If you voted Leave, would you prefer tax rises or spending cuts in the Autumn statement?

[sorenofthejnaii]

When the public finances are reduced due to lower returns from taxes?

Govt spending is £800 billion. We borrow a bit of that and we have to pay interest - about 3% of what we spend. Given that we have a lower credit rating and that the pound is weaker, that's going to go up.

Still, we don't have to give the EU £8 billion net. Or do we? Because we still don't know what's going to happen about that.

But I fear there will be an economic effect and that will reduce Government income

So you've got a choice:

More austerity? Where will it hit?
Or more tax rises?

What would you like to see?

[PigletWasPoohsFriend]

Given the choice spending cuts, my first choice would be benefit cuts.

Who's would you cut further?

[MrsBlackthorn]

It's unlikely to be an either/or: the tax take is going to go down. At the same time, demand for services will go up as jobs are lost and more people need benefits.

It's all making me more inclined to think we should try and go abroad for a few years.

[MrsBlackthorn]

Who's would you cut further?

Pensions and pensioner benefits. They are the only group who have been insulated from austerity, and they overwhelmingly voted us into this situation. So they have to bear much of the cost.

[GloriaGaynor]

I think May has more empathy in general

Is this the same Theresa May who wants to us to leave the ECHR? (European convention on human rights). Which we can now we're not part of the EU.

[Pangurban1]

It is not an issue at the moment, and may never be. However, there are regulations about where pensions can be invested wrt credit ratings. I think if the ratings fall below a certain standard, the pension funds have to sell. I presume this will be at a loss.

Maybe someone more financially literate will come along to clarify that.

"Second, national regulations frequently prohibit DB funds from investing in bonds that are not rated ‘investment grade’, - that is not having a rating of BBB or above on the S&P system."

from www2.uwe.ac.uk/faculties/.../CGF%20Working%20Paper07%2009.pdf

I know the rating is good at the moment. But that could potentially hit pension incomes.

[Salene]

Who would I cut further

Not disabled but those who have been on benefits for years with no good reason

Introduce community service for picking up benefits in the hope that doing 40 hours for not a lot of benefits might encourage people to want to get off them. Because let's be honest we all know many people work the system

Some how wheedle these people out and get them back working saving this country money.


Also tax those over 6 figures more, don't you think losing nearly half your wages to tax isn't enough already..??

My OH job is at risk due to issues in the industry he works , it's in crisis . He paid £70,000 tax and if and when he loses his job he is entitled to nothing back from the benefits system. Not a single penny. We will have to survive on our savings. How is that fair. And you think he should be taxed more.?

[SnowBells]

Can we introduce a higher tax rate for Leavers? Like 60-70%? They have 52% of the vote after all.

Why should Remainers pay for what they've done?!?

[GloriaGaynor]

Not disabled but those who have been on benefits for years with no good reason

Which is what some people believe of the sick and disabled - malingerers and fraudsters.

So then you get very tough tests for ESA and PIP with the result that genuinely sick and disabled lose their benefits.

[Luckymummy22]

Vote Leave - Benefits cut

Vote Leave pensioner - pension cut & other perks removed.

Vote Leave taxpayer - increase in taxes.

Vote remain - stay as is just now

[raisedbyguineapigs]

snow I think that's what will happen indirectly anyway. And the sympathy of the better off who are paying tax, mostly in good faith for the benefit mainly of pensioners and the poor will have evaporated rapidly after this. They didn't care about other people's jobs and livelihoods when they voted leave, and they'll soon find the magic money tree has died with it.

[PigletWasPoohsFriend]

Well Lucky what (74%) of those aged 18-25 that couldn't be bothered to vote.

In fact what about anyone that couldn't be bothered to vote.

Planning on anything for them to? After all if the younger age group who were thought to be Remainers actually voted then the result could have been very different.

[Luckymummy22]

The only one I have strong feelings about is pensioners.
The rest i'm just angry with - can you tell 😂

I do think pensioners need to take some.of the pain.

Not your wee granny who really struggles to get by & needs her heating allowance to keep warm & her bus pass to get out & about.

