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.

Think that is what they want as we know the outcome for severe poor health.
The current pensioners had respect for the elderly when young something the current younger generation are lacking. WTF is wrong with them.

I think you managed to miss the point quite spectacularly, pretty much on everything.

I'll leave you to it.

But they absolutely can and in some cases do. They can lay people off or make you redundant depending on business need. I think many of us have navigated precarious times in businesses or own our own business and understand that earnings fluctuate.

Thanks
some people just haven’t got a clue
A lot of pensioners are surviving on from £9,100 per year to £11,900 a year for everything
Thats, for some, less than a maintenance loan for Uni even for those students living at home and yet many elderly
cannot drive so need to take public transport
and have more health needs than students
and have higher bills through heating needs

13% of pensioners rely on the state pension alone. I think we need to real all comments like this in that context. 16% of pensioners live in poverty.

31% of children live in poverty (almost double).

It will take a change of government to review benefits which is urgently required. Ditto the NHS. It cannot continue in its current format. And someone who said benefits should allow you to,live comfortably…words just fail me. Who will,be paying for this? Et it won’t be the PP who mentioned it.

What also is not being mentioned because it’s difficult to prove is the black economy. We all know people working cash jobs to top up their benefits. They don’t keep quiet about it. A friends friend (I know!) has never earned more than £12k per year. Does cash in hand roles in the property business. Yes, HMRC. could come after him but they can barely run a competent call centre and when you get through they are poorly trained and clearly working from home when they eventually answer - I am not particularly comfortable thinking a call centre agent is discussing out-loud my salary, queries etc from their kitchen table, back bedroom etc and where they could inadvertently leave their PC open for others within their home to see.

The PM and many labour politicians are members of The Fabian Society ....practically creating a level field almost like communism with everyone about the same. EXCEPT them of course. Khan is vice chair. Please look at this and BLAIR is behind the PM wanting a unified Europe blob called area 49. They do not support individual cultures/nationalities. Hence so much name calling from the far left. Please please people look for yourselves this is why they hate our flags our national pride our culture they get rich and put us down.

It is really depressing that the first response nails it, then people underneath fight over who gets the crumbs again. People never learn. Neither the average worker or benefits claimants are well off. We are all struggling. Why are we not targeting the people who can pay. I'm not even talking the average aspirational higher tax payer here either, but the tax dodging bilionaires.

I'm not a Waspi woman, I am younger. I was never informed. I'm one of the lucky ones who worked for a LA for 42 years so could retire at 60, but not on my full pension due to the increase in eligible age! What grinds my gears is that I thought I would have my LG pension plus my state pension and I don't. I'm not skint though - no mortgage etc. However, I think making women work 7 more years and men 2 more years, is economic folly. We should be freeing up jobs for the young people.

What a crock of shite.

Interestingly of the third of children that live in poverty it equates numerically with a third of larger families ( stats for England and Wales) and yet since the introduction of the two child cap on benefits there has been no reduction in family sizes of more than two kids.

of note no stats on whether there has been a reduction in 4,5 etc children per family. The stats are just for all families in excess of two kids

Your 16% figure, ie 3% higher than those on state pension, clearly indicates that even with the full state pension pensioners are still in poverty and this is because pensions are still trying to catch up with historical stagnation. Hence the triple lock and yet so many on here think the triple lock is some kind of luxury and should be stopped.

Theres no reason to compare poverty in pensioners and poverty in children. It’s not a pic mix on which shall we hit with poverty.

That's easy then as your against benefits you can just opt not to claim child benefit yourself

I am a benefit claimant as I am unable to work. UC is paid into my bank account and is mine. I am grateful that there is a safety net for people like me. I am grateful my to CPN who helped me apply. I can spend my mney how I want because there are no conditions on how I spend it. Of course I spend it on bills and food but when I have some left then I can treat myself to some nice thing.
But when I see stuff on here criticising people for claiming benefits then also expecting them to personally thank each tax payer on here like they are doing them a favour. I can not get on board with that. I bet most of you would cut benefits altogether because you think it is a lifestyle choice. Take my money away but please take away my disabilities too.

So what exactly are you whining about? You retired early anyway, on a better pension than anyone younger than you will get and you have no housing costs. What is the issue, other than that you wanted more money sooner?

It's stuff like this that reduces sympathy for those actually struggling.

