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.

This government is just spiteful

Raising money through taxes to pay for ever increasing costs isn’t ever going to work

The NHS, housing and pensions are 3 of the biggest expenses so why not think about trying to cut down 2 of these expenses by paying the 3rd more.

Not by being mean and giving less to everything . That just isn’t going to work. You have to give people a better alternative. Encouraging pensioners to live abroad by paying them extra (to cover costs of health insurance and a monthly amount to stay outside the UK.

The cost savings to the NHS because there would be reduced spending on free prescriptions, GP appointments for cough and colds etc, X-rays, ambulance and paramedic bills and hospital visits for broken bones from falls and slips, no more treatment and pain medication for osteoarthritis, treating someone for diabetes, fatal and non fatal heart attacks etc

Living abroad would mean that if they owned their home they could sell or rent it out. If they rented privately it would free up a private rental and if rented through the council another family member who needed a home could take on the tenancy or giving up the tenancy all together.
This would free up more homes than Angela Rayner could ever build on any allotment

Also they used to have this in the USA (they still do in some states)

they still have men who are imprisoned for life, in their 50s, for being caught with pot when they were 17 three times. Three times and you’re out.

disgraceful, ridiculous idea only suggested by people who truly haven’t thought properly about it

Are you kidding? we are so unique in the uk in that we have a beautiful supply of incredibly wealthy people who can’t leave.

we call them the aristocracy

Care in the home is charged. You can't have a carer without s financial assessment. You pay a set rate per half hour visit. I think locally it is approx £20. My neighbour has a morning carer and she pays about that for 30 minutes.

@tissuesand house value isn't included is it?

They don’t keep posting record profits, they have done this year but the government allowed them to recoup the more half a billion in losses they accrued during the energy crisis after Russias invasion of Ukraine, when they were forced to sell energy at below cost prices

Also gas powered electricity generation is by far the most expensive form of electricity production. You’re confusing home gas prices with home electricity prices

@Bambamhoohoo don't most of them have their money offshore though? I can't see them ever coming from the aristocracy tbh, there is a weird deference to them by so many.

A lot of builders, dentists, doctors, etc. are immigrants- so we would be losing loads of providers of services, not just users of them.

Much of the decline in services in this country is not due to migration but to years of austerity- not helped by crises such as Covid.

Labour are throwing out sound bites. It’s not working for them.

Nope, this is not done by HMRC, this is the official receiver. The official receiver is an animal

it might take them years, but they’ll come. They’ll come after your family too. Just imagine the most aggressive bailiffs and law firms put together and you get the official receiver.

but as an aside, one thing labour have done is supercharge HMRC resource (I believe an extra 3000 fTC) and HMRC are also turning into animals. I see it leaking into every part of my work and personal life. They’ve been passively for years but now theyre coming

They don’t keep posting record profits, they have done this year but the government allowed them to recoup the more half a billion in losses they accrued during the energy crisis after Russias invasion of Ukraine, when they were forced to sell energy at below cost prices
Also gas powered electricity generation is by far the most expensive form of electricity production. You’re confusing home gas prices with home electricity prices

Housing market is very active where we are this summer, after a very slow previous year.

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.

yep & it really impacts our productivity having everything so concentrated.

I moved from the UK to Spain 6 years ago. Life is so much better here. Not just the weather, but the lack of entitled attitude of people, road congestion, fresh produce from markets, social life, house prices, etc etc. I’ve seen all the Changes in the UK over the last year and I certainly don’t aspire to live back there right now!

We can could plenty more houses, the house builder has to install drainage and sewers. It’s always been this way.

we struggle to build houses because land is so expensive, and planning is out of control bureaucracy

Go abroad where? They'd have to be accepted by other countries. Until 2016 a fair few people retired to Spain, France and other continental countries, but Brexit has largely put paid to that.

South Midlands.
It really is that bad! They usually reply to an e-consult within 3 days, but even for concerning symptoms it’s weeks for even a phone appointment. And that will be with a random GP, not necessarily the one you've been seeing about an issue. No wonder people take themselves off to A and E!
All the local practices seem to be the same judging by the towns social media groups.

Nope, I've been an accountant for 40 years and seen loads of these scenarios and the perpetrator gets away Scot Free. I've seen less than a handful where HMRC/Official Receiver take any action. Over the past 20 years since the new money laundering reporting laws came into force, I've made numerous "suspicious activity reports" of tax evasion in this and similar ways, and not a single one has been acted upon. Yes, a small number of cases (in proportion) are brought and prosecuted, but in reality, most people get away with it, especially at the lower end of the evasion scale. You need to be evading huge amounts (millions) to attract the attention of the Official Receiver.

Great post

if Migrants were sent away we would need another scape goat.

I’m pold enough to remember the 90s when the scape goats were teenager mothers (later we matured enough to realise how many of them were abused, groomed and raped, but they were the scum of society) and later British benefit scroungers.

How are you received as an immigrant?

Developers will install new services only where there are mains nearby. That's why we have all these developments alongside existing towns/villages etc as they "tap into" the existing infrastructure. What they won't do (as there's no money to do so) is create new infrastructure over large distances nor contribute to where existing infrastructure like water treatment works is already at capacity.

Will have to save this post to check in 3 years.
I don't think a great deal will have changed, we're slowly heading towards less jobs being available so eventually some kind of UBI will replace state pension/benefits etc, but it will be a bumpy road to get there.
Trump will be at the end of his presidency so that's hopeful.
We may have privatised the NHS which would save money.

Never a truer word was said about the dire quality of those that are supposed to lead us.
We have a liar as a PM telling us the Chagos selloff would cost us £3.4bn over its lifetime, when in reality FOI docs say its £35bn! UK taxes are rising and Mauritians are having a no income tax year paid us....

We have Reynolds saying he's a solicitor when he never qualified.

We have thieving Reeves reportedly misrepresented her job title whilst working for the Halifax.

And what can you even say about that dolt Lammy! Not the sharpest knife in the drawer is he.
We are constantly fed inaccurate stats about the level of illegals entering the country and are just expected to swallow these lies and now The Online Safety Act attempts to shut us up.

Well....an uprising is coming now that the safety of women is being sold down the river by this inept, corrupt shower of shite!

And these are the people that Unis turned out...
The next 3 years are going to be painful because our leaders are soooo out of their depth.
People should listen the The Planet Normal podcast with Alison Pearson and Liam Halligan for enlightenment.
The way this country is living now is unsustainable.

Exactly, the deference is bootlicking because they hold the real power. I would LOVE someone to get them.

they have some wealth abroad of course. But the vast majority is tied up in, you know, that stately home that queen Victoria gifted their ancestors for being jolly good supporters.

I would love to get my hands on those babies. They’re the ones the inheritance tax laws were created for, so we’ve started

the problem is you get these asset owning working class bootlickers doing their outrage for them.

Yes this. It is not just about paying more tax, this has already been happening. It's about the fact that even if you pay more it is just being sucked into a black hole and we only see deterioration of services across the board. We need good policies but fat chance that is going to happen. There is absolutely no good option on who to elect. Conservatives fucked up big time and depleted resources and Labour are doing absolutely 0, just talk and posturing. All I hear is we need to build more houses and now they are invading green belts. If you have travelled around the country recently you would be shocked to see what the new housing estates look like, horrid places. Therr is no talk whatsoever about policies about foreign ownership, houses being used as money laundering investments. Secondly second, third, etc homes. All of these would make a massive diference to the housing situation. This country treats housing just like the stock market instead of an essential human need. It is insane.