Welfare spending to rise by £73.2bn to £406.2bn

[topicalaffair]

Over the next five years, the OBR is forecasting that UK welfare spending will rise by £73.2bn to £406.2bn.

How does everyone feel about this? I’m livid because I pay lots of tax. I don’t mind paying tax to maintain a civilised society - but this? This is surely taking the piss and will result in weaker and weaker services as the amount of £ available reduces day by day.

YANBU - it’s totally deranged. The every growing uk population can’t function effectively on such a benefits for all basis.

YABU - this welfare spending bill is truly representative of need.

I believe in a couple you only have to work 24 hours combined weekly to lift the benefit cap. Hardly arduous is it.

and misleading titles implying that it's standard for those on benefits to get the same as a working person earning 70k+ isn't a pretty useless concept?

I do think that if you weren’t born in the UK and have never worked here you shouldn’t get benefits here. I moved overseas and that was the case, but I’d never have expected a foreign country to pay me subsistence. If I wanted that I’d have stayed in my homeland.

I'm no longer going to describe myself as disabled; instead I was "attacked by the benefits goat". I love it.

Keep the triple lock!
Review the benefits system- oh wait, they’ve tried that!

And the part that is ignored that 70k to support a family is not a lot, it’s the equivalent of about 37k in the early 00s but people think it means no money problems!

Wage stagnation is a serious problem.

@Allseeingallknowing it will have the biggest impact on the bill to remove it.

It's unsustainable if you look at the fabricated numbers in the OP, the real figures are less worrying.

Receipts from income tax and NIC are predicted to rise by £121b by 2031
Welfare spending is predicted to rise by £60b by 2031.

Twatter is not a source of news. I could post that the government has announced everyone needs to paypal me £10 by the end of the day or they'll go to prison for life, it doesn't make it true.

obr.uk/economic-and-fiscal-outlooks/

@Sweetpeasaremadeforbees We have retired and still enjoy paying tax on our pension income, we will not receive state pension for another 9 and 10 years. I do know pensioners across the whole spectrum from some who get pension credit to my DS GF Grandparents who are multi millionaires

It’s just like a reflection of when people worked isn’t it. You worked a low wage well your pension will be low, you earned a decent amount you have a better chance of a good oension. Then there are the choices you make and the ones thrust upon you that affect your income.

Overlooked as usual single person households have risen by 20% since around 1970. It’s a societal shift ignored far too much. I mean three of my friends are divorcing, it’s their choice and this isn’t a moral debate but it’s a huge issue.

I honestly don't know what goes through ministers heads when they approve budget increases like this. My husband and I are in our 60s/50s respectively and have never claimed a single benefit, ever. And wouldn't. We own our home and business premises and both have significant savings/pensions because we've spent our entire lives working for them.

We now have generations of youngsters who are enabled to not work, opt out of society and live in their own heads. We're flooding the country with migrants who see us as the golden meal ticket and are having large families courtesy of the tax payer. It angers and terrifies me in equal measures. Who is going to be paying into the state in 20 to 30 years time? Very few.

Any one of the current chosen benchmarks, but not the current system where it's the best out of three

I'm too much of a lazy benefits goat owner to check; has the OP told me how us disableds can become high earners yet?

You are doing the work of tax evading billionaires and corporations…who make NO contribution but take take take

Pension age rises mean more people claiming support after illnesses previously experienced in retirement

The state pays a HUGE amount subsidising poorly paid work …why???

More disabled children survive birth and illness into adulthood…what is your solution for them?

This is race to the bottom stuff..a dignified society has a safety net for the vulnerable.

How much have failed privatisations such as our water supply cost us?

No time for this making poor and working people hate each other rubbish…the issues are far more structural…than someone claiming pitiful benefits …compare our benefit rates to neighbour countries …amongst the lowest in income replacement esp. unemployment and pensions

This thread supports tax avoiders and harms working people

True. We will all be in poverty and those who relied on the state will be homeless and destitute. That is why we need to address the issues now although it is probably already too late.

If you don’t invest and support and care for the most vulnerable it will cost more in the long run - akin to not cleaning a wound is at risk of developing into sepsis. The cost difference is massive.

Really?

A friend was born in Mexico, because his father was in the Foreign Office and working there at the time he was born. Would you deprive him of a pension? His sister wasn't born in the UK, either.

And would this apply to people from overseas who've worked their whole lives in the UK and paid tax and NI for decades? That doesn't seem very fair to me.

Seems these would help too…

I’m not on X however Robert Peston is a reliable source ime.

^This

Benefits should be like an insurance, those that have paid in (tax) and can a pay out.

It's the people who pay taxes who pay for those on benefits that don't work. A lot of people of benefits seem to think the money comes out of thin air!

Conservatives were bullied to do this so they were like Labour. Welfare and socialism is lovely until you run out of other people’s money.

Are you suggesting that all ‘disableds’ are a homogenous group, with the same abilities, capabilities, qualifications?

Would you say that all able bodied people have the same ability, capabilities and qualifications?

Stop being facetious, it’s not a good look for your credibility.

You've reposted the link to the actual figures in your quote. Check them out for yourself.

Unless Robert Preston is aware of a second OBR that I'm unaware of, he is talking bollocks.

We do not spend £73.2bn on welfare now.
We will not spend £406.2bn on welfare in 2031.

It is our current welfare system that is fuelling the migrant problem. As Angela Merkel told David Cameron, 'if don't want them flocking to the UK, change your welfare system'.

Someone from X country who gets jackshit, is of course going to find it attractive to come to a country where you can be given a free house and then get money to raise children. Not to mention all the other grants and benefits they can tap into.

My MIL and late FIL didn't have any pension other than his state pension. That stopped when he died, and she is now on Pension Credit. She has only worked for around 12 of her 87 years: she stopped when she had her first child at 21 and only went back to work when FIL had a massive heart attack that left him too unwell to work.

She also gets housing benefit and 100% council tax reduction. Her benefit income adds up to more than my state and occupational pensions, and I worked for 53 years, plus I have the costs of maintaining my house - she just has to pick up the phone when something needs fixing and the council come and do it!

How much of that is inflationary increases, how much is the effect of the triple lock? That will be substantial. What’s the projected change in real terms rather than noninal terms for each benefit?

What are the assumptions? Does it include administration costs? Which benefits? What has the OBR cited as the reasons?

Fairly pointless thread if you’re not going to link this data as most commenters won’t look this up themselves and therefore it’ll just become an airing of personal hobby horses with little reference to facts.