What will life be like under Reform?

[Easipeelerie]

I have accepted the likelihood of the next government being Reform. I don’t think the government after that will necessarily be Reform. But in the 4 Reform years, what do people think life will be like for the different groups in our country? Will we see very immediate changes?

I think it likely that Reform’s economic incompetence, following Labour and the Tories economic incompetence will lead to an IMF bailout as the UK no longer is capable of borrowing the vast sums of money to keep the show on the road.

what does that mean?

state pension probably gone, or retirement age raised and perhaps means tested (that means those who have other provisions get nothing).

most welfare benefits gone. No more +N child benefits, universal credit, motability, anxiety benefits, etc

civil service final salary/career average non contributory pension closed or possibly gone and moved over to something cheaper/less rewarding.

massive state spending cuts. Redundancies, far less money given/wasted/chucked into the NHS incinerator.

Frankly I can’t wait. Welfare is completely out of control and anyone making a good wage is getting rinsed. Enough is enough.

Currently If you earn £100k you start to lose your personal allowance and by £125k its all gone. This means an effective 60% income tax rate. Extending the personal allowance means extending this misery either into the top rate of income tax, or by raising the £100-125k marginal rate to 80% income tax.

Add on 2 National Insurance, 9% graduate loan repayments and you would have a new marginal of 91%. And pity those in Scotland with the extra 5% income tax as with grad loan that total comes to 96% marginal tax. Which is ridiculous; but hey; benefits need to be paid!

so no, not all working people will be better off.

civil service final salary/career average non contributory pension closed or possibly gone and moved over to something cheaper/less rewarding.

Civil service pensions aren’t non contributory or final salary. The only pension scheme that’s non contributory is for the armed forces.

I’m showing my age. They used to be; now seems there is a modest employee contribution.

The super generous employer contribution is toast though!

Oh I really doubt anything the twat with the pint says comes true.let alone anyone not being taxed who earns £20 or less ( it might come in years to come as we sit at £12.5 k so far ) they, Deform UK don't think young people should earn a tenner an hour - and for those that have a SEND child or someone in a care home or needs any kind of help, kiss that goodbye. Worcester CC led by Reform, and needs to get to school over 5 miles is NOW your responsibility or they walk under Reform rules ! but no new schools being built, or upgraded
I agree that people should not see children as an asset or handbag of life ! After 30 most hormones, ovaries, and wombs are burnt out, but many people are waiting to have a child or children later in life given the status of where we are today after 14 years of dark blue Tory nonsense! These idiots are now straddling the corridors to light blue suits, stained with beer and wine and smells of fags! I also won't be voting labour after 40 odd years if voting ! Blair was never Labour and the mess is pretty much his and Thatcher ( I can only advise scraping ice off single payne windows in the unside and strikes where we had no light wasn't romantic or wonderful) I also won't be propping up a Russian Asset in Fartarge, or Dubai bad boy Tice that cannot be bothered about their constituents ( guess USA or fast jets and high style living are better than us folk here in the UK) it's either Leicester? Reform Council or Worcester? who faced a £30 million deficit to get consultants in ( doge exercise ) who now put the council into £90 million debt and all Reform councils are asking for 5% increase in council tax - save one who is actually asking about 10% in Kent! - I won't go int the Grinch aspect of who stole your babys Xmas but if you are lucky to live in the beer stained Deform Council then you can tell your beloved ones how wonderful it was this year without Xmas lights because flags mean so much to us. If you think it's bad now hun- tis only going to get a whole lot worse under Reform - but maybe you don't have kids, family and live under a rock somewhere 👍 Recycle a Tory you get Deform.

I don’t have much sympathy as I drive my SEND kids 9 miles to our VAT added private school because the local state school is absolutely crap. Still as long as ‘those with the broadest shoulders’ are being crushed everything is OK!

@PinkFruitbat

Even Tony Blair stated that taxing the wealthy would not be the solution. In 2024, about 11,000 millionaires left the UK. For 2025, the estimate is 16,500.

Well he would say that, wouldn’t he? Given that he’s now worth around £350 million.

He knows what he is talking about then.

😏

Chickens coming home to roost for the racist twat with a pint.

Odious creature.

