Is anyone better off since Labour

[Luckymum20]

I am not just talking financially but feeling optimistic about the future for children, old age.

With the £22 billion debt now pasing £50 billion.

The increase in Council tax (that they said the wouldn't do). OAPs raid on pensions and no Winter fuel relief. Changes to finance regarding care homes. Utilities up. TV licence up. Food costs up...

I know minimum wage has increased but all costs have increased by a greater amount!

In 2021 minimum wage was almost 30% lower than it is now...

So I ask. Is anyone actually feeling better off, optimistic and pleased with this Government.

Also the October budget of likely to bring more stains on the 'average working man"

YABU - change will happen. It a good thing.

YANBU - not good

Public sector then.

Yes, exactly this. The only people actually paying Scandinavian levels of taxation are the top 10% in the U.K. yet they’re the ones who apparently need to pay more.

I'm worse off but as a childless single working member of society no one gives a shit about me anyway, Labour or Tory it doesn't matter. The 25% discount on my council tax is not a lot in the grand scheme of things.

The IMF is far more likely to be called in to France than here. The French national debt is 120% of GDP.

Yeah wouldn’t be surprised if that was to go too.

Thanks to Brexit I'm worse off. And Labour haven't been magically able to fix that Tory screw up 🤷‍♀️

I left the country and am better off.

HMRC asked me to please return as they now have a massive loss in funding 😂

They are far too quick to spend worker's money (tax). We should be keeping more of what we earn, not less. No-one on less than 80k should be in the higher rate of tax (if it had kept in line with inflation, this would be the case).

Because,for my DC to have any sort of supported independence,his benefits will have to be used..it's not free ,and that cut will be the difference between someone in his shoes living with some sort of independence or not .
Take for example the mobility scheme..it's not aimed at people who are disabled single and not in work but living in a council flat .. because the money isn't there to allow them to have a car ..the money has to go on bills ..not on a car ..
Why do you think it is acceptable to hit the most vulnerable in society with cuts to the absolute pittance they get

And yet the mortgage rate is now trending downwards and is now its lowest since May2023.

Which raises the question of why Brexit is blamed for every single issue. France is the co leader along with Germany of the EU yet appear to be in an even weaker position than the UK with ever increasing debt. The EU came down hard in Greece for example but now find it impossible to curb France.

Yeh but that doesn’t actually affect pensioners though will it, as they’ll be dead.

I do think this policy is ill conceived though. It only hits DC policies, not DB policies that die with the holder. Seem a bit harsh on the poor DC pension holders who have to plough so much more into pensions, while paying high tax to pay for public sector DB pensions in the first place.

As pensioners we are slightly better off. The state pension increases cover day to day inflation and one of us has an index linked public sector pension. With interest rates still quite high we get a reasonable return on our savings. The big worry for us is if we will need to pay privately for medical care, so we have to keep more in savings in case knees, hips or cataracts become a problem. Overall I am pleased that minimum wage has gone up and childcare costs are now more affordable.

It’s not a question of whether we find it ‘acceptable to hit the most vulnerable in society’. We can have all the empathy in the world, but that doesn’t pay the bills.

You haven’t answered my questions. If we want a functional welfare state, how is all this to be paid for? More are now recipients than contributors. It’s an unsustainable situation.

And the Frnch Prime Minister François Bayrou is pushing to cut two of France's national holidays in order to rescue the country's finances. We already have less bank holiday so hopefully this won't be flouted here!

Yes, but bond yields move inexorably upwards despite cuts in the BofE base rate. This means that the institutions and people who buy bonds see the UK Government as a riskier proposition than before and, when compared to yields on other developed world government bonds, riskier than many of them. It’s come to something when the average household can borrow at a lower rate than the Government 😂

Yup, the money is soon going to run out.

But I’d have thought public sector workers usually get some sort of pay rise, not 0%. Is this a misconception?

Brexit is blamed because GDP has shrunk since the UK left the EU. Every single economic source agrees on this.

No one is better off, and things could easily become significantly worse before the next election. I do not take any pleasure in this outcome. I have no confidence at all in Reeves to turn this around.

No one is better off, and things could easily become significantly worse before the next election. I do not take any pleasure in this outcome. I have no confidence at all in Reeves to turn this around.

Yes I think you’re right they would. Just not enough in their eyes.

But if you choose to buy an annuity with your pension pot this effectively dies with the pensioner too.

thsts true. Maybe its a blunt way of trying to encourage DC pensioners to buy an annuity rather than not which has become more popular.

Basic rate income tax was over 30% here when I started work in the 1960s.