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.

its only since 2018 !!! that all employers had to pay into a private pension.

workers can opt out though & many do as they can't afford it. Then employers don't have to contribute.

Well it wouldn't it would help stop benefits cuts to those who need it and stop our tax increasing 🤷🏼‍♀️

The older generations also went through some pretty rough times - housing crashes , mortgage interest at 15% , mass unemployment (25% in our region )

don’t get caught in a race to the bottom trap

all people deserve dignity, food, shelter , health and we are rich enough to provide that for all if we chose

Well it wouldn't it would help stop benefits cuts to those who need it and stop our tax increasing

Taxes are only going up. To people actually realise the demographic issue we are facing and how expensive the associated costs are. We already have more over 65 yr olds then under 16 yr olds.

@childofthe607080s you can only provide that by raising taxes...

I think you’re talking about state pensions there.
‘There were ( and are for many of us ) no generous pension schemes for most of us in the private sector.

In fact most employers didn’t pay a penny in until they were forced to in 2018 and many of us have lost our ( multiple ) pensions over the years in management fees that weren’t covered by employers who refused to take them on when jobs changed. Explained already in this thread

What i don't understand is, pension credit is made up to £3 pounds just under the full state pension ( so someone said on here recently, so that must mean you need at least that money to live on, I think the pension if you have paid up full should be more than pension credit, it make it feel not worth it, we might as well pay in a little less and get all the benefits.

Agree
but I’d also add and able enough

Another benefits claimants hater.

Which is exactly the attitude lots of people take. There needs to be a marked difference between what you get if you contribute to the system and what you get if you don't.

@IAmNotASheep you understand that one reason current pensioners hold so much wealth is to do with private pensions? That doesn't mean every single pensioner has a state pension. Why do you think there are better options for today's young?

🎯

It's not helpful to say who "deserves" what if you don't have bright ideas as to how it should be paid for. Are we rich enough? Rich enough to provide what sort of standard, for how many, or for how long? We won't be rich if all we do is spend.

So the proposition is to go after other poor / relatively poor people but not the corporations who pay no tax or the Royals we fund and then they charge millions for the NHS to use their land. I despair at how easily people will attack each other but ignore where the big money is extracted..super ill educated race to the bottom stuff

@IAmNotASheep

"Rising incomes from private pensions have been the largest single contributor to growth in average pensioner incomes over the last two decades. This is a result of both gradually increasing coverage (54% of pensioners received income from private pensions in 2019–20 compared with 50% in 2002–03"

At the very least they now have the benefit of employer contributions.

All those born after 2000 will have that for their entire working lives. All those born before haven’t

Thats a huge benefit to taking care of those later years in life

Another point worth remembering is that the existence of the Baby Boomer generation has been known about for least seventy years, together with the issues that would eventually cause with an ageing population.

Most governments have been all too happy to kick the can down the road and failed to prepare for this entirely foreseeable situation. Now it suits some of them to make these post war children the villains of the piece - but not one person posting on this thread got to choose when they were born. Neither did they.

@IAmNotASheep As I said plenty can't afford to stay in the schemes and you realise how many employers pay 4%.

Thats a huge benefit to taking care of those later years in life

No the benefit was the existence of DB pension schemes.

@Zanzara the government has kicked the can down the road but voters don't want to hear it. Hence Brexit, outcry over winter fuel etc.

Teresa's May social care idea was decent but it was hated and off she went.

But HOW would you do it? Unless you’ve got an idea works better than the BEPS pillars, it’s already being done.

Tax companies more isn’t a helpful slogan when a lot of international work has been done on this already and there’s nothing novel about the idea.

@padso I’ve just read the next two pages of people squabbling about things saying “but this, but that…” which really evidences this point! Nobody seems to be prepared to accept that things are such a mess that a cohesive and coherent plan that reforms all of these areas of spending and taxation is needed, to generate productivity growth (without which living standards cannot rise).

Sadly pretty much everything any of our Governments over the last couple of decades have done has had precisely the opposite effect. It’s becoming a bit like a game of hot potato, waiting to see which political party is going to get burned hands when the music stops.

The fact that you were the only one that replied to my post also makes me realise it’s probably not worth bothering to try to communicate this stuff to people. Perhaps people couldn’t be bothered to read it because it was long?… As though the solutions to start fixing complex economic problems are possible to express in a little three word slogan.

I think the dolphins may be right. I should get my towel, put my thumb in the air and hope a spaceship is passing (preferably not the Vogons; I hate slugs). 🐌

Dare I say we also need to review the public sector pensions? They are guaranteed unlike DH which dropped in value by 10% after last budget

And if your hypothetical cleaner is on the bones of his or her arse?

@TheClaaaw Well MNs does skew quite old so lots will be thinking about themselves.

I genuinely think this is why Reform has become so popular, they are promising lower taxes and better services. It's bullshit, most of the people who vote for them will know it's bullshit but they rather bullshit than accept reality.

Agree with this. I work as an exam invigilator and we have had a huge increase in the number of students who want to be accommodated in a separate room because they are anxious about the exams. This is expensive as we require extra invigilators and also feeds in to the idea that being anxious prevents people from facing standard tasks in life. For some students they have extreme anxiety eg vomiting and do need separate accommodation, but for others feeling nervous about an exam is a completely normal reaction and we can help with this eg sitting at the back of the room, sitting near the door, rest breaks etc - we need to help students to manage their nerves and to be more resilient.