Middle earners punished

[Eucalyptus321]

I am feeling so disheartened and frustrated by how middle earners are constantly suffering at the hands of ridiculous government priorities. My husband and I have a greater household income than other families we know but have less cash in hand due to increased taxes coupled with the fact we receive zero benefits like child benefit or tax free childcare etc. ZERO. If they want middle earners to fund the country thought tax then at least support us with childcare costs. It’s a joke that two parents earning £99k each get childcare funding but parents with one £101k salary and one £25k salary receive nothing. I just need to speak to people who understand the burden of raising a family amidst the current financial climate and then the potential of further tax rises!

High earners already pay enough. They pay more than others.

Higher earners are forced to give up a larger % of their income than others.

5% of population on UC.

An awful lot of them didn't. A lot of these £2m+ houses are just unearned wealth by virtue of the fact that someone happened to born at the right time in order to be buying a house in a specific economy which has since - without them lifting a finger - grown exponentially in value. It's why so many of my relatives and family friends of retirement age are in fully paid up £500k+ houses, despite having worked minimum wage jobs their whole lives (and even at some points being single income families when raising their kids). These are houses that many of the generation below could not afford even with jobs paying in the top 20% of wages. And the people who had enough dosh to buy a really decent house back in the 70s are now sitting on properties worth millions. It's been like them having an extra untaxed wage coming into the house for all those years.

As for the idea that all these people will be suddenly selling their £2m homes and leaving the country, what a load of nonsense.

I’ve honestly done the wrong thing in life saving up and getting on to the property ladder. I should’ve had kids at 18 and got a council property……

#RegretMyLifeChoices

they Will have gone into them knowing they may not be lucrative especially if they’ve be known for stagnant pay and that’s fine, someone has to do the jobs and yes objectively ‘it’s not fair’ BUT when is anything ever fair. The only way the pay will increase for those jobs is when people leave en masse and the message will sink in, ah maybe we pay too low.

Also if you don’t have the motivation to better your life, well that’s on you. (Not you personally at all)

but either way none of this is a result of low earners who might get some support in the CB cap being lifted and I was responding to the poster who was bemoaning her stagnant pay whilst the CB was lifted. They are completely unrelated

Yes. But increasing taxes has the exact opposite effect of providing more government money.

The only real proven way to increase tax receipts is to lower taxes on businesses and the cost to them of employing people. otherwise we are running some sort of Ponzi scheme.

This government have absolutely zero ideas or policies as to how to increase both productivity and economic growth. For that one reason things will get worse - a lot worse.

RR will HAVE to cut spending this time next year - to satisfy the OBR. Her party won’t back her and she’ll resign. There isn’t a plan. We haven’t got a wealth fund - we have a huge expensive population, rising unemployment, lower tax receipts, stubborn inflation. Whoever the ‘grownups’ are / they definitely aren’t in power atm.

Everyone wants decent services, health and schools so why not direct the billions it could have toward these services and keep the child benefit cap to 2 children?

I honestly don’t feel hard done by. We’re on around 110k combined. We get taxed to high heavens so take home is nowhere near this. We have 5 DC who we receive no help with whatsoever, we’ve never been eligible for childcare funding or FSM or free opticians or dentist for us or any of the other ‘perks’ poor people get. We don’t qualify for other things like grants for insulation on our home.

Loads of reasons I could feel bitter- our taxes prop up the poorest, we get zero help, we still often feel poor because we have so many children but that was our life choice so whatever. We also don’t do crazy wild jobs- I’m a uni lecturer, DH works as a consultant in the construction industry.

Yet I just don’t feel bitter at all. We’ve been at the bottom before- when we were both studying for our masters and had very young children as well as working. We claimed tax credits to prop us up. Some weeks we just had nothing at all and had to borrow from parents to eat. Neither of us grew up wealthy either, I grew up on a council estate in one of the most deprived areas of the UK and my mum was a dinner lady. I guess when you’ve experienced the bottom, you feel less bitter knowing your taxes are helping others in that situation. I’m not bothered, I’m happy to help.

I don't doubt this. I don't.

You either bought your home 20 years ago or live in a very cheap part of the UK…

sadly for anyone who this doesn’t apply to, it really isn’t about living within your means!

Whoever is earning 100k needs to take a £500 wage reduction.
Would that entitle you to Free Childcare?

All things are relative. Someone earning £60k is not wealthy in my view, but will now be paying e tra tax. This will be significant at the margin where more of their in one is pulled into 40% tax.

🙄🙄🙄

I do think ending the two child benefit cap is a terrible idea and a terrible optic for Labour who are supposed to be the party of workers. The last thing we need is for people who can't afford to raise two children to be having even more.

That is what voting is for.

1. Because 40% of those it affects work.
2. Children should not grow up in poverty and the costs of this in, for example, anti social behaviour, family breakdown etc, cost far more to the tax payer than lifting the cap. Do you know how much it costs per week for a child in care? And the biggest reason for children coming into care is poverty and the effects of this.

I am a basic rate taxpayer. My husband is not working due to ill health. I get fuck all because my income is apparently high enough to cover 3 people ( 2 teens). I would get benefits and my husband would get more if we split up. We would both have a higher income if I gave up work too. It pisses me off. I don't mind paying taxes for something that we all benefit from like infrastructure projects, funding the courts system properly so we dont have to throw away the right to jury trial in order to cope with the backlog, funding local authorities better, education, healthcare etc but all that should have taken priority over removing the 2 child benefit cap- lifted to appease Labour backbenchers and members. I naively thought they would do what they said in their manifesto and at least do something to drag the country out of the doldrums, invest in businesses but they have just pandered to their backbenchers and have done nothing. I hope my kids can get away from here.

They should have made sensible financial decisions and planned. If you're already on benefits and working, why have another child you can't afford. Actions have consequences.

THIS! 100 times this! 👏

That is not actually true if you look at all taxes.

It’s middle earners who are fleeced the most!!!

This is the kind of story I find devastating. You shouldn't be better off leaving your job.

The fact that it’s not based on household income blows my mind. The example you gave is so true and can be even more dramatic.

So should people only go into jobs that earn £100k? No social workers, nurses, research scientists, college lecturers etc? Most people are basic rate taxpayers and are stuck in the middle. If you are on a 6 figure salary you lose free childcare etc and some people find that irritating and some people don't mind. They'll still be on a 6 figure salary when their children are at school. They still have a large disposable income. The ones in the middle who are working, paying for childcare, rely on state services, can't afford ££££ in savings are the ones who feel like the mugs. Yet they are who we need. More people getting up and going to work for £35k even though life is easier if they don't bother.

I hope your husband's health recovers