The autumn budget should cut benefits before increasing tax

[Leett]

There is talk of Labour breaking their election pledge and increasing income tax by 2p. I doubt they'd do that because voters will revolt. However they need to do something with the state pension due to increase by 4.7% next year.
I really hope they cut benefits / pensions before the deciding to increase taxes.

My friends are not asking for sympathy, I'm just stating what I know to be true about their financial circumstances. One friend was a self employed builder, earning good money but somehow this wasn't transferred into a private pension, so that was obviously a mistake.
Sickness can have a major impact on peoples' capacity to work and save too.

So then what?

there’s nobody here having babies or working. The country would collapse.

"I think they should just reduce all benefits by 30%. Simple as that. Most people would then find that the idea of working isn't as bad as they thought."

Yes I am sure that will mean my profoundly disabled adult son functioning at two years old, will be able to work. They will need to make room for his three carers as well.

No housing costs?

You think we get free heating and water and electricity?
Council tax?

And one group is on a fixed income. The other isn't

How many disabled children do you have?

They should stop the stupid child benefit rules and make that fairer. Household Income £60k end of. It’s ridiculous as it stands!

I also think UC when you rent vs owning is unfair and beyond stupid. So they should strip that back too.

they won’t though. It will just be more tax.

Please don't ask a question then get upset when someone answers. The world needs to change - it just isn't sustainable at the current rate of borrowing more and more at higher and higher costs.

Labour MPs are pressuring on this. They’ve created a bigger funding problem due to NI policy but politically Labour will feel they have to respond to a report on the 2 child benefit cap. They’ve snookered themselves on this.

only 6

Thank you for adding some facts. The ‘tax Amazon’ people are just so clueless. Amazon isn’t going to make the tiniest dent in the tax we need to raise, and yet people like to think they’re the answer to all our problems. No one wants to face the truth that tax rises and drastic spending cuts are needed.

Benefits culture is very much like a universal income. In fact the clue is in the name universal credits. People are being paid by the government top ups to keep the system going.
If we remove it it collapses and nobody gets anything. Believe me. Somebody far far clever than any of you has sat down and done the maths on this over 30 years ago and this was decided to be the cheapest option.
None of it is Coincidental or a mistake

I don't like the pensioner bashing I see on here - it's very selfish. Personally, I don't see why anyone should get child benefit just for having a child - you want one, you pay for it - don't expect others to subsidise your choice. When I was a child, there was no payment at all for a first child - my parents seemed to get by OK.

The Reform who say there are £50 billion in savings to be found but are unable to give a single example? When asked all they can say is "well, it must be there".

They won't cut pensioner benefits as that would affect too many of their voters, they're committed to getting rid of the two child cap, they're planning to spend billions in deportations, their plans to leave the ECHR could well impact the FTA with the EU and is a threat to the Good Friday Agreement. None of this is going to help the economy in the slightest.

They got elected to local councils promising to cut "waste" and so far they've found....zilch.

An ageing population is expensive. 14 years of austerity was expensive as all the money that wasn't spent tackling problems early just results in more expense down the line. Brexit was expensive. Health care is expensive.

Reform contributed to the latter two problems and has no plan to tackle the first.

I suppose they might make health care cheaper since more people will be dead first, as in the USA.

😁

My adult son is currently unemployed, desperately trying to get a job (any job) his UC is £730 a month, his rent is £600, I'm already feeding and clothing him

yep lets cut the benefits even more

what they should look at are those who rinse the benefits system who have never worked a day (unless cash in hand) in their lives

I'm not actually coming from this from the perspective of what is good, fair or right on this occasion tbh. My argument is actually one of self interest and pragmatism. I know that the poorer people become the more of 'a drain' they become on services I need myself. I'd rather pay more tax than be unable to get medical care because the NHS is overwhelmed by poverty related conditions, to know the police may be able to help me if I need them rather than dealing with someone shoplifting baby food. To not have to wait 5 hours for an ambulance should I need one this winter because they're going out to elderly people, critically ill because they're too scared to put the heating on. Poverty is unpleasant and inconvenient and you don't have to be living in it for this to be the case. Why would we want to create more?

Before they do anything they need to sort out means testing properly. The age old ‘it’s too difficult/expensive’ to accurately do has worn out. Then blanket benefits would be a thing of the past

I dont receive benefits-not even child, and I dont think they should be cut. However I do think when working people (and I know this includes some benefits recipients) are not getting inflationary pay rises (our company far below) the rises to benefits and pensions should be reviewed. I would however agree with a 1% increase in income tax. Just wish they had pit this in their manifesto and been clear it was going to thebNHS and social care. They would still have got in and I think been respected for it.

34% of people on UC are in work. In other words, companies, like many supermarkets with gross profits are in fact being heavily subsidised by the taxpayer. It is corporate welfare that needs to be cut, companies need to start wages people can live on.

Because you're not relying on pension/ benefit to live, obviously!🙇🏻‍♀️🙇🏻‍♀️

Yes, I see it now...

I’m not upset. I find your view point hilariously ignorant and privileged. It’s fine though I don’t know you, thank god

It's funny that ever since Thatcher we've been told that benefits will be cut so that "scroungers" don't receive anything.

And yet the country has worse poverty than ever.

It's almost like the attempts to restrict benefits only to the "deserving poor" just don't work and bring extra costs down the line.

But they won’t.
Do you use the self-service check out?
Do you have an option not to use the self service checkout in your local supermarket?
It’s being removed from most of ours locally.
More jobs gone.

And that’s only the start of it

Yes, the same with people banging on about HS2 and PPE. The amount of money we are taking about is so much bigger than this, yet people can't get their heads around it. They simply can't accept that we are spending more than we can afford as a country.

Turkeys don't vote for Christmas. Nobody that is reliant on benefits is going to want to see them cut. Meanwhile the majority of those that are stuck funding all this absolutely don't want further tax rises and can see cuts are necessary. It will be painful and unpleasant but it is economically necessary.