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!

This… 100%

I don’t see what the point is in getting up every day and working for £36k a year. The services and infrastructure is shit. Don’t see where my tax goes at all. Accessed nhs recently and on a 25 week waiting list for a health problem. Went to uni and studied for years

This ! Like I’ve said to have a decent life and save each month, a family of 4 needs to be on at least 150k in/around London.

Luckily I wont because its not how I was brought up and I dont want my children to have that example. I cant do anything about my husband. Thats up to him but I will not have them thinking its OK.

that’s obviously not what I said because all of those jobs have progression opportunities, you’re not earning £35k in perpetuity. I am sympathetic to the unfairness but really what is going to happen about that outside of union involvement? Nothing, so if you want more you gotta grab it

Because they can weather it. I am a high earner. Paying a bit more tax is not going to mean that I will be unhoused, unable to afford healthy food or put the heating on. I might wait an extra couple of years to change my car, or be a bit more cautious with the cost of a holiday.

I am from much more humble beginnings and was desperately in need of a decent state education, NHS and my parents would definitely have chosen between eating and heating if they had been taxed more heavily.

I want to live in a country with good essentials services for everyone and that costs money. Any of our circumstances could change... Illness, bereavement, redundancy, divorce...and we could become more reliant than we expected on public services. This should be a priority for all of us.

Well said. Finally the voice of reason. All this griping on this thread. 🙄

Maybe you can volunteer to pay extra tax 🙄

Essential help for people experiencing involuntary misfortune is fine.

But what we have is MANY people taking the piss, continuing to produce offspring they have no way of supporting, being deadbeat dads/mums, not attempting to retrain or to get off the sofa and take available jobs, not being creative in finding childcare so they can work, hooking up with bad partners who cause DV, mental health crises, school truancy, etc. (for themselves AND their poor kids) and so on. Those of us who are tired of supporting that sort of person are not ogres.

People who are ill, disabled, SEN, etc. and need help to avoid struglling are not begrudged assistance. Able-bodied people who continually make choices that cause them to rely on monies taken from hardworking fellow citizens are the problem.

Your husband earns over £100k, you are being massively unreasonable 🤣

I happily pay what I need to and if we all did there wouldn't be a problem. Especially some of the bloody massive corporate tax dodgers.

We are a high earning family. We also came from humble backgrounds (and from a developing nation). We believe we should benefit from our hard work. I believe in personal responsibility.

Any extra cash. Use it for charitable projects in your local area

Well said.

Are you never likely to need a good state education system, good healthcare if sick, good social care when elderly? What about your children, your parents? I think people sometimes a bit naive about how much they need these things to be in place.

You would have to be extremely wealthy to never need any of these services or between at risk of needing them.

If you are so vastly wealthy that you could never need these services, you will still have an amazing quality of life even if you pay the tax needed to maintain these services.

Don't worry you'll be told by the 'middle earners' that it's your own fault for being so LAZY and unmotivated that you didn't STRIVE and work super hard and no doubt chose the wrong man to have children.
Everybody who is on under £100k a year is simply awful and deserves it you see.

One of the worst things about the way this country is now is the brainwashing of hard working people into feeling guilty about what they achieve. You aren’t “privileged” to earn a good salary - you’ve worked hard to achieve it yourself and good for you. That the country doesn’t work hard for you in return is the problem.

this this this this
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Are you really naive enough to think that many people in good salaries haven't got there because of the privilege they have had... Weather that's family stability, good education, good health, a quiet place to study, supportive parents.

Of course it's easier for people from a privileged background to end up in higher paid jobs.

People don't like that truth though, they like to feel they are more worthy than those who struggle.

It’s the ones who don’t work that are rewarded! That’s not right.
privilege 🙄 if you’re determined and hardworking you can make it too.

Oh tell me about it!
l’m not in this position because I’m lazy or that I don’t work or that I want to “sponge”…. I have a degree, I have worked for a company for a long time and worked my way up. I was in a marriage when I had children, but he walked out and doesn’t support us. I didn’t choose single parenthood, I didn’t even know it was going to happen until it did.
That’s how quickly life can change.

You could be in a 100k job with a happy family and then life could change and you might just find yourself in the position where you need support.

I never knew my life would look like it does.
Hopefully one day I’ll manage to find away out of the poverty loop of being a low earner with UC.

But trust me, nobody judges you more, or feels more entitled to comment on your situation until you’re like me, at the bottom of the pecking order!

All my children thrived in their state grammar. We have BUPA with work. I'd like the NHS to be abolished. I want a more private public hybrid model. The NHS structurally is a mess.

This is what I mean by naive. You have BUPA through work. What happens if you are made redundant/become too ill to work?
What is your partner becomes disabled and you have to give up work to be a carer?
What if your children's jobs don't come with BUPA and they get sick?

I think you fail to realise that whilst you might be financially comfortable now, a few negative and unforeseen life events could quickly change that.

I have family who live on minimum wage or disability benefits. I also very fortunate and am a high earner. I know who has a better life and it's not my poor auntie who has had mobility problems since she was 40.

Honestly you're deluded brainwashed by the right wing press.

Yeah or even Bupa hikes their prices and your employer removes it from their benefit package or hikes up your excess

I am totally fed up working so l can provide a better life for those that choose not to do. The welfare system was introduced to help people get back on their feet if they became unemployed through no fault of their own, but now it is a lifetime choice. How on earth people manage to stay on benefits all their working life is beyond me....but then again, they have no worries about finding an nhs dentist, no worries about prescription charges etc. They don't have to think if they can afford children, the government is paying for them to mass produce and pay them well for it....I work for the nhs, have done for 42 years, working crap shifts night, bank holidays , missing Xmas day with my children and l think, what for? This goverment is rewarding the people who don't work and punishing the people who do work hard....and then crap on you when you retire...