In 2019 we had a general election, Boris v Jeremy [ even could be yes Brexit v no Brexit / don't have a plan! ] Boris could see winning and leaving European wasters he could promise no tax rises. SHOULD HE LOSE then Labour would hike them up we would still be in EEC and rueing the day where we put our cross. Boris smashed it and we left, and work started on NHS and Police, trade deals filtered through and there was a feel good factor, Captain hindsight took over the sinking labour rowing boat and there was a feeling of well being, the future looked rosy! Enter Covid …. and disaster, [ an apocalypse with Capn Hindsight in charge ] was nimbly averted by Boris/ Rishi /et al. Attained Often in the face of the points scoring Capn Hindsight. RESULT = an unwanted drain on our future prosperity to the tune of ….. more than quote ….. "General government gross debt was £2,206.5 billion at the end of December 2020, equivalent to 104.5% of gross domestic product (GDP);" We are not TALKING £m or £bn now but £tn. Fast forward to end of summer 2021 parliament goes back... some dust has settled and the debt is stabilising at the odd tens of £bn's borrowed each month! WHILST STATING no increase on NI/ INCOME/ or VAT taxes [ pre covid ] It was mentioned that Police/ hospitals/ nurses etc and social care needed to be addressed. ENTER THE JIMMY OPPOSITES AND POINT SCORERS ………..
I hate tax rises, as do most people. The realistic scenario is we need them to pay for things WE are the .gov employers and we pay them to give us " the services" NHS etc … they in turn reward us by raising money through trade etc etc etc to keep our taxes down! When Capn Hindsight and his cronies stand up in parliament and state what the .gov has done and plan to do to assist the population past present and future, is wrong and breaks a promise, it stinks, its political point scoring [ didn't work at last general election though ]……….. I do not pay NI, I pay income tax, and paid my last VAT bill in 2020 … I expected to have to pay maybe another 1p -2p for tax to cover the debt of covid. Had I been on NI would have expected an increase, but would not expect VAT INCREASE unless on luxury items.... like air travel expensive cars or second homes! SOCIAL CARE flavour of the moment. Example [ One for ROD! ...LOL …a story line example … ] My mother was a manager her friend for decades was assistant manager. Both retired same time and both widowed, both sought the additional social services [ as they were called then ] top up on income. Her friend got £17 a week my mother zilch her qualifying pension income was about 67p over the base line! her friend was better off in total by £5 a week in retirement! because of 67p !!! Both ended up going into care, there was an overlap her friend was in 2 years before her … her contribution was zilch and she was in equally good accommodation as my mother who paid £900+ a week! It took almost half the value of her house. Her friend was a lifelong council tenant. Now bearing in mind my mother paid in more NI [ was a % of wages ] and my mother worked full time from 1951 to 1980 including bringing up 4 kids, her friend only for about 25 -26 years was it fair????? [ my mother got her the job, her first! and only].
so 1.25% to pay toward social care … cheap at double the cost. However when I looked for suitable/ available home for my mother I was astonished at costs and wages paid. My mother was in middle band, there was £100 less or upto £400 more. They had 5 kitchen staff 36 carers some shorter hours and 2 admin plus owner. income was 15 x £800+ and 22x £900+ plus 16 at £1300 + PER WEEK or about £45k a week . [ also 3 rooms kept as respite emergency £850 pw] they also received a substantial amount from local authority per person! for different "ailments care" owner had 6 bed house locally holiday home in Maldives and holiday home rent out in Crete. Staff resentful most on minimum probably about 12 of the 36 on £22k normal staff maybe 12 on £18k 12 £10 pt, hours were 48 .. pt 24 ? wages maybe £ 1,000,000 v income £2,500,000 +++ I should hate this 1.25% be an incentive for increase rates, more owner profit, & pro rata LESS REMUNERATION FOR STAff.. BUT at least everyone contributes. ALSO take on board Angelics comments circa £5bn a year to cater for sponging immigrants … my wife says look at [ tv pics ] that all men no kids or women in the boats … 13,000 this year that's +£500m basic BB evening meal and that's only the ones across the channel in boats ... others not seen or by road, not in that figure …..
