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.

Is the same tough love going to all the pensioners spending their last few years popping in and out of hospital, who've been empowered to retire early at age 60 or age 65 expecting to be funded by younger generations for the next 30 years? Young people have been stung for 30 years by this nonsense: surely the known generational inequality is the lesson to learn here? As pps have pointed out in many different ways we CANNOT keep on this road, it is NOT sustainable, and it offers no future.

Which do not pay, either the cost of living or frequently the cost of the training or even of the work required. That is why there are so many foreigners who’ve trained elsewhere without the expense in our hospitals, and the only reason why.

Eventually pensioners are going to take the brunt of this, when there’s no one working in the hospitals anyway. How about coming to an arrangement now that is more sustainable?

I honestly don't know what the solution is. Some people don't work and those are the ones that get most benefits, some work part time and get top ups, people say we need living wage but then the mid wages are not increasing. I work in a professional job for a big international company, I make only just above £37k a year, but after all tax, NI, and pension contributions (I do the minimum 4%), I am only about £500-600 better off than if I was working in a supermarket, as if I had no degree, no language skills, no years of courses to upskill... Husband makes less than me and we qualify for no benefits at all (other than child benefit, which is kinda universal). In Scotland there is so much support for low income people that I don't think they are worst off than someone working full time in a professional, stressful job.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/jobsandvacanciesintheuk/january2026

The highlight from this is that there are 2.5 unemployed people per vacancy. And a lot of those vacancies are zero hour contracts that would need UC top ups anyway.

I think it could work out that lower skilled jobs will be done by robots and so there will have to be a universal basic income, meaning people will only work if they want to and have a necessary skill to offer. I can see this being the case in the next 20 years

This is correct but even more threads by parents concerned about their young adults behaviour and how they are not suitable for work. At least 2 today

And that’s why we need international law and agreements and do not need to go around isolating ourselves. There were movements to create laws against this. Where’ve they gone? This is why people like Farage pushed for Brexit, but they will find it will come back to bite them in the end. How can they make more green paper out of a collapsed civilization? What good does it do them anyway in that scenario? This is why we need sustainable economies.

Popping in and out hospital? My local hospitals are like venturing into a 3rd world place. 🤷‍♀️😂😂

I’m a so called WASPI - I waited years above what I thought.

I’ve never claimed a means tested benefits, I don’t own a house, psy my full rent, and I’ve paid tax since I was 16.

You need to drop the resentment and wise up a bit.

No, you do. Making youngsters pay a lifetime debt to work is not working, most give up. We are not going to be your body slaves and this will lead to total economic collapse and social breakdown. It already is!

How you get the sheer unmitigated gall to moan about ‘waiting years beyond what you thought’ when you no doubt have a house to wait in and are expecting to be waited on by kids paying to work and never retire is beyond me.

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

We have high intergenerational inequality compared to other G7 countries due to housing costs.
Our benefits system including pension is not linked to how much you have paid in tax. Other countries have different levels of pensions based on how much you have contributed, we have a flat rate. Other countries have less emphasis on private pensions so you can not compare like for like.

Employers want total flexibility from their staff but offer 0 flexibility themselves...

What if they're not UK tax residents/nationals? The UK have no power to tax Bill Gates or Elon Musk, yet presumably they are 2 of the 35 families??

This. How on earth do posters think the UK can force US citizens to pay more tax? It’s the same as when posters say the government should make Amazon pay more tax. How exactly?

All of our politicians for the last 30-40 years ought to be done for treason for the vulnerabilities they’ve left us with. Multinational companies should not be allowed to operate here without paying tax comparable to the citizens here and SMEs here.

The current situation with the unfathomably corrupt US leads to opportunities, if only we had the statesmen to grasp them. Globalism is dead. So the US have said. So let it die. Multinationals will need to break up. Then they can be taxed.

To be quite frank. I don't know international taxation laws. But the same way they can pass laws to tax inheritance, landlords, second homes, targeting middle class, can they not make a law to tax those companies earnings/profits in the UK? Why do companies get to file in any country they like (the one with the most efficient tax systems)

The really rich can go and up sticks to another country, and high earners are paying 40% tax. Reeves should have incentivised small businesses to employ the young. Labour are a complete joke.

I'm going back some 15 years. When I was job hunting there was a shop near me advertising 8 hours a week but they wanted you to be flexible. I do believe they closed down because they couldn't hire anyone

I wasn't able to work for a long time due to having a sleep phase disorder and only being able to work at night. Obviously I couldn't leave the house to work with DC in bed. So many years that lasted. I feel like I'm starting from scratch with no skills just working rubbish jobs. I didn't claim disability benefit during that time although I probably should have

@Lifeofthepartay
can they not make a law to tax those companies earnings/profits in the UK?

I’m sure if they could they would.

Why would countries with less welfare and different health care models, agree to laws that help prop up ours?

What's stopped the council to do that years ago? It's certainly not landlords...the council can not organise a piss up in a brewery. Guaranteed they will end up in debt and selling the properties, this is how they have ended up relying in people that are either financially responsible enough to buy more than one property and ended up as landlords or those that have seen it as a business model and have hundreds of properties. By the way, the government punishes the "little guy" you pay LBTT in all properties in Scotland (much higher than in England) if you have a second property you pay LBTT and ADT for (additional dwelling), but guess what? If you buy 6 properties or more you don't pay that! So again, the government rewards those that have more money and helps the ones that dont have any and punishes the middle class.

WaryCrow · Today 16:34
And that’s why we need international law and agreements and do not need to go around isolating ourselves

How would this ‘international law’ be enforced in every country? Who will police it?

This is exactly what she is saying companies should do adaptations. Of course people should want to work. It's not all about the money, humans need a sense of purpose and a routine not just their needs met.

You can have a sense of purpose and routine without working.

Companies should do adjustments but only if they are reasonable. You are not going to have a construction site employing people in a wheelchair.

Only the ones who live here. We can tighten up our tax system for sure.

Exactly. Being able to turn up whenever because you've had a flare up of your disability isn't reasonable to expect an employer to accommodate