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

Has been done a gaziilion times already, re read the flurry of threads you claim to have been on.

Your role in education please?

NEU has only mentioned protecting terms and conditions of those in the private sector lose their jobs.

And the conditions to get that will be…ahem…impressive.

Destroy the triple lock.

Make people pay for healthcare at point of service (insurance system incoming).

Cut services.

Zilch to do with VAT then. No way should we as a country not administer on VAT luxury goods because high income families already enjoying a massive pay rise don’t like it.

The right thing to do is to get rid of all private education so that we all make sure that state education is funded and delivered better

Please answer my Q about why you think taxing the education of children is a good thing but not taxing the education of adults?
I have yet to meet a pro-vat supporter who can explain that.

My roles have been: teacher, teaching + learning coordinator, quality lead, ITP manager and I now work at an exam board.
Now what is your experience in education?

The right thing to do is to get rid of all private education so that we all make sure that state education is funded and delivered better

Agreed.

How are you now able to apply for benefits? Mamy thanks for any help

Absolutely!

But doing that doesn't = what you think it does. Independent schools aren't funded by state so how can closing them increase ££ going to state schools? If all independent schools closed it would cost taxpayer £4B more each year to educate those children. Your maths isn't mathsing here

Thankfully you can't get rid of independent schools, the court made thar clear.

All closing independent schools does = increase burden on taxpayer. You realise the money from VAT is going to housing, not state schools?

How does that work? Independent schools save taxpayer £4 B per year. How would state find that extra £4B?
Where would that extra money come from?

How does that work? Independent schools save taxpayer £4 B per year. How would state find that extra £4B?
Where would that extra money come from?

They both told me it was to do with VAT - it would have made things even tighter. Why bother working hard when your children's education is taxed?

VAT isn't a tax on luxury goods. You don't even know what you're talking about.

Why is UK right and every other country ij the world wrong on this?
We are now ideologically behind Nigeria as they have just reversed the education tax. We're behind a country where only 20% of girls get a secondary education, that's what you are supporting 👏👏

People need to pay more tax to fund public services properly. That gives a better society to live in for all of us

Small business/self employment tax evasion was a lot less of a problem before the 90s and 00s "improvements" of merging the governmental tax agencies, closing down local tax offices, making huge numbers of experienced tax inspectors redundant, etc. It was all a complete shit show.

Back in the 80s and 90s, we had local experienced tax inspectors who kept an eye on their local areas, they'd go to do physical inspections of the "books" of local small businesses and self employed. They'd cross check adverts in local newspapers offering trader services against tax records, they'd note new shops opening in their town and traders' vans driving around, and likewise check against the tax records.

Local knowledge - now completely lost. Just like we used to have local "bobbies" who kept an eye on their local patch for criminality etc.

Now it's all centralised and there's no local knowledge at all. The tax offices are little more than call centres, usually staffed with people with very low levels of training. There is a tiny number of experienced/qualified tax inspectors and they're engaged in "bigger" fish to fry mostly concerned with large scale frauds such as VAT missing trader frauds, R&D tax relief frauds, etc - the stuff where tens or hundreds of millions are involved.

Because no one is checking small business records on a routine basis like they used to do, tax evaders taking cash in hand and not declaring it have little to worry about as the chances of being caught are pretty close to zero.

So, yes, people refusing to pay cash in hand would actually be a massive help, but most people are inherently greedy and selfish so they'll take a discount for cash in hand thinking they've got a good deal, and not realising the trader has just made themselves an ever better deal by evading not only the VAT, but also income tax, national insurance and probably child maintenance too in some cases. Traders make out like they're doing the customer a favour, but in reality, they benefit far more!

Of course taxing children’s education is ridiculous, anyone who argues otherwise is just acting out of ignorance and spite which are motivations no Government should take advantage of. Unless the Greens or SNP have a majority in the next parliament, it’s going to be reversed anyway. Education tax will follow the Labour Party around like a bad smell for the rest of its existence and it’s well deserved, a really insidious policy.

But how does closing independent schools get you more tax?
The line was "closing independent schools = better funded state schools". My Q is how? How do you magic up that £4B you need if all independent schools close?
That £4B also only takes you to normal funding levels, not an increase in funding.

I totally agree in principal, but frankly I see that I'm paying more and more tax and it's not improving services. Too many people aren't working and just taking from the system. Many more people should work than currently are. If everyone who could work, was contributing to our communities then they would be nicer, safer, happier places.

Yet Tories and Reform both committed to reversing it

The super rich will pay for private tutors or send their kids abroad for better education, or probably move abroad themselves. They're not going to send their kids to the local crap comp.

Or, we end up with catchment areas that make schools private in all ways except the name - and we all pay for them! I know of several primaries like this - really expensive to get in the catchment, parents fundraise tens of thousands a year for specialist teachers.

Every party has committed to reverse it apart from
SNP and Green, that’s because the policy is disgusting, backwards and self defeating.

Not really in the trenches then.

Private education is a luxury service a tiny percentage of the population uses that has a massive impact on equality within the UK. The vast majority of users of private education won’t even blink an eye. Every pupil can access a free state place with zero VAT if they so wish. University education isn’t a luxury service, and there is no alternative. It can help with equality and a far bigger percentage of the population can access it.

And back to the op…..It must be frustrating to feel the country has most definitely moved on as regards listening to the whining about private school fees only a tiny percentage can afford. However maybe read the room. Everybody else is worrying about the cost of food and keeping a roof over heads.

Did anyone expect to be better off?
My hope was that public services and infrastructure would be improved, not individual finances.

LOL Taxing six year olds going to school and closing down schools isn’t going to help you keep a roof over your head, but crack on.