A post was merged into an existing topic: Have you left it too late to start saving?
When I was in my 20s I was knee deep in debt due to having to borrow so much to go to college… now… I’m knee deep in debt due to having a car and a mortgage. Sigh.
I’m not sure I’d consider saving until totally debt free unless the interest rate was at least equal to the interest I was paying on the debts.
The chart doesn’t show that - the one largest outgoing by the government is welfare. Health and pension, two separate categories, are both smaller. Combined, they are larger, but that is an arbitrary combination of the two.
Bringing down welfare to a reasonable amount could literally fix all of the country’s funding problems.
The entire system needs reworking, and that £174 billion spent does not include pensions.
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It’s easy to say bring the number down but what that actually means is taking money from people and families that are struggling and need it the most. As a comparison with 2001 figures, the welfare expenditure is roughly inline with inflation and population increase
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Having lived in many deprived communities, I can assure you that not every person on benefits qualifies as “struggling and need it the most”. This is what we need to readdress. How can employers complain no one will do minimum wage jobs if Brexit was to happen, yet the government is handling out vast sums of money a year to people apparently unable to find work? The figures don’t add up. You need to address why people aren’t working rather than throwing money around as if it’s the solution.
If the government keeps throwing money into the welfare blackhole, austerity will remain and savings, let alone home ownership, will remain out of reach for many people.
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Meh, can’t take it with you when you are dead. My main pension plan is to be Scottish. Life expectancy is lower than retirement age. Sorted.
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and then the government will just put out more schemes that are a tick box exercise and do nothing to help people into work. Go into any dole office or scheme and the people will tell you exactly what the problems are but nobody wants to listen and solve them. Yes there are some people who don’t want to work (a lot of them because you get institutionalised and have no confidence left after you’ve been in the system any length of time), but there’s a lot who do want to but employers are completely inflexible
And the problems of the 80s were caused by what happened in the 70s. And the problems of the 70s…
Redacted for brevity
…were caused by the Beaker People.
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Too late to start saving for what?
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Say what you want, but I’ve seen it first hand, and the reliance on foreign workers for minimum wage jobs proves there is an issue with the current welfare structure:
“The National Farmers Union has warned that without seasonal workers crops like strawberries will go unpicked.”
So strawberries will go unpicked, while the government is paying for people who apparently can’t find work? Huh.
Also, basic arithmetic shows the welfare budget is not sustainable. Either an alternative will have to be found or watch the UK continue to fall apart.
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If you’re on benefits and are offered a job for 6 months, why would you take it? 6 months are finished, you need to sign on again but have to start the whole process again.
If universal credit was implemented properly this issue could be resolved but its unrealistic to expect somebody to give up benefits for a seasonal job
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It’s often not even 6 months. Seasonal jobs can be 3 - 5 weeks
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That’s the problem with the system. If they do not take work, they should not be eligible for benefits. Benefits were designed for people who cannot work, not for people who choose not to work. No exceptions. Otherwise we find ourselves with a completely unsustainable system that’s breaking the country.
The real reasons why British workers won’t pick fruit.
“The current benefits system also deters the unemployed from engaging in any kind of seasonal work due to the inflexibility of signing on and off.”
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And that article also said people aren’t willing to commute and do hard work. Sorry, but if they wanted an office job they should have tried harder in their state-paid education system, rather than demand a better job while living off of taxpayers money.
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Think this has veered away from the topic more than a bit now.
Best to go back to discussing savings
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Sounds like a vague, sweeping generalisation has got you angry,
You realise the media only focus on the extreme right?
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Hi all,
I’ve split these posts out from the Have you left it too late to start saving? thread, as they’re not quite on topic. I wasn’t sure what to pick for a title, so please feel free to suggest something suitable.
Thanks.
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I’ve lived among such people before and know the reality of the benefit system, including the exceptionally widespread entitlement mentality.
Also, just take a few minutes and think about it. Are you seriously saying that you think spending £174 billion a year +5/10% P.A. is a good use of that money? Imagine what could be done with it instead. You could rebuild the entire underground system, the entire national rail network, have a “culture of capital” cash injection for every major northern city and have change to fund the police and local authorities to acceptable levels…in a single year.