You seem to be assuming that the racist twat's racist supporters will see all this as a bad thing.

or an alternative reading would be that he has a biased perspective!! Decades of Tory trickle down economics have absolutely not left the country’s finances in a healthy state…

UK public debt stands at 101% of GDP, and the deficit in 2024 was the third-highest among European countries. We need a government that is going to be stricter with spending and raise more tax. We have to deal with the deficit in order to have more economic stability.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) in October 2025 said that the forecast debt interest spending of £111 billion was "roughly equivalent to the entire core schools budget".
We need to bring down the debt and that means the wealthiest need to pay more tax AND less money needs to be spent on welfare.
More people need to work. There is 15.3% unemployment amongst 16-24 year olds and more of this age group needs to work.
The LSE Wealth Tax commission research suggests that the vast majority of Britain's extremely wealthy people would never leave the country for tax reasons, partly due to the stigma involved and that taxing the wealthy does NOT affect economic growth.
There is an increasing gap between rich and poor and that is not good for the UK.
In my opinion, Reform's ideas about controlling immigration and welfare make sense but not their ideas for lowering taxes. I don't think that wanting to control immigration makes you racist. Controlling immigration allowing for integration and for communities to adapt. Many people in the UK are finding that there is too great a pressure on public services due to high immigration and that they feel less safe.

UK is in a lot of fiscal trouble. Systemic change is needed from bottom up. Welfare budget is out of control, and can’t tax our way to economic growth. Lot of hysteria re reform. I’m mortified at the prospect of NF becoming PM, but believe there is credibility to be had by involvement of self made businessmen such as Nick Candy and Zia Yusef. We do have an issue with unvetted migration. Saying it needs control measures does not equate to racism. Unemployment is too high. We have to accept collective responsibility to earn. Tough decisions have to be made. Semi-private health system (such as Australia model) is needed given aging population and mental health support needs. UK has some terrifying stats re patient outcomes and aged equipment etc. NHS is not proving the best available care. Overhaul needed. Will vote reform in the absence of either CON or LAB having any more credibility than Reform.

All of this. We’re comfortably off retirees so we’ll probably be fine. I absolutely dread the idea for others.

I’d probably have more money because I pay a huge amount of tax and get no state support. I hope they don’t get in though. They are not who I am in the slightest.

Let’s see if the 20k personal allowance is in the next manifesto. I think they are rapidly re-evaluating their pledges in the face of their current poll ratings! It’s incredibly expensive and the opposite of what we should be doing (in my humble opninion). In other European counties the median earner pays more tax than the equivalent earner here. Our system is already massively skewed against high (but not super high) earners. I want a state that supports people well but it’s can’t all bw done on the taxes from an small proportion of society.

raising the personal allowance to £20k is insanity.

Without the freeze on thresholds, the personal allowance would have been £20K. So, people in effect are paying tax in inflation.

just think about how little tax someone on an average salary of say £40k would pay in income tax with such a generous personal allowance.

20% tax on the remaining £20k is £4k. That’s fuck all.

Even poorer than a few years of Rachel?

Someone currently on £40K would pay about £5,486. Not a huge difference to £4K.

Increasing the personal allowance would be a big help to those on the minimum wage.

It would make the difference in tax paid between average earners and high earners even more extreme. It's already the biggest gap in Europe. This would make the UK an even worse deal for higher earners: they have to pay Scandinavian level taxes and get US-level public services, because no one else is paying their share of tax.

This will accelerate the brain-drain of ambitious and capable young people out of the UK, which is already a huge problem. What do you think living standards in the UK will look like in 20 years time, when most of the people who would have contributed their abilities and productivity as mature, skilled professionals - the 10% of workers who currently contribute 60% of income tax - are in other countries instead....

@strawberrybubblegum
Agree that middle earners need to pay more tax to be in line with Western Europe if we want the the same level of welfare benefits. I agree that £20,000 tax free does not make sense when we have a massive deficit. Middle earners need to.pay more tax and welfare cannot expand anymore.
However, the very wealthy should also pay more. The gap between rich and poor is widening and that is not good for society. The LSE report said that very few very wealthy people would leave with a wealth tax because there is a stigma to leaving for tax purposes. There should be a stigma-So rich but unwilling to help others. My mother was at the pharmacy the other day and someone was about to walk away because they couldn't afford the prescription charge. My mother then paid for her. I was at the supermarket the other day and someone walked away from buying a bag if potatoes. If the very wealthy are so selfish or blind that they can't see this is as a problem in society, then that is very sad.