I can give a good example of where serious money is wasted within Social Care My in laws are now both in their mid 80's and up to early 2020 both together lived in sheltered accommodation in a large flat. Up until a year or so ago my Mother in Law was fit and abled bodied and my Father in Law was somewhat disabled due to having had a pin in his left leg for many years. Not house bound, and he was and still is able to walk with a stick etc. Many years before 2020 when my Mother in Law went into a care home, their Social Worker told them that not only could my Mother in Law claim Attendance Allowance of £70 a week (or however much it is/was) for helping to look after her semi disabled husband, but that he was also entitled to claim the same amount for 'looking after' her even though he didn't lift a finger or actually do anything. So for probably 12-15 years both of them were legitimately claiming for each other plus every other benefit going. They went from not having a pot to p1ss in, to a state where their bank account finally ended up with over £90k in it due to the various handouts they were able to claim. They didn't do anything with it, they just hoarded it because they didn't need it to start with. Now imagine that scenario repeated hundreds or thousand or even millions of times nationwide, AND THAT'S WHERE THE MONEY GOES and we have been and still are paying for !! My Father in Law then took umbridge when Social Services decided to reduce the payments he was getting when Mother in Law went into a care home. I mean, really !??! So here's an idea. Never mind raising National Insurance Boris, just don't give people taxpayers money that don't need it or shouldn't be allowed to claim double for it in the first place.
Can't we just use all the Brexit money savings we were promised? That was supposed to give the NHS a HUGE funding boost...???? ... or was that just a lie?
Attendance allowance is an allowance, an entitlement. Benefits are frequently means tested. If 90k in savings was created there is a problem with the means testing - information is being witheld/missed etc. The ceilings are not 90k and the ongoing attendance allowance should have been part of the testing. That scenario happens but it will not be millions of times.
I never said that the ceiling was £90k, I just find it disgusting that the government can fund that amount of money that is not justified, or needed. It's immoral.
I didn't say the ceiling was 90k either, its differing ceilings for differing benefits. It should be justified, which should be part of the assessment (frequently called needs assessment) and means testing (annually) for benefits v allowances. I agree with the immoral.
the attendance allowance is person sensitive … the person who is the "patient" gets the sum to assist with help they need to do things they cannot. In my mothers case I [ as the social services accepted "controller" of her finances ] had the money paid to her. When transferred into the home this was still paid to her as was all her pension [ private]. There was cash in her bank [ savings ] and had her house. Banes tried unsuccessfully to get her to sell her house and transfer monies into paying the weekly bill. I said "sorry not going to happen" one advantage working for lawyers [ QC's et al ] odd bit of free info available! after third party monies paid to Care home by relevant sources I still had to stump up over £900 a week. Selling house at start would have raised say £150k selling after she passed on it was £195k …[ in process of modernising ready to rent out ] be fair R&W the picture has changed.... seriously changed! the Brexit saving is still working for us …. still adding NHS and Police [ it started before Covid … just ] listen to Jeremy vine prog on now midday BBC2 8/9/21 I am about to ….. our debt after/ spending to fight covid is likely to be £2tn. No magic pipeline from North sea which started when Tony Bliar took over … then handed the tories a black hole as all wasted ….. the debt now is because of the pandemic we were in the black before it struck …... bit contradictory! it is an allowance awarded to those that are entitled to receive it … it is an entitlement called attendance allowance ….. a fixed sum.
I still don't see any logic in giving both people who are living together a double allowance. One person caring for the other one who is totally dependent and receiving the money for their sacrifice and effort I totally get. But caring for each other and getting twice the amount of money when it's not even warranted, is just bad social service, and being told they are eligible to claim because of the way the obviously broken system is designed is just simply ridiculous. If the government were more diligent in assessing these cases and stopping the stupid practice of double claiming, then very serious amounts of money could be saved to benefit the rest. My Father in Law basically gave up work at 50 because he'd had enough of it and has basically sat on his backside for the past 35 years with the state paying him and my Mother in Law hundreds of thousands of pounds in benefits. She never worked at all aside from around 2 years, so hadn't made hardly any N.I contributions. At nearly 61, and still working, do I think it's right that I am now going to be charged an extra 1.25% National Insurance from next April, in order to help keep him in the style that he's become all too accustomed to over the last 35 years ? No, I do not.
