Record tax levels since the end of the second ww.

[oowee]

Tax records are now at a record high since the end of WW2 under a Tory cost conscious Government.

Services and living standards are far from the best in Europe. Whats going wrong? Leadership, Brexit, pandemic or is it just symptomatic of the reality of living beyond our means for the last two decades. Spending more than we earn? 

[Yellow Bear]

14 minutes ago, oowee said:

Tax records are now at a record high since the end of WW2 under a Tory cost conscious Government.

Services and living standards are far from the best in Europe. Whats going wrong? Leadership, Brexit, pandemic or is it just symptomatic of the reality of living beyond our means for the last two decades. Spending more than we earn? 

Civil Servants with agendas? and a lot more people "scrounging" off the state.

Edited September 8, 2021 by Yellow Bear

[oowee]

1 minute ago, Yellow Bear said:

Civil Servants with agendas?

 Pretty through then 

[Westley]

I know of someone who worked in a local DSS Office. After some 5 years, she decided that she was sitting on the wrong side of the desk  !   She went off with stress and now some 20 years later, claims every benefit that is available, including Motability. I feel sure that she is most certainly NOT alone.  During the last 'mini heatwave' it would be astonishing to find the true figures for all of those er......'Self Isolations'  !   

[oowee]

Just now, Westley said:

I know of someone who worked in a local DSS Office. After some 5 years, she decided that she was sitting on the wrong side of the desk  !   She went off with stress and now some 20 years later, claims every benefit that is available, including Motability. I feel sure that she is most certainly NOT alone.  During the last 'mini heatwave' it would be astonishing to find the true figures for all of those er......'Self Isolations'  !   

Yep guess that put the taxes up and lowered the standard of living. !!!!

Maybe the problem is a bit larger and more fundamental than a few individuals or a few thousand of them for that matter. 

[Westley]

Judging by the vastly increased numbers of doggie walkers around a reservoir that I fish, I think that half of Lancashire is er .. working from home  !

[discobob]

I had a conversation with someone at work - where I brought up that a big name in our technical area is currently living in Iceland (he is from California) to which my colleague said "oh, its expensive to live out there" to which I countered that the standard of living out there far outstrips our country - you don't mind paying if you are getting a benefit from it - whereas more and more in this country every thing is stripped away while the costs (taxes - direct or indirect) keep going up and up. This also ties in with the other thread that is running on here. Along with the increase in "fine" revenues because they are also using that as a revenue stream. But don't worry - we are going to shave 10 minutes off a train journey at the cost of >£100 Billion that will be used by a very small percentage of the country 😞

As an aside - that guy is looking to spend 6 months (winter) in Mexico and the rest in Iceland.

[bruno22rf]

I knew a teacher that would work for 3-4 days then go home with stress, she was signed off for 6 months at a time at the end of which she would do exactly the same again, oddly she managed to play Rugby most weekends and sing at Weddings and Parties.

[scolopax]

We have ten or fifteen million too many people in this country, we live way beyond our means and throw most of the nations wealth at the financial black hole that is the NHS and /also at the many millions of OAP’s in way of pensions and NHS / care costs. I have no answers, who does? Maybe State Pension age needs to be 70 soon if not more and there needs to be a flat fee for GP’s visits, A&E visits and hospital stays, nothing like cost but something similar to prescription charges? Cannot ever see this happening of course, political suicide, the electorate generally react badly to being told the truth and fully expect the government to shove any of these type of problems into long grass to be dealt with by generations to come.

Edited September 10, 2021 by scolopax

[old man]

On 08/09/2021 at 17:00, bruno22rf said:

I knew a teacher that would work for 3-4 days then go home with stress, she was signed off for 6 months at a time at the end of which she would do exactly the same again, oddly she managed to play Rugby most weekends and sing at Weddings and Parties.

That's just exercise so vital for mental health?

[islandgun]

On 08/09/2021 at 13:58, Westley said:

I know of someone who worked in a local DSS Office. After some 5 years, she decided that she was sitting on the wrong side of the desk  !   She went off with stress and now some 20 years later, claims every benefit that is available, including Motability. I feel sure that she is most certainly NOT alone.  During the last 'mini heatwave' it would be astonishing to find the true figures for all of those er......'Self Isolations'  !   

That is perfectly believable, who better to know every loophole and claim opportunity... in house training.😐

[Bigbob]

On 08/09/2021 at 17:00, bruno22rf said:

I knew a teacher that would work for 3-4 days then go home with stress, she was signed off for 6 months at a time at the end of which she would do exactly the same again, oddly she managed to play Rugby most weekends and sing at Weddings and Parties.

