Post your questions for Rachel Reeves, Chancellor of the Exchequer

[JustineMumsnet]

Hi all,
Next week we’ll be back in Westminster to put your questions to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves MP.
If there’s something you’d like me to ask her - from the big economic picture to how the cost of living is affecting families (or anything else) - then please post your question below.

As ever, one question per user please, and keep it civil. We’ll be tight on time, so short, focused questions will help us get through as many as possible.

We’ll close the thread early on Sunday evening, so please do get your questions in before then. We’ll be back soon with her responses.

Thanks,
Justine

Well done for failing to understand the issue.

If you immediately lose £25,000 net at £100k, your take home pay will drop to that of someone on ~£42,000.

That is what happens currently to parents who earn at this level.

It is counterproductive for the state for the highest earners to be in this situation - no one is going to work to be worse off each month.

They are not ‘tax dodgers’ - working full time is not a legal obligation, and they are net contributors to the state.

I'm just tired of so much of my income going in tax. I'm in despair over it. Why can't you put yourself in the shoes of so many people, working full time in stressful jobs, not earning a fortune but being taxed as if we were millionaires?

There is no such thing as " baby" or "toddler" food babies and toddlers just eat food the same as everyone else.

Rather than funding more expensive and not brilliantly effective IVF how about a public education campaign about fertile windows and declining sperm quality with age ? Eventually would save on tbe SEN budget too.

Why did you have a nervous breakdown on camera in the House of Commons where you were properly crying your eyes out, sobbing like mad, collapsing in pain?

I mean brands like organix and Hipp.

Workers in average paid jobs in london are struggling to have more than 1 child. Surely better to give universal child benefits to all for 2 children rather than the poorest continuously have a lot of children as the system supports them better. Wheres the diversity in only the very rich or poor being able to have more than 1 child? I feel so sad for my younger colleagues i had 2 chikdren amd worked part time. They have 1 and still live in flats and both work full time. Its a poor quality of life for people in south east

When will the government look to assess household vs. Individual income when deciding what benefits families are entitled to? This is particularly unfair for single parent families who are already shouldering a huge financial burden alone.

This💯

I feel like the working people are suffering. I understand you have only been in government for 2-3 years and inherited a terrible state of affairs but im a nurse and I have had to leave the pension as I cannot afford to pay it. People with normal jobs are struggling to get by. Im worried about maternity leave as i have to find 2500 in savings to cover next me until the baby is 9 months old and can go nursery. My partner is on same salary (c. 31k) it just us not sustainable to live in this country anymore. You can see from various threads other people on normal salaries struggling the same.

What is this government doing to support working families and help with the cost of living? We seem to have money to fund wars but not help our people.

Are you going to address public sector pension schemes, or are you going to kick that can down the road like every other government from the last couple of decades? It is unsustainable as is, and needs to be made self-sustaining, in line with the private sector.

The private sector closed the vast majority of defined benefit schemes years ago. My concern is that the current cohort of under-40s end up with a very divided retirement, where those from the public sector retire on a good pension whilst those from the private sector have a meagre, unpredictable and volatile provision (having paid tax throughout their working lives to fund the public sector!).

I see small businesses folding left, right and centre lately. A business run by one of my family members for 20 years and previously always bringing in ample business is weeks away from having to close as the money needed to sustain the business financially just isn’t coming in, giving much stress and upset. Working hours of staff have already had to be cut back just to survive a bit longer.

What short and long-term measures will you take to address this?

Rachel why is our tax allowance frozen again it will be 8 years in total that our allowance has been frozen working people are suffering yet you keep giving money to people who don’t work and now you are stopping the 2 child cap you are encouraging women to have more children then we the tax payer pay for them whilst we are getting worse off every year.

Rachel why are state pensions moving away every couple of years does the government want us to die at our job. Do you really think it’s ok to make people suffer while others sit at home on there arses for years without paying a penny into the pot just taking and taking.

Why are pensions close to the tax allowance why should we pay tax on something that has always been tax free. Stop giving our money away to people who don’t deserve it.

