Where is the money going?!

[WilderHawthorn]

All we seem to hear at the moment is that spending needs to be cut and tax increased. I’m a middle earner (not higher rate tax) and don’t mind paying my fair share. But where is the money actually going?

welfare is being cut
education is on its knees
the NHS is a shambles
roads are atrocious
infrastructure generally seems poor
public transport is useless
social services are appallingly overstretched
the £ is at a terrible rate internationally
food inflation is huge

I get that illegal migrants and adult social care are huge costs, but where is the rest of it truly going? I cannot fathom the situation we’re in, is it truly to service the economic debt from Covid?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdrynjz1glpo.amp

This is a fair summary:

^But the working assumption of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), the government's independent official forecaster, is still that Brexit in the long-term will reduce exports and imports of goods and services by 15% relative to otherwise. It has held this view since 2016, including under the previous Government.

And the OBR's other working assumption is that the fall in trade relative to otherwise will reduce the long-term size of the UK economy by around 4% relative to otherwise, equivalent to roughly £100bn in today's money.^

The OBR (which the BBC refers to) publishes a fairly hefty amount of information, but fair warning, it's heavy reading: https://obr.uk/forecasts-in-depth/the-economy-forecast/brexit-analysis/

Nailed it

Goodness. Quite the bingo sheet of myths there!

First things first, think what you like about the House of Lords and subsidising the tea room in the commons. These are such unutterably minuscule things - like a grain of sand in a large beach - that they are totally and utterly irrelevant.

Large companies like Amazon pay the taxes they are due to pay by the law. The tax laws that apply to multinationals are in a large way dictated to the UK and all other countries by the consensus of OECD countries - of which we are a loud voice. We cannot MAKE Amazon headquarter its business, IP, goodwill, lawyers, HR, IT etc in the UK.

Big tax rises on the better off do little to raise large amounts of tax. Increase the higher rate of tax by 1% and you raise about £2bn. Increase the basic rate of tax by 1% and you make 4 x that. ALL taxpayers need to pay more tax if we want to raise large amounts, and we all pay the basic rate of income tax.

The 2 child benefit cap is very popular with voters. The majority of people want it to remain in place. Personally I think there are far more effective ways of helping children in poverty than handing cash to their parents. Sure start for instance was far better value for money.

While that is true, nearly half of government revenue comes from income tax and national insurance, so over a third of people not paying either is a problem in terms of tax revenue.

Welfare isn’t being cut enough - it’s costing billions paying for people to get benefits for anxiety and ADHD, and to under 25s. It’s unsustainable.

GDP per Capita has declined yoy - Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita shows a country's GDP divided by its total population.

This means as population has increased the UK's revenue has declined. More people has equalled less income for the UK. However more people means more government expenditure.

Most people have a inflated view of what their contribution is to the UK economy. Successive governments have not focussed enough on the UK competitiveness Globally and they didn't invest during the "better" years.

Realistically no party would voted for IF they took the necessary action i.e .reduce benefits, lower the services provided by the state and facilitated a stronger business environment (which might include a deal with the EU)

The benefits and NHS were supposed to be safety nets but expectations are now at a level that isn't sustainable.

So we’re going to promote the man who brought us brexit?

But otherwise countries are suffering with COL also. So what's their reason as they are still in EU

It’s not even nhs the nhs are outsourcing so many hip/knee replacements to private healthcare that they are picking up the bill for! And the people outsourced are majority pensioners who are not currently contributing a decent amount in tax/ni but have found a way around waiting lists on the nhs, it’s appalling that my partner had to wait 9 months for a consultant appointment and then a further 9 months for non elective surgery, who should he have received this on a private referral through nhs would have been back up and about working and paying national insurance and taxes back into the system when retired pensioners know how to ‘skip the queue’ for the same ops so they can enjoy their retirement pain free! And no it’s not entitled because they have paid in over the years, it isn’t a ‘savings pot’ to take from as and when tax and ni are paying for the people using the services now, and this is why it’s such a mess, people are living longer and taking out more than is being put in with the current 18-30 somethings being so entitled to sit in their arses and 40-60’s doing the bulk of the work to pay for all of this 🤦🏻‍♀️

Might as well pay for private schooling that case. Better value for money

Wages for most PAYE employees have been decreasing in real terms, whilst the higher ups and corporations, who can manipulate how much tax they pay, with tax avoidance loopholes are taking more of the wealth which is increasing exponentially.

