If Labour raises taxes what will you think?

[functioningagain]

Typing on my phone so not sure I can do a poll? But, if the government raises income tax or NI at the budget, will you think:

A - let’s get real, they had no other choice
B - those duplicitous / inept bastards

Would you like to quote who made no contributions please.

I am 65 and in the LGPS. My pension will be extremely good but I contribute about £700pcm. All members contribute a percentage of earnings. I have always lived in or close to London and my switch to the quasi public sector for work/life/children balance issues (being very local if the children needed me), came with a significant salary compromise.

The welfare state is massive and we're the only country to have the Motability scheme and a healthcare system like the NHS. Heavens above, what other country in the world doles out free cars to people claiming PIP knowing fully well it's going to piss off the hardworking taxpayer who can barely afford to put fuel in their 5+ year old cars now? A damn near communist one.

Money earned has value. Money given does not.

I work for everything I buy. I have worked for everything I currently have. I've worked my backside off and overpaid my mortgage for a decade to finally get rid of it back in February of this year. PIP isn't means tested, so perhaps I should put in a claim to bolster my wages. I'm expecting to give birth to my first baby in March, too, so that money that would have gone on the mortgage will go on my child instead.

"Oh but it's not free because I paid for my Motability car out of my benefits."

THEN IT'S NOT FREE.

Sorry that last line should have said: THEN IT'S FREE, BECAUSE I'M PAYING FOR IT!

This thread has rattled me a bit. I'm going to put my focus elsewhere.

Good idea.

A but they should cut benefits by the same amount as its not fair on people who are on already low wages, those people will stop working and start claiming benefits as it us not worth working for a few extra pounds

There’s a very widespread assumption that money is the only reason people work. In reality many people’s motivation to work is not that they’re better off than they would be on benefits.

To be fair they did try to cut benefits, but due to their massive majority couldn’t get it passed.

What will send me over the edge is lifting the two-child benefit cap. There are a zillion ways to improve children’s chances other than ladling money into the laps of those choosing to have 12 kids.

That is delusional.

People may well get satisfaction and pleasure from their work, but they work because they are paid. That's why it's work, not volunteering.

The government are not going to cut (untaxed) benefits to match the extra tax burden on tax payers. Don't be silly. They have already created a policy to increase Universal Credit by 6 2%

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/universal-credit-benefits-increase-uprate-dwp-rates-2026-b2849860.html

Well i hate working but have done so for 25 years full time, but as there are hardly any jobs in my line of work and they ones that are available are part time for just over minimum wage i would be better off on benefits with no stress

6.2% wowzer.

That’s you. I loved working and enjoyed my career, it would have been unthinkable to stop before the point whereby I lacked the energy to do it justice. My occupational pension was available for several years before I eventually stopped work and claimed it. I know people still working in their 70s because they love what they do.

Ikr! If you add the 2% tax which Labour are looking like adding, a tax payer needs an 8% pay rise to get an equivalent increase. I wish!

ffs. Of course they have. Why am I subsidising businesses to pay below cost of living when I can't get a gp appt and DD's school runs out of pens before Christmas

Just because others may be less transactional than you are, doesn’t mean they are deluded. Don’t judge everyone by your own standards. We probably wouldn’t have any paramedics etc. if everything was simply quantified in hard £ notes.

I find it’s always people who are money focused who are unable to understand those who aren’t. I’m not deluded, I just have different values to you.

I think you’ll find that most people are money-focused in a capitalist society…

Most people don’t have the luxury of choosing jobs that they’d do without being paid, either.

I’m not especially money-focused (could get paid much more in a different role but prefer the values of this one) and don’t mind my job, but it’s not what I’d be doing if I didn’t have a mortgage and bills to pay.

Agree you won’t be alone in that and the original comment was about benefits v pay anyway, and the relative difference between those two does impact behaviour.

Thing is I didn’t say I’d have done my job without being paid. That’s been confected somewhere down the line.

A
but they need to use it to break the assetocracy that we have had since Thatcher. Privatise the water companies as they go bust as a starting point.

A.

You should try owning a small/medium sized business! You can pay all your money out in taxes then!

It is not just those on benefits not working more. There is no point me working full time (rather than part time), because it actually costs us more as a family as full time means no personal allowance and huge marginal tax rates. So I am disincentivised to up my hours. No way am I missing out on time with my children and family to hand over such a huge chunk in percentage terms. My time is worth something too and if the State takes too much in taxes off me (which they really do, it is completely nuts at that level), then they will have to deal with me being less productive than I could be. DH works really long hours and pays vasts sums of tax. That is enough from us as a family. We would rather now consume less than handing so much over. We cannot be the only ones.

A