To feel utterly miserable about a future with Andy Burnham as PM?

[OneWarmHazelQuail]

I feel like I'm being stung in every possible way at the moment- £15 a day on tube to work, high mortgage costs, high energy costs, private schooling for SEN child (I was told state wouldn't be unlikely to assist him as he isn't mute or violent). My parents have had to help fund schooling it felt like my only hope as son has behavioural issues.

I also have an unsold old home that I have to rent out as it wouldn't sell. Buy-to-let mortgage costs, agent fees, maintenance and tax put me in a loss position.

I can't bear what the future holds with Andy Burnham. I have no doubt that he will find new and imaginative ways to keep me in this financial nightmare. I'm literally struggling from food poverty but regarded as rich by policy.

YABU- Andy Burnham is actually going to make things better

YANBU- I'm screwed

Which part is untrue?

Do you have comprehension difficulties?

I said super rich. I didn’t say tax the moderately wealthy who work hard and already pay a lot of tax proportionately to billionaires.

That would certainly be possible, although the DWP could take the view that paying off your mortgage early was intentional deprivation of capital and make you ineligible for any means-tested benefits. I'd recommend you check how much you would get first though, "entitled to" is a very reliable online benefits calculator.

By way of example, a friend is f/t carer for her 18YO son who is autistic and has PTSD and GAD. She gets around £1,200 a month in UC and carer's allowance, but £600 of that is for her rent and she pays approx £40 towards her council tax.

You’ve made some incorrect assumptions about the op.

Must say that my first thought was that if your old home ‘wouldn’t sell’ it was almost certainly because you’d priced it too high. Unless it was right next door to e.g. a very noisy pub or a fish and chip shop, that is nearly always the reason.

The property market has stalled. It’s now not the case to over simplify a very complex market. London especially is really struggling.

Why have you ignored the question about the children’s father?

I agree. The state pension isn't a benefit. When people say "cut benefits". They mean people of working age who either don't work whatsoever or work low hours and then claim UC for the rest.

In some places - not many.

I'm guessing, possibly unfairly, that you're of the voting group that happily endorsed cuts to services because "we can't afford them". Only now it's coming back to bite.

I sympathise about the lack of SEN provision - but provision can't be magicked up overnight after years of neglect and service-stripping. Hopefully, with new funding coming onstream, the situation will improve as your child goes through school.

Not sure how you're managing to spend £15 a day on the tube home-work-home tbh, given how the fare structure works. Not sure either how commuting 3 hours a day for a full-time job works with a 7yo and a baby, both with significant additional needs, but. You mention a husband, so presume he's in the picture. The advice given to people in far worse economic circumstances is: budget better, get a better-paid job, move to a cheaper area. Sounds glib, tough, and uncaring, and it is. But that's what millions have already been told to do.

The PM isn't responsible for pricing on local transport networks. Nor for prices set by energy and water companies. Nor for mortgage rates set by lenders. All of these are private sector which, according to supporters, is "more efficient". From next year, the government will require energy cos to decouple electricity from gas prices, and as we're now regularly generating large amounts of power from solar/wind, elec prices should start to fall. An obvious thing to do, if you're unhappy with utility costs, is to actively support campaigns for water nationalisation or much stricter mandatory price limits on energy cos.

In another post you wrote: "My house won't sell at a price I can afford to sell it at". A house will sell at a price a buyer thinks it's worth. Your options are sell at a price a buyer will pay, hand the keys back to the mortgage co for repossession or continue renting it out. If you continue as a landlord - landlords are running a business. And businesses pay tax. That tax pays for, among other things, NHS paediatric services and SEN provision. Both of which you are, or wish to, use.

So you think Burnham will just go for the ‘super’ rich and not you, and you are questioning MY comprehension skills. Hmm. You are in for a shock my friend. Do you even know Burnham’s history? Done any reading whatsoever about his background?

Plus, Burnham is a scruffy git, I hope he wears a suit and tie when he goes abroad to represent this country.

I don't think this get repeated often enough.
Also, people don't stop being eligible to pay tax as soon as they retire.

If they have savings, private pension, state pension etc are all counted as taxable income ie they will be paying tax on all of it over the usual threshold. In comparison universal credit, PIP, housing benefit etc are not taxed in the UK.

It is stalling in almost every area of the country. Seriously.

landlords should not be in a loss making position

Being a landlord is an investment decision. No way should anyone protect you from bad investment decisions.

If you are at loss every month, you can't afford to be a landlord.
I'm bit confused now - before you talked about negatvie equity, now you talk aboht selling second home and using the proceedings to pay the mortgage on the first one. Which is that?
If you can sell the second home for more than your mortgage on it is, why wouldn't you do that?

Couldn't agree more. They're like children, just blaming and tantruming about someone the minute they have to make any unpopular decisions and always wanting something new and shiny and exciting.

I can assure you it isn't. One on the market in my street two weeks ago. It was sold within a day.

Strange.

I have never been on benefits and yet still have noticed no difference. I remain a cash cow no matter who is in power.

The only shiny thing about Burnham is his monobrow and his left wing 70s inspired idealism.

Anyone for power cuts this winter?

Did Burnham get style lessons from Michael Foot?

You've selectively quoted me (omitting 'many suspected..') but nobody KNOWS how a negotiation will turn out before it starts. Nobody had ever left the EU before. Nobody seriously predicted Covid, Ukraine escalation was maybe a little more predictable. Anyway, it was a series of shocks that this country was massively unprepared for; this is my point. Much of that is on the Tories for sure but also on lack of civil service talent which is a historical problem.

A new leader, especially a career politician, is unlikely to fix structural issues with our civil service competence and political short-termism. All we've had is soundbites and something about devolution and No10 North, meanwhile Manchester is in huge debt as he walks away. Doesn't bode well but he is at least more collegiate with some personality I guess. He's ducked away from scrutiny so far as I suspect he hasn't a worked out plan yet but hopefully it will come. Planning hasn't been Labour's strong point to date..

Clearly Brexit is a thorny subject with many on here (eg your somewhat hyperbolic response), Brexit caused specific economic harm in it's current implementation, (some decided they would accept this risk as a trade off for sovereignty when they voted, whether your agree or not with the way they voted) though much of the rest of EU have problems too with sluggish growth. We should have been outperforming them given our position, resources, language, historic political stability and well established democratic and investor- friendly open market and economic systems, but we have not. Evidence of reducing market confidence in the UK comes from the steady increase in borrowing costs and rising gilt yields under this government.

Ah, an erudite and nuanced response.

At no point did I ever say he won’t come for me.

I simply responded to your point that it’s people on benefits who want to tax the rich. I was pointing out that some of us have never been on benefits and would be considered wealthy by some people but we also want a tax on the super rich.

Again, try reading properly.

You are in a very difficult situation and I feel
for you.

First of all, can you get some financial advice on the house which is let out? Is it possible to salvage or mitigate the loss on that by any means - different mortgage, making improvements that might enable you to sell? Can you get advice from somebody like step change or another financial charity?

The private school option sounds unaffordable / unsustainable and the most obvious place to access state assistance. You need to get somebody to help you negotiate your way through state provision, which the state guarantee, so you will have to be incredibly obstinate and prepare for a long drawn out process. Don’t let them grind you down. I would try citizen’s advice, and IPSEA, SOS!SEN and SENDIASS for help.

I wouldn’t worry about AB too much - he is just an Inevitable Thing at this point, but he only has three years, or two if the PLP decide to defenestrate him in due course.

Everybody knows investments carry risk.

Every investor knows an investment may generate a loss. Why should landlords be different to any other category of investor?