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.

The cleaner is likely to often be working cash in hand. Fine until you cannot clean anymore but then they get pension credit at the same level as the state pension.

Absolutely agree. The unicorn voters.

We have higher levels of IT in Scotland.

As though the solutions to start fixing complex economic problems are possible to express in a little three word slogan.

@TheClaaaw I mean people are shocked labour hasn't turned things around in 2 years despite almost 2 decades of low growth.

@PropertyD problem with that is wage stagnation and a shortage of workers

Agree re The past benefit ie the DB schemes, especially for public sector workers which is costing the tax man now.
Only a few are still remaining in the 15% range I understand.

Most people were never offered this
It was mainly some large private corporations and mainly public sector workers

The figures on those are distorting what most pensioners are living on

I think the shock is more they haven't done anything to even start to turn things around, and if anything have taken actions which have made it worse.

It is delusional. That said, everything Labour have done since taking office has made the situation worse and suppressed productivity and growth further; precisely the opposite of what they said they’d do during the election campaign. They are just as economically illiterate as the Conservatives, but not quite as much in the realms of fantasy and dreaming of unicorns and a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow as Reform, of course.

It’s absurd that we don’t have a single political party setting out anything resembling a functional and evidence-based, coherent economic plan. There is nobody for sensible, moderate, reasonable and rational people to vote for.

@TheClaaaw absolutely, we need long term, cross party solutions in we want any hope n

I disagree with workers being given the option to opt out.
I also think something should be put in place to ensure the self employed all pay into a pp as well.

Birth rates continue to go down so this isn’t a problem that will go away
and
if we continue to lose more net providers to more tax friendly countries we need to prepare and not dig are head in the sand as we have been doing since the birth years of todays boomers

@IAmNotASheep you are still
misunderstanding. Despite auto enrolment younger generations will not have better private pensions.

Why do you assume everyone who is state pension age wants to receive what is deemed as a benefit. I’m not at that age yet but intend to carry on working and kick back at what has become an increasingly ageist society. I actually dread getting old and having to tolerate benevolent ageism and baby talk language doesn’t give me any reason to carry on. I certainly intend to refuse treatment for any conditions which would otherwise kill me and will take steps to ensure I don’t get to the stage where I’ll need care. The government can’t have it both ways. People are living longer often with an appalling quality of life because every ailment is treated.

@IAmNotASheep again nuance. A newly qualified teacher can easily struggle to pay tax, student loan, rent & pension out of there salary.

I think virtually everyone just thinks about themselves. That’s clear from this type of thread: take it from them, not from me because I deserve it /have worked hard/been sensible…etc etc.
Do I want to pay more tax? Of course not, particularly when this money is being used to service debt: govt borrowing this financial year is over 83 billion, 16 billion more than the same time in 2024. However, I do recognise that unpopular economic decisions will need to be made.

@ShanghaiDiva disagree, I have dc so think of them.

Absolutely Agree
Completely unacceptable how us in the private sector are at the mercy of the markets
Many pensioners have lost everything in a crash!

The way pension credit works is on a set amount of money you need to live on according to your circumstance. If you claim disability benefits it’s slightly more to help cover the extra costs. If your pension and other income is below the minimum threshold, pension credit is paid to top it up to that level. Many pensioners are on the old state pension, which is much less that the current one, so pension credit tops that up to the required level.

I would love to retire at 65 with triple lock state pension but i'm not an idiot.

“I have to say the pensioners I know seem pretty comfortable, whilst the people I know who are finding things very tight/difficult tend to be working age with young children who need childcare.”

These pensioners may well have gone without for years and may have found things very tight/difficult with no childcare themselves in order to be “comfortable” now - why should they be living uncomfortably in their older years?

I was just replying to it. Agree on many of the points. The first step is to reform the tax system and address cliff edges to increase productivity.
On pension, how would you communicate to those who have paid in (via NI) that they were not eligible for a state pension (if it was to be tapered).

I’d replace it with inflation only. I would also limit all annual pay rises in the public sector to the same inflationary rise. Everyone gets the same, nurses, police, teachers etc, level playing field. This would stop different sectors playing off against each other.

These pensioners may well have gone without for years and may have found things very tight/difficult with no childcare themselves in order to be “comfortable” now - why should they be living uncomfortably in their older years?

Why should they automatically live comfortably though. And many have just got very lucky nothing to do with hard work, going without. But if you want to go down that road young people are going without secure housing & decent wage growth, forgoing dc, when do they get a break?

It is noticeable.

It’s not everyone paying an extra 1-2p.

It’s 1-2 percentage points. For my husband and I, that would likely equate to around £90 a month EACH, which I can assure you we’d miss.

Thereby creating a two tier system and the gap between rich and poor just gets wider. How do you differentiate between someone who has spent a life on benefits and doesn’t want to work, and someone who hasn’t contributed NI through work because they’ve spent a lifetime caring for someone disabled ?

Didn’t we all when we were newly qualified.
Actually even in my 30s ( dh and I had to move to a completely new area to afford to buy when I was 33 and he was 38 ) Just like all our friends really
and I was lucky enough not to have to pay for my bachelors or masters.

Crashes in the construction industry and recessions screwed us over