But pensioners (like my inlaws - who voted out btw) who are baby boomers, very well all (although you wouldn't believe it according to MIL), both retired before 65, 3 or 4 hols a year, lunch / dinner out every week, lots.of work done in the house etc etc.

It would be lovely if that could continue, but they need to take some of the cuts that they have been protected from up until now since their voting power is so strong.

We'll never have as good a retirement as them & my husband & I actually earn an awful lot more money than they ever did.

[LurkingHusband]

To be fair, Cameron did warn the pension triple-lock would be "at risk" if we voted leave. So that's the starting point.

[ErrolTheDragon]

Raising taxes on the highest earners generally results in a lower tax take - these are the people most likely to be able to bail out of the UK. Sorry, but it really wouldn't be much help.

[specialsubject]

Tax rises are badly needed. Too many people , not enough cash to provide services. Immigrants aren't going, babies aren't being put back.

Short memories / no history common on mn, but tax used to be a lot higher. The rising personal allowance thresholds keep lower incomes protected.

You may not have noticed huge spending cuts over the last forever.what's changed?

We are in a mess regardless.

[specialsubject]

Remember that there are no trustworthy figures except that 1 in 3 didn't bother. We don't know age, income or any splits except area.

[BaboonBottom]

Im not sure what more they can cut? Thats a genuine question, theres charities picking up the slack from the last cuts, those people are still suffering, things haven't got better for them.

[LurkingHusband]

Raising taxes on the highest earners generally results in a lower tax take - these are the people most likely to be able to bail out of the UK. Sorry, but it really wouldn't be much help.

But where ?

In the sort term - a couple of years - anywhere in the EU. But after Brexit ? What would the status of a UK (non-EU) national be ? They'd be foreigners in the EU (and so subject to any tax regime the EU throws up).

The US is a possibility, but has it's own tax regime ....

[BreakingDad77]

Raising taxes on the highest earners generally results in a lower tax take

I agree but peoples attitudes need to change either by trying to appeal to their better nature - UKplc is in a hole - those who can need to chip in, or we need brutal enforcement and start criminalizing tax evasion more harshly in the same way benefit fraud has been, as they are both thefts from the state.

[Peregrina]

Please, not all of us Pensioners voted Leave (or vote Tory either!). The Government could certainly make the Winter fuel allowance and Christmas bonus taxable, although I don't know how much that would raise. Yes, they probably should end the triple lock. They do need to protect the older pensioners who have only the state pension to live on.

Bus passes have to be claimed; Prince Charles, for example, didn't bother to claim his. But yes, they probably could go, or be purchased for a small fee. On the other hand, we use buses and can help to keep routes running.

Quite a lot of us have children and grandchildren, whose jobs and futures we are concerned about.

[LurkingHusband]

Bus passes have to be claimed;

But they have to be costed. Fair play to Chuck for not actually picking his up, but it will have been paid for by it's value being unavailable elsewhere.

[LurkingHusband]

[GloriaGaynor]

They do need to protect the older pensioners who have only the state pension to live on

Given that two thirds of state pensioners voted to leave (according to Ashcroft's private poll sample), I vote for ditching their winter fuel allowance.

[Peregrina]

I think that a lot of better off pensioners would actually be quite happy not to get the winter fuel allowance but there is no mechanism for not claiming it once you have claimed your pension.

[LurkingHusband]

I think Belarus may have an idea:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-36643725

When President Alyaksandr Lukashenko urged Belarusians "to get undressed and work till you sweat", there was every reason for his passionate appeal.
After all, the country is experiencing one of the worst economic situations in decades. With the value of the rouble plummeting and rampant unemployment, what else there is to do but to work harder?
But in the days after the president's speech, some Belarusians answered the call perhaps a little more literally than might have been anticipated by Lukashenko - who is informally called Daddy (Batska) by some of his countrymen.
Dozens began posing for pictures at their workplaces well...undressed - and have been posting the images on social media with the hashtag #getnakedandwork (#раздеватьсяиработать).