hence why various governments have favoured immigration.
School places in most parts are not bursting, schools are closing as birth rates have dropped dramatically. An ageing population even if shrinking means more doctors are needed etc.

This will be quickly diminished. One house between 2/3 siblings, some used for care expensives, what’s left of the pot divided by 5 grandchildren when their parents die- it’ll be gone in 2 generations.

who will accessing those assets and value from the inheritors? The elites who will control the assets again. We’re back to the 1800s before you know it, farming the landlords land.

Do they? Most migrants are working and paying taxes. They pay more taxes than UK citizens. They work in jobs that UK citizens don't want to do. They prop up the healthcare and care services. Many are working in exceedingly highly skilled and highly paid jobs. We have a falling birth rate in the UK, and an aging population. The cost of pensions is one of the biggest drains on government spending, so the falling birth rate is a massive issue. It really is not as simple as clicking one's fingers and 'sending everyone back to where they came from'. Withdrawing all migrants from the UK, embedded as they are in our economy, would have far-reaching and long-term consequences, and really wouldn't sort out all the country's ills overnight.

Pretty much the same in just three years- many thing skating along on fumes - high taxes but hitting point where they aren't rasing much revenue for government.

I think we'll have high energy prices and increased frustration about that - as the push for heat pumps continues to miss targets.

I think uni sector may well have finally hit crisis point or be about to - schools will be limping along still - NHS will be too.

I think there may well be a lot of voter frustration next election and lots of smaller parties will do better - but think it will still be likely a Labour government with a very small majority who will really struggled to get anything done and may collapse before term ends.

Withdrawing all migrants from the UK, embedded as they are in our economy, would have far-reaching and long-term consequences, and really wouldn't sort out all the country's ills overnight.

it's unbelievable that people still don't get this. What would the NHS & social care look like without immigrants?!

Your dad is very naive. They can and will come for his personal wealth and they can take his house. They willl (rightly) say he took tax money and kept it intentionally. They will (rightly) say he operated a system of preference payments. The official receiver will sue him and take his assets to repay it
you can’t seriously think the government just allow someone to register a Ltd company then not bother paying taxes.

Plenty of "less popular" areas have surplus housing and surplus infrastructure, plus brown field sites etc with good infrastructure.

The problem is the centralisation and concentration of business and homes in relatively small areas of the UK. Mostly due to the London Centric nature of politics over the past few decades.

The answer from successive governments has been to relocate the "undesirables" into those areas with surplus homes, i.e. ex industrial towns, ex seaside towns, etc., which has caused them to decline further due to criminal behaviour, not surprising as these are the kind of places where they encourage newly released prisoners to relocate to, along with asylum seekers, unemployed, drug users, etc.

Easy answer - encourage and incentivise employers to relocate out to the regions and then it will re-generate those run down towns, bring empty homes back into use, get developers interested in redeveloping run down town centres, brown field sites, etc.

Our country's problem isn't too many people, it's too many people in the wrong places!

In fact, I have see numerous TikTok’s from people claiming this about their own countries. Most recently Ireland.

In theory, they "could" do all that, but in reality, they barely scratch the surface and the number of people they successfully target is a tiny proportion of the number of tax evaders in that way. It's certainly likely that the PP's Dad will get away with it all, especially if he closes down his company before HMRC start proceedings, which often takes years to do anyway as they're pretty incompetent these days. Not saying what he's doing is right, but in reality, he'll probably get away with it!