Looking Back On 14 Years Of Austerity - For What?

growstuff

Norah NI is used to contribute to state pensions and the NHS and some other benefits. (In reality, it all ends up in the same place as other taxes.) If people paid separately for these (as people in some countries do), it would be easy to work out how much everybody would pay. If somebody doesn't contribute to healthcare, they don't get any when they're ill, or if they don't contribute their pension, they don't get one.

Yes, I explained my opinion poorly. Thank you.

Whether it is tax or NI doesn’t matter. In both cases it is contributions from workers which subsidise those who don’t pay, but benefit from healthcare, education, roads, police, defence and so on. I have no problem at all if someone is unable to work, eg though unemployment, illness or caring for someone who needs care, as I believe that we should contribute according to ability to do so; but to my mind, if they can, they should, or at the very least refrain from making superior comments about those whose work and contributions subsidise their lifestyle. That last comment is not directed at you (or anyone in particular) Norah.

I'm totally in agreement Doodledog. As a society, I think we should support the parents of very young children, but not when they're older. I worked full-time from when my children were six months and the "superior" comments I used to get from parents who didn't have to work were hurtful. At the time, I didn't have much choice, but now I'm quite resentful of the taxes I paid to provide for people who were better off than I was.

Interesting to read comments and there seems to be collective amnesia about the huge cost of furlough during the Covid pandemic.
Was that Boris Johnson and the then Chancellor Sunak finding a way to support businesses for months on end? My neighbour was right when he said that people have very short memories when millions were paid to stay at home for months on end. He was very grateful to the Conservative government for their support. That cost a fortune.
Also when there’s an urgent need, the NHS does swing into action and quickly. I think that there’s a lot the NHS needs to address - mostly communication - but it is there for everyone.

Furlough was amazing for DD2 and sil who each had their own business in London. A big mortgage, 3 kids, 4 pets, where they would have been without it, goodness knows. I'm not sure of the details, but sil also claimed some kind of government loan or handout to tide them over, but offered to pay it back on a tax return later when work came back again. Oh yes, and the stamp duty holiday enabled them to sell up and start a new life.
Rishi seemed like the golden boy on that front, not so much in this job now.

Joseann

Furlough was amazing for DD2 and sil who each had their own business in London. A big mortgage, 3 kids, 4 pets, where they would have been without it, goodness knows. I'm not sure of the details, but sil also claimed some kind of government loan or handout to tide them over, but offered to pay it back on a tax return later when work came back again. Oh yes, and the stamp duty holiday enabled them to sell up and start a new life.
Rishi seemed like the golden boy on that front, not so much in this job now.

Some did very well during Covid many small businesses had a couple of weeks off then got bored and returned to work quickly, coping with staff absences as they occurred. The exception was hospitality where many hotels, pubs and restaurants still havn’t reopened. Travel industry did badly as well.
I worked all the way through doing extra shifts as needed, not testing positive until late 2022

Interesting to read comments and there seems to be collective amnesia about the huge cost of furlough during the Covid pandemic.

The furlough money cost the state nothing, ronib. It was created by the Bank of England under the direction of Parliament. If you are citing it as a tory success among the disasters of the past 14 years I'd remind you that itv was forced on them by circumstances and that a government of any colour would have done the same. In fact other governments in other countries did it too..

And I'm very much afraid that the NHS swinging into action 'when there is an urgent need' is not necessarily true, nor is it indicative of any sort of tory success.

MaizieD well in my particular case, having survived the hurdle of the gp system, major surgery today having been referred 5th January….. and I am not joking.

ronib

MaizieD well in my particular case, having survived the hurdle of the gp system, major surgery today having been referred 5th January….. and I am not joking.

You are one person out of 66 million, ronib. Just because it's true for you it doesn't mean it's universally true.

I hope your surgery goes well

Joseann

Furlough was amazing for DD2 and sil who each had their own business in London. A big mortgage, 3 kids, 4 pets, where they would have been without it, goodness knows. I'm not sure of the details, but sil also claimed some kind of government loan or handout to tide them over, but offered to pay it back on a tax return later when work came back again. Oh yes, and the stamp duty holiday enabled them to sell up and start a new life.
Rishi seemed like the golden boy on that front, not so much in this job now.

Furlough was a great achievement and benefitted many, however it, along with Universal Credit, was rife with fraudulent claims. I was a front facing staff member throughout lockdown and in the office, not only were we working very long hours, weekends and bank holidays to get payments out to people prior self employment furlough kicking in, we also experienced high numbers of staff getting Covid as many of the offices were open plan.

Eat out to help out wasn’t so great though was it!

Back home on enhanced recovery program having had robotic surgery- luckily the robot was in place 6 months ago at a cost of £1.5 million.
But the fly in the ointment for me is the lack of gp diagnosis and probably not a lack of funds.

Get well soon ronib

Yes, wish you a speedy and full recovery ronib