There was a cleaner at work would be signed off for 6 months at a time come back to work for six months  till she received her sick quota again and take 6 months again funny she was always off all summer 

[amateur]

57 minutes ago, Bigbob said:

There was a cleaner at work would be signed off for 6 months at a time come back to work for six months  till she received her sick quota again and take 6 months again funny she was always off all summer 

Failure of management to act.

The company I joined had a few like that. There is a fundamental requirement that you have to be fit and capable to perform your work.

I put the worst offender in front of an occupational health specialist who ruled that, based on her sick record, she was unfit to work - hence we could, and did, fairly dismiss her on unfitness grounds. 

No 2 went the same way.

Unsurprisingly the attendance level of the rest improved markedly.

Afterwards the buzz around the workforce was that they thought what we (the management) had done was fair. Nobody was keen on lead-swingers.

Edited September 10, 2021 by amateur

[12gauge82]

It's a complex issue. Some of which are, low skilled and low paid jobs due to EU membership. Over population due to mass migration causing a huge unsustainable drain on public resources and along with blairs lending limit lift sending house prices through the roof. All of which adds up to a generation of youngsters who can see no way up the ladder, causing apathy towards work, it's a clock on and off mentally and leads to unproductive workers and society that isn't interested in working together as society doesn't care about them. 

[Bigbob]

1 hour ago, amateur said:

Failure of management to act.

The company I joined had a few like that. There is a fundamental requirement that you have to be fit and capable to perform your work.

I put the worst offender in front of an occupational health specialist who ruled that, based on her sick record, she was unfit to work - hence we could, and did, fairly dismiss her on unfitness grounds. 

No 2 went the same way.

Unsurprisingly the attendance level of the rest improved markedly.

Afterwards the buzz around the workforce was that they thought what we (the management) had done was fair. Nobody was keen on lead-swingers.

The catering directors moan is he is tied down with golden handcuffs  takes a year to get rid of somebody and even them they would need to murder somebody 

[amateur]

28 minutes ago, Bigbob said:

The catering directors moan is he is tied down with golden handcuffs  takes a year to get rid of somebody and even them they would need to murder somebody 

Oh well! 

It's always easier to do nothing. 

This philosophy then permeates the organisation from the top down.

[ShootingEgg]

On 08/09/2021 at 13:10, oowee said:

Whats going wrong?

Too many people taking the **** out the system, too many people in the country doing ****** all to contribute. To much money going abroad.. the list could be endless if you looked at all angles ..

People will moan tax is going up be then say we cut foreign aid, the same group will kick off that we're a wealthy country that should spend out on other countries. So no govt will win. The last year has crippled the economy with the WORLD being shut. 

We'll be paying for this for a fair few years yet ..  

[ditchman]

17 hours ago, Bigbob said:

There was a cleaner at work would be signed off for 6 months at a time come back to work for six months  till she received her sick quota again and take 6 months again funny she was always off all summer 

in our village a short time ago lived 2 scroungers........she was claiming carers allowance for him and he was cvlaiming carers allowance for her they both had mobility (new) vehicles....and a nice racing yaght moored down on the staith which they used regulary

when i was caring for my wife the best i could claim was £30 /week

Edited September 11, 2021 by ditchman

[Lloyd90]

Starmer is under great pressure to present his own plan for Social Care after offering nothing but criticisms with no plan of how he would approach any problems. 
 

He has now said he would tax landlords higher rates to fund social care, as well as increase tax on capital gains and some other similar schemes! 

[ShootingEgg]

1 hour ago, Lloyd90 said:

Starmer is under great pressure to present his own plan for Social Care after offering nothing but criticisms with no plan of how he would approach any problems. 
 

He has now said he would tax landlords higher rates to fund social care, as well as increase tax on capital gains and some other similar schemes!

Goodo that means I'd get screwed for being a genuine not idiot landlord. Mint..

 

 

[garjo]

Just wait for council tax rises next April, some forecasts up to 5-6% increase. 

[ShootingEgg]

18 minutes ago, garjo said:

Just wait for council tax rises next April, some forecasts up to 5-6% increase. 

For what.. get nothing for it now. Half the time the bins are left full on collection days for example..

[garjo]

Council tax increases to pay for social care, it won't just be funded via increased NI. 

[12gauge82]

12 hours ago, Lloyd90 said:

Starmer is under great pressure to present his own plan for Social Care after offering nothing but criticisms with no plan of how he would approach any problems. 
 

He has now said he would tax landlords higher rates to fund social care, as well as increase tax on capital gains and some other similar schemes! 

Labour is a dead duck and with someone like that at the helm I don't see it changing any time soon. 

[Lloyd90]

18 hours ago, 12gauge82 said:

Labour is a dead duck and with someone like that at the helm I don't see it changing any time soon. 

He’s a lot better than the last lot, if he can’t bring back some votes from the mid ground then I can only see the hard left of Labour saying ‘told you so’ and Labour going even further left.