Don't be daft. The UK already has some of the lowest benefits and pensions in Europe, despite the right wing media telling you that people on benefits have a "lavish" lifestyle.

Labour needs to get rid of its incompetent chancellor and focus on growth, not taxing and cutting everything. It also needs to implement a wealth tax.

"I'd also row back some the massive increases to the personal allowance in recent years."

Which massive increases to personal allowance? It's been frozen since 2022, and will remain frozen until (at least) 2028.

While this is IMO a bare-knuckle fight inside the Labour party, the time is coming when it will be inevitable that any government will have to freeze benefits, and make them (a) contingent on contributions and (b) time-limited except for those with life-limiting illnesses or very severe physical or mental impairments or disabilities.

Of course, we may get to see up close what happens in France when the IMF take over. That might focus attention.

No I'm stating FACTS off the government themselves who state illegals cost British taxpayer 8 MILLION POUNDS PER DAY IN HOTELS AND FOOD.

I suggest you take a look yourself you loony leftie and then come back to me with a sensible response!!

I can't believe that some buffoon posted that "retirement is a choice".

I assume that this person has found a magic wand to make sure that people no longer age or develop health conditions. I look forward to having 75 year old firefighters, 80 year old footballers and 90 year old bricklayers as a result.

Mindblowing stupidity...

I was with you until you got to PIP. There are certainly other countries in the world who have similar systems to PIP. France provides financial aid to cover additional expenses caused by a disability. It assesses a person's difficulty in everyday life similarly to the way PIP does here.

Denmark has an assessment system and offers monthly payments based on cost. Norway has several rates determined by the level of disability - similarly to the way PIP works. Sweden has a system of different rates, also based on levels of cost. Germany has a disability pension which is reviewed based on inflation and Italy has a disability benefits system based on cost of living. The USA and Australia have systems of disability benefits - some of which are means-tested and some of which are universal.

I worked as a disability outreach worker for over twenty years. The PIP assessment system is no more up for fiddling that any other system. Whatever safeguards you have in place, there will always be some who can get around them but generally fraud and error in the disability benefits system is less than one percent.

If the proposed cuts to PIP were centred around tightening of the rules and requiring more robust medical evidence for MH and spectrum conditions instead of allowing self identification, this would go some way towards bringing the costs down, as the rise has been proven to be as a result of the PIP system introduced in 2013 allowing claims for MH and similar conditions, where previously they were limited to physical disability with the exception of a very few MH conditions. The Equality Act 2010 determines that formal diagnosis isn’t necessary for someone to be considered disabled, and this has also led to an increase in claims.

Appeals are another area where bucketloads of money could be saved. At the moment the decision making process within the PIP system isn’t fit for purpose - many claimants are wrongly denied benefits and have to resort to costly tribunals to get a fair hearing. If the assessment and awards system was made fairer and more transparent it would eliminate the need for these tribunals.

Making people on universal credit pay tax would be a good idea. Why exactly do they not have to?

I get the state pension with a slight increase because I never opted out of SERPS. I get £1,098 a month which takes me slightly over my tax allowance so I have to pay tax on it. Annoys me a bit as I paid tax for almost 50 years.

My neighbour (single guy) doesn't work because he doesn't want to. Says he has such bad anxiety he can't leave his house so therefore can't work but in fact goes out almost every day, often several times a day (dog walking, shopping, seeing his girlfriend etc). He gets more in universal credit than my pension but doesn't pay a penny tax.

Also people on benefits often get cheaper entry into places, pay less for evening classes etc.

Me and DH have booked tickets for a Christmas even at a local stately home. There is no discount for pensioners and it cost us £36 each. For people on benefits it is £3!!!! So fair NOT.

I think you are classing all migrants as illegal whereas many who are housed by our government turn out to be legally here

i mean if it was that simple that all were rejected we could send them home much quicker as there would be no legitimate ones to rescue

not all in the hotels are illegal

Basic universal credit is £400 per month. Go try and live on it before you proudly advertise your cruelty.

What would be the point of paying UC and then making the recipients pay tax ? It just makes it more complicated and more expensive to administer. Some contributory benefits are already taxable and those claiming UC and working would be paying tax once they reached the threshold.

I took my children to the zoo with those universal credit tickets. They wouldn't be able to go otherwise. Why begrudge people that?

Much better to slash benefits as taxing them adds another admin layer. Removal of additional perks for UC should be the first change to welfare. Easy to implement.