It means less tax as workers are subsidising the rich with our lower wages, also alot of workers have to rely on welfare top ups to make ends meet so more tax expenditure there which is again basically subsidising business from having to pay living wages.

However there's alot of propaganda deflecting these facts and will blame immigration, disability welfare spending and the NHS.

Where does it all go?

"This backwards thinking is shrinking the economy and will put ever more strain on taxpayers"

Well this is a consequence apt summary of the will of the people I.e Brexit

Any party in power would have the same problem and It will only get worse with time

What is a Bond Market Strike please?

I think we are spending too much on
UC for non British Nationals ( which is about to rise massivly)
Net Zero
The NHS (Needs totally restructuring and stopping huge waste- why does it need 1.2 million employees?? No other country employs that many health workers !! )
Housing illegals - 15 billion annually , surely that could be better spent.
Social care - I’m not advocating for ‘Logan’s run’ but seriously, if I or my mum had a terminal illness, or worse, dementia I would not want to be in a care home costing tens of thousands a year when I have no real quality of life. Mum who has joined dignitas feels the same,
State Pensions - they need re thinking.
Ridiculous projects like HS2. I mean - 80 ( and rising) billion to save commuters 20 mins from Birmingham -London. Seriously??
Wages in the civil service. The highest civil servant in the land is the Prime Minister. The PM surely has more responsibility than any other civil servant - ergo, no civil servant should earn more than the PM.

Im sick of paying council tax to get my bin emptied every 2 weeks and a dodgy street light. Potholes on my rural road are horrendous. Cant get any help for my paraplegic husband. Where is all the millions from council tax going??

Endless rising energy costs despite Miliband telling us we would save £300 per year. He’s a fuckimg liar in his ridiculous quest for net zero that even if we get to it next week would make not one iota of difference to the planet because of China, India, Russia, America.

Everything seems to be going to shit, politicians are the worst I have ever known. All they do is say what the other side did and never answer a straight question (I’m lookimg at you David Lammy you odious man who made Parliament look like a joke with his appauling PMQs.) while making our lives harder and harder and worse every year.
Jarvis Cocker sang ‘Let’s all meet up in the year 2000’. - I wish it was still like that when we had hope and things were so much better.
And I’m sick of paying so much for Yorkshire Gold!!

^ This, the low wage economy, followed buy Brexit and covid-19 have truly fucked this country over.

Add rising interest rates, the state of the global economy and aging population and we are at the beginning of a massive societal change.

In the meantime, we are watching our elected politicians & their friends lining their own pockets and getting ready to abandon ship.

Besides inefficiencies and waste, a lot of money also goes to foreign countries for God knows what purpose. Ukraine for example: £15bn and more to come. As if there aren’t any needs in the UK where the government could spend £15bn!

Israel. It's going to Israel to fund.. things.

I noticed that SEND is said to be a significant ‘drain’ on resources. My daughter has an ECHP with a high level of funding attached. Does her mainstream school use that funding on her? Nope. Do the LA care? Nope. Zero accountability.

How utterly ridiculous it is for you to claim it is 40-60s doing the bulk of the work and criticising young people. Such generalisation that is likely v inaccurate.

There is no person living in the UK that doesn't pay tax if they buy anything.
This is a falsehood. Every service or goods you buy is taxed. Income tax is only one tax people pay.

Well they obviously meant income tax… and referring to those who receive “unearned income.”

Welfare is not being cut nearly enough.

Over 3 years ago they started HS2 near to me. Noticed stated it would take 2 years. It's now been almost 3 1/2 years and it's nowhere near finished. They got the job done then keep increasing the cost.

I’ve been a recruiter for a long time and trust me I know who the ‘working generation’ are, the ones that grind it out day in day out, the ones who don’t need a ‘mental health day’ the ones who turn up and get on with it and pay a vast amount of tax and take very little out as they’re not constantly at the doctors (using taxes) because of a headache or anxiety or not knowing if they’re identifying as male female or bloody toaster this week, and that my friend is the mess we are in unfortunately