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.

Yes, we do need to raise basic rate income tax and reduce employee national insurance accordingly so as not to hit basic rate taxpaying workers. Workers are screwed enough as it is. We need to properly tax those living on other income sources, such as pensions, dividends, property rental, interest etc. At the same time scrap ISA for bank accounts and restrict it to stocks and shares only and scrap the extra £5k interest tax allowance. Someone earning £5k interest can afford to pay tax on it as their savings will be far higher than the average person!

“Deserve” is subjective.

It’s very, very hard to claim benefits you’re not entitled to by law.

Whether you think someone should be entitled to them is irreverent to whether they are or not. And it’s worth pointing out that benefits are massively under claimed.

i have a friend who should be claiming UC for the housing element but just hasn’t (it’s a pride thing I think, but she’s paid tax for years and needs it?… she’s missing out on about £250 a month which would make her life a tiny bit less stressful. There are literally millions of people like her out there.

Yes I totally agree.

Everyone who pays tax.

👏👏👏👏

Agreed, HMG has no business taxing people with who are neither citizens nor residents nor ordinarily domiciled in the UK.

Again, it is not up to anyone apart from the DWP to say whether they "deserve" them or not.

And yet, my son, who emigrated to America 15 years ago, after marrying an American, will have to pay taxes, to the US, on his British civil service pension that he acquired before he left. 🤷‍♀️

Ah, of course.

Funny how everyone goes silent when we quiz them on these practicalities.

And I will be paying UK taxes on my American state and private pensions. So what?

We are an aging population. Pensions are a huge expenditure on the country this is why we need immigration of young workers to boost the economy

Yes and he paid his taxes to the UK when he lived there. And those living in the UK with pensions from elsewhere will pay tax in Britain.

Labour won't be satisfied until 95% of our GDP is spent on benefits. Utterly fucking sick of it. Thankfully this system is totally unsustainable and can, and will, collapse. The sooner the better.

My brother works in private wealth management and was hoping to retire this year, but virtually all of his clients are moving their money abroad (or leaving the UK) and he's completely snowed under with work.

They quite clearly mean that government needs to bite the bullet and tax capital, not just income.

The emphasis in our economy on enabling the growth of pre existing capital has been known for years and is the major reason for the growth in inequality. It just does not pay to work anymore.

Unfortunately New New Labour is showing no signs of wanting to return to traditional Labour values, which are needed to create a functional working economy, and Rachel Reeves has made comments about wanting to turn us into shareholders instead. Quite what we are going to invest in when no one can afford to work doesn’t seem to have occurred to her yet. New Labour created the private landlords that have bankrupted the public funding of the country: now New New Labour have a new fad that will make things even worse.

None of our politicians have any sense or seem to know anything about working economies. Yet there is still plenty of private wealth in this country, masses of it, even as public funds dry up and the country becomes bankrupt. We need to tax that wealth.

In G7 comparison, we have one of the lowest percentage of pensioners, by far the lowest pension as percentage of previous earnings and are second to bottom with total social spend as percentage of GDP.

ps I’m not trying to play party politics there, as so often happens. I have no faith in the recently-evicted Tories or bloody Reform either. I do feel particularly betrayed by the Labour Party that, clue is in the name, is supposed to represent Labour and hasn’t for nearly 30 years now.

Nothing what. I was just pointing out that taxes from one country, can be transferred to another, 🤷‍♀️

Plenty of young workers in the UK already, sitting on their bums. If they don’t accept jobs remove benefits. Tough love needed here. No leaving uni and going straight on the dole!

Sorry, @Boomer55 . Bit rushed before.

Your son lives in the US. He is ‘ordinarily domiciled’ there, whether or not he is a permanent resident. (If he doesn’t have a green card, he has a long term visa) It is a general principle internationally that you pay income tax to the country where you live.

I am not a UK citizen, two countries is enough, but you better believe I file taxes here. As I said, that will include my American pensions soon enough.

The US-UK tax treaty minimises double taxation, however.

Top 10% pays about 60% of the tax bill. If you look at what your tax money gets spent on (gov publishes it every year) there wouldn't be a welfare state without them or much of an NHS.

This. I’m late 60’s and have paid tax since I was 16.

Lots of threads from worried parents on here because there is no work for their children leaving uni.
Even newly qualified nurses and AHPs are struggling to find work.

There may not be the jobs they want, or are qualified for with their degrees, but there are jobs !

It's always the case.

I was sacked due to my son's disability. He was in hospital when I was sacked, lovely eh?

I'd love to work but no one is interested due to the fact that my son has regular appointments and it would need to be very flexible. I can't get a job if no one wants me so what am I supposed to do?

It is a finely balanced thing. If you tax too much you make less as all the wealth leaves. We don't exist in isolation, we are in competition with other countries.