We’re hardly falling out over it, but using families going on holiday as an indicator most people could afford an extra couple of pence in the £ in income tax is wrong on numerous levels. They could be going on their first holiday in years, they could have sacrificed any number of things to afford it or worked more hours than they wanted to to pay for it.
Fine in theory but there’s a flip side to this.
Maybe if the government of the day did what they were elected to do and acted in the interests of it’s people instead of trying to fuck them over at every opportunity then those people would be more open to paying a bit extra. Instead we have government after government doing their level best to not give you a bean if they can get away with it.
I’m speaking from experience here and while my particular circumstances are going to differ from other people’s the vast majority will get shafted somewhere along the line.
The company I worked for went bust at the end of 2023. So having contributed for the past 43 years I put in a claim for contribution based JSA. However, my claim was rejected because I was in receipt of 2 small company pensions I took when I turned 55. They were’nt enough to live on but were enough for the government to fuck my claim off. And guess what? I was actually paying tax on those 2 pensions when I was working. I’d contributed, payed my taxes but sorry, you’re getting nowt.
And it didn’t end there. Because we weren’t consulted properly during the redundancy process we were able to put in a claim for what is called a collective award. There are 4-500 people in the claim. The union and solicitors assured us it was a cut and dried case. The company was in administration so wouldn’t even contest it.
As of today we haven’t seen a bean because of the backlog of similar claims across the country. And we have found out in the last week that the administrators, who have fucking milked the whole situation from day 1, now intend to dissolve the company at Company’s House which will leave us high and dry because no claim can be payed out against a company once it has been disolved.
Who would have footed the bill if the claim was successful? Yes, the government. I have no doubt they are complicit and save millions when these claims are dragged out for years until they are no longer payable.
By my reckoning I will lose out on close to 6K of government money which I believe I was entitled to only to be fucked over without receiving a penny.
I now organise my income so I don’t pay a penny in tax and will continue to do so for as long as possible. If I live to OAP age I wont have paid tax for nearly 8 years. I wouldn’t give them the steam off my piss.
Another goverment scam.
You’ve made 8 additional years of NI contributions that you legally wouldnt have had to make if you hadn’t been a PAYE employee
I’m rather stunned by your pension model. My idea (derived from our model) was that an employee, on occasions, their employer contribute to building a fund as future endowment of that particular person.
Government contribution is mostly limited to the state employees. However, government does, not always, take fiscal measures to protect the private pension schemes. These are mostly tax rebates, or a guaranteed yield.
Ownership of multiple properties needs to be taxed until the fucking pips squeak.
A big reason why there is a housing crisis in this country is because billionaires with fuck all else to do with their money are buying up all the stock and driving up the prices.
There should be an annual levy payable against second, third, fourth etc homes so that it becomes putatively expensive to own multiple properties. By the time you’re on to four or five properties you should be paying more in tax that the value of the house.
i dont even think it would be that hard to ask for a larger contribution if the following werent the issue;
its the way the tax dollar is spent.
people are sick of seeing tax payers dollars spent on overinflated contracts, wasted schemes, fucking ‘consultancy’ and ‘reviews’
looking at local state government and what we have called the ‘big build’… its not projects, the roads, the tunnels, the rail network…they all seem like a great idea… its the costings…its the blantant slop, the grift.
when that stops… thats when its time to talk about increasing government revenue.
it used to be that work on a government infrastructure build, or a public servant, would be rewarded slightly less on the open market as, they are garunteed money… but now the not only are garunteed money, they trade at a premium.
they can talk about talent drain all they like…but the ethic should be working for the state (contract or otherwise) is stable but unspectacular money…the talent drain should favour industry
bah.
in a nutshell…when they get their house in order, maybe thats when they should come back to the public looking for more funds…
If we exclude the welfare bill…… that’s spend not waste but a policy choice. There are others.
let’s start with the size and inefficiency of the civil service.
needless oversight bodies. Labour got rid of NHS England which was great. There are many many more including the Cabinet office
procurement. I get not wanting to beholden to one supplier but forcing something like 3 finances systems across departments is nuts, expensive and not joined up. Another example is NHS procurement by health trust. Madness to lose economies of scale
capital projects. Tell me the last that did not overrun? There are no consequences. Let’s take the MOD. Every, tank, ship, plane has pretty much cost double or more the original cost
As above failed IT projects.
Pretty much half the Diversity and Inclusion staff and projects. I am all for inclusion but it’s gone mad.
cycle of government costs. One starts projects or reviews. The next stops them half way through.
consultants and no perm staff filling roles at twice the cost. NHS agency staff.
complexity. Half the policies, laws, regulations we have are duplicate, overlapping, complex leading to the need for greater oversight and staffing and leakage
PR, spin machines. Needless overseas travel…..
That’s off the top of my head.
Oh just realised you may have meant is 5 years all!
David Cameron defined waste as 50% of everything Government spends, because that’s what a discredited IMF report said, and destroyed the economy as a result.
Only if you think the private sector can do it better.
Personally I doubt it. They can help, but it would get really expensive really quickly imo. I say this assuming it would be a repeat of the discussion above on local authority services having been privatised.
I have worked alongside the civil service and public sector. The level of inefficiency, poor - unmanaged - performance, deck chair shuffling, meaningless targets driving the wrong behaviour, inadequate management etc. is staggering.
Benchmark against any decent private sector organisation and see the difference. You literally could do more or the same with 30% less.
Anyone who says otherwise has no clue about business or efficiency or hey work in the public sector. I thought is was. Funny until I realised it’s my tax paying for it.