Benefit claimants will be in for a shock when they get state pensions and pay tax they really won’t know what tax is after getting free money put into their bank accounts for years.

Many people on benefits also pay tax. I am sure Ms Reeves would be happy to explain that in terms that you will very able to understand.

The marginal tax rate for income between £100,000 and £125,140 in the UK is effectively 60%. This "tax trap" occurs because the £12,570 personal allowance is withdrawn at a rate of £1 for every £2 earned over £100,000, creating a 40% tax band plus a 20% effective tax increase from the lost allowance.

If you also lose access to free childcare this is a massive disincentive to working full time and earning above £100k. People are not dodging tax. They're behaving in a perfectly rational way given the absurd way the tax system is structured.

Unless your partner has died, the absent partner should be shouldering the additional financial burden for your family, not tax payers.

Given the current rates of interest, and the current state of the property market.
has the government thought about the future
ramifications of making it impossible for landlords .
every house that’s sold or rented has a
Plethora of trades involved. Each property and renovation or coming to the market for new tenants makes so much money for tax revenue from From electricians plumbers builders to say nothing of builders merchants white goods flooring furniture the list is endless well done Rachael Reeves how to stagnate an economy just keep hitting the landlords and any poor soul who’s trying to sell or buy a house.

Chancellor, the UK (or UK consumers) has spent circa 60 billion pounds on subsidising the offshore wind sector through higher bills. Despite having the largest offshore wind generation capacity in Europe less than 15% of the construction supply chajn and maintenance of our offshore wind farms is in the UK. The UK makes none of the major components of offshore wind farms. We have the largest requirement in Europe for HVDC cables but have no domestic manufacturers - this is worth several billion pounds a year. We have wind farms 17kms from Aberdeen being maintained from Norway, most British windfarms were installed and are maintained from European ports. In France, Norway, Holland the domestic content in construction supply chains is in excess of 50% (in the UK it's less than 15% - excluding onshore construction and development/planning costs). Do you think this situation is satisfactory? Does this situation demonstrate a total failure of the UKs industrial strategy? What is the government doing to change this? Why does the UK government refuse to publish offshore wind supply chain plan annual monitoring reports? The lack of transparency on this issue is concerning - why is the offshore wind supply chain plan published but not the monitoring reports? The developers promise lots of UK content but fail to deliver and the UK government accepts this and then won't even publish the outcomes. What do you think the national audit office will say about this?

Hello Rachel,

With concern over the cost and affordability of welfare benefits, why are businesses that generate substantial profits allowed to pay wages so low that their employees still require in-work benefits? In effect, taxpayers are subsidising the profits of these companies. Adding to the welfare bill.

What are your thoughts on this issue? Do you think there could be a way to recover some of this cost from profitable companies whose employees claim top up benefits because of low wages, perhaps through a mechanism that increases contributions once a business exceeds a certain profit threshold?

Have you ever heard the term ‘cause and effect’?

Also very curious to understand your definition of growth, which seems to be the opposite to everyone else’s.

The chancellor is (allegedly) employed to manage the finances of the country, not to indulge your weird obsession with people's genitals.

Read the post again, maybe?

Chancellor when are you leaving to get a job you’re actually qualified for because you clearly don’t have the financial nous to grow our economy.
Have you heard of the Laffer Curve?

Chancellor,

You state that people should be encouraged to save for their retirement in private pensions, for elderly care provision etc but then are systematically removing all incentives for working people to do so tax effectively e.g. reducing salary sacrifice options or making company pension schemes even more expensive to run / forcing them to invest in UK etc

At the same time you are failing to address the cost of the (very generous) public sector pensions liability. This means the gap between future public and private sector pensions in going to get to a point very soon soon that will create a societal rift ( and people in the private sector may just decide enough is enough and if they can afford too, they stop working early, reducing tax receipts ….)

Also, please can you tell me why a 35 year old female employee with 2 primary school children, earning £45k per annum in a full time private sector role with a minimal pension, should keep working and paying tax when they would be financially no /marginally worse and time ‘better off’ working less hours.