ONS stating UK in recession due to unemployment.

[Poppybob]

Read in news this morning, and thought was interesting as I agree that the UK can't sustain the amount of unemployment/people on benefits for much longer.

there’s always one 🙄 just say your jealous that some people have found unconventional and lucrative means to gain an income and move on

What do you suggest?

Do you mean via taxes

People who are unemployed are not classed as 'economically inactive'. That category is mostly comprised of pensioners, students, SAHM's and people with caring responsibilities.

People who are unemployed are classed as 'economically active'. I don't know why, that is how the ONS defines them.

The U.K. has been at average zero growth for ages. The dip during covid, and recovery brought us back to the zero growth line. For years we bounce between +/-1% GDP growth, so the talk of recession/growth are overstatements. The problem is long term stagnation.

This makes sense to me

https://think-left.org/2015/08/16/the-riddle-of-the-deficit-or-deficits-for-dummies/

Don’t mean to be rude OP but it will ‘seem’ like that to you if you read the Telegraph!!!
Its a pure Tory propaganda machine. By all means carry on reading it but read a right wing paper aswell to give you a view of the full spectrum of opinions… x

As many economically inactive are not on benefits would it be more to do with less money received by the gov't in taxes ?

You mean 'read a left-wing paper' don't you, @babyproblems?!

@babyproblemsat present majority of working people are giving approx a third of their income in taxes. And the govt will want to raise the taxes....how much more can working people give!!!!! I have youngish working age family members who have literally not worked in around 3-4 years.....claiming mental health issues ?!?!?....for over 3 years!!!!!! And yes they have received treatment/help etc.....but honestly i think they are so used to not working now that going back to work causes their mental health to decline....it's a catch 22

Ah. So you're really a benefits basher, aren't you @Poppybob?

What constitutes a benefit basher?!?!? 🤔
am I not entitled to have an opinion on something a third of my working income contributes to? Am I to keep working 40+++ weeks in a busy NHS ward and not be able to voice my unhappiness at what my wages go towards?

This is the problem with a small state - someone needs to do the work (educating SEN children who cannot go to mainstream school, looking after elderly relatives) and those people then become economically inactive. I’ll be joining them next year - I’ve always been a working mum but I’ll be supporting my autistic daughter as she learns online. I wish wish wish there were a state school which is suitable, but there isn’t

Everyone knows someone who does this...

In response to the poster you replied on....

The UK is in recession entirely down to government incompetence and mismanagement of the economy.

I note the difference between unemployed and economically inactive, but I think there is a cohort somewhere in the middle of people who aren’t looking for work, despite being fit and of working age, because they get a bit of a subsidy from universal credit ‘so why should I?’. In particular, I have little patience for two parent households where one stays at home, or works minimal hours, because they just about meet some UC threshold. Once a child is in nursery parents should do a 40 hour week like the rest of us, and they can of course get a top up if their family income at that point still isn’t enough for a decent standard of living.

You’re looking the wrong way down the chain. That’s what reading The Telegraph will do to you. Look the other way!! Look up the chain at the tiny percentage of people holding all the wealth and not paying a proportionate contribution back to society. Forget those at the bottom not working or struggling themselves. There’s no help for you there!! Direct your energy to the real injustice which is a system designed to make your life one of paying tax and working, whilst complaining about those beneath you getting all the freebies. That system is designed and maintained by those at the top!

Yes I meant left wing 😅🤪 forgive me. I have a 2yo 😂

OP really what you say here is that you are resentful of those people because they’re not working as hard as you are. If we change that and get them back to work so they are also working and paying tax like you etc, would that change your quality of life at all? No it would not. It would have zero effect on you. I doubt you would be content then, with just knowing that everyone is grafting away paying their taxes duly. Do you see?? Your thinking is flawed. The way modern life is designed means that the only people who benefit and who really have all the choices and freedom are those at the very top holding onto large amounts of wealth. I hope you will do some deep thinking before the next general election and vote left… there’ll be no change for you (or any of us) in our quality of life if people vote to the right.

They are still spending money, so it’s still circulating through the economy. That’s why.

Unless you’re rich as Sunak. He only pays 22% tax rate. Many as rich pay lower than that in taxes!

Jesus wept! MN is on fire today. FYI they also want to be a 'brand' now too!

The ONS definition of economically inactive is

People not in employment who have not been seeking work within the last 4 weeks and/or are unable to start work within the next 2 weeks.
It's nothing to do with whether or not you are spending money. If that was the definition there would be very few economically inactive people!

If you are signing on as unemployed you are economically active because you are seeking to enter the labour market. In contrast the economically inactive are not able or willing to work. Only 16-64 year olds are covered by the definition.

My husband and I are both retired. He is over 70 so isn't expected to work and doesn't count as being economically inactive.

I, on the other hand, am between 60 and 64 so am expected to work if I can. I have no health problems and could work perfectly well but I don't want or need to. I have dropped out of the labour market and am happily economically inactive.

I have an occupational pension on which I pay income tax. Obviously if I was working I would be paying more tax (along with NI contributions) but as I worked for over 40 years and never claimed any state benefits (except child benefit before it was means-tested) I don't feel too guilty.

I was not working for the last quarter of 2023, no benefits and trying to get my health sorted, which after many delays was sorted just before Christmas.
Now, having started a well paid zero-hours contract, I run into the personal allowance paradox, whereby I can avoid losing my personal allowance by paying a large percentage of my income directly into my pension.
That money will be of use one day, but if the tax system was more reasonable (everyone keeps their personal allowance, nobody pays more than 50p in each additional pound earned, Capital Gains were taxed as Income adjusted for the length of time assets are held) I would receive an additional £20-30,000 into my bank account, most of which would find its way into the economy.
There is an open door for Keir Starmer to push against which would help high-earning working-class folk and be attractive to lots of folk who find the current attitude to tax (Starmer and Sunak both paying around the 25% mark on their income) unfair.

When I quit working in 3-4 years I may not be earning but I won't be economically inactive if I'm spending surely, with time on our hands I'm sure we'll be helping the economy more!