Yes an entitlement to an allowance if a criteria is met. Contradictory? PIP is descrbed as a benefit. A disability really is not a benefit.
Wash your mouth out. It must be true it was written on the big bus. But it don’t matter now as the people driving the buses and lorries went home during furlough and can’t get back into the country to drive again. So I can’t have a MacDonalds milkshake.
Then of course there were the other lies, you know Brexit would cause mass unemployment, Brexit would start world war 3, everyone who voted leave were thick, racist and old, we all needed to be educated and have it explained, our currency would go bust , 2 general elections and a referendum dont count because only 27% voted leave, yes only 27% voted to leave but even fewer voted to remain (less than a quarter of us!) So if Brexit is not the will of the people, the same logic dictates that remaining certainly isn’t, and would be an even more unjustified course of action! In short, 27% voting to leave in no way means that 73% support remain (oh if only.) The global pandemic is all in Johnson imagination, it cost this nation 3 trillion to date, kept the NHS and it's operation financed, allowed a successful vaccination program, gave massive financial support to all and sundry but lets forget that it's all down to those thick ones who voted out at brexit, talk about bleeding snowflakes, lefties and those precious libby liberals, they want money for everything but forget what ever is borrowed has to be paid back and they are all shouting out not me guv! it's all on the magic money tree. Lets all blame big bad Boris, the £350m bus, Brexit and the thick, racist, majority who actually voted out 3 times for believing lies.
A society I belong to once had a hung vote .. it was decided on /after a previously close call that any future hung votes would be settled by...……….. should a hung vote be the result then the motion will be carried. The reasoning [ agreed previously carried by 90% to 8% 2% abstained! ] should the vote be for change [ like we are in eec / Brexit or something the society has "always" done ] then you must vote to stop the change. Failing to vote is a vote for the change, abstaining is agreeing to the outcome. So should you not want to leave EEC then you vote …… simples. Most votes since did get a very good response. would maybe suffer pension wise? although there are top ups she wouldn't get a state pension?
This new "approach" is far from perfect … it divides care and board and lodgings? reading into is confusing. I am aware that some homes are care homes some nursing homes and others residential homes [ with a small amount of care ] [sorry ROD only know most about my mothers care ] My mother was in a care home, early dementia and odd accident. [ about half the time she was there, before she then spent 24 weeks in hospital about 4 visits when we had to pay but they rented out her room 9 weeks in WSM GEN !!!!!!!!!!!!!! ] They did do nursing care, [deemed as care a patient YOU would get from staying in hospital] . Had she been classified as hospital care patient, would have meant her "bill would be reduced by £xxx a week as this money was paid to home from a different purse … [ so rather than £900 a week would be like £700 or so ] getting classified was a nightmare care home said she was hospital said not even after 9 weeks ...affects there budget! arbitration takes months! A large % of the residents [ including my mother, in beginning ] would get up go to breakfast, fill in time, occasionally go out [ extra cost ] have lunch/dinner / fill in / evening food [ tea? ] watch tele / chat with others and go to bed … basically residents! odd occasion need carer to assist dressing/ hygiene. NOW that cost £900, was all inclusive! ……………. The key proposals of the new plan are: People will no longer pay more than £86,000 in care costs - not including food and accommodation - over their lifetime, from October 2023 …. Well some bed and breakfast places are as low as £35 per night a healthy fulsome meal [ more than a frail 75 yr old could eat ] around £15 and odd snacks about £5 so £60 a day??? £400 a week … so health care needed or not £500 a week! now the average life expectancy in care homes is circa 6-7 years [ best figures] mostly around 4 + in 7 years you could expect to pay around £900 x 364 = £330k to home ………… or £500 x 364 [ weeks ] = £182k for care now capped at £86k Am I right in assuming stay is 7 years, before the box!!! so care = £86k [capped ] and food etc is £145k [ 364 weeks at £400!
I only suggested using the £350m we were told would be saved by Brexit, instead of hiking NI. At a time when we really need consumers to help kick-start the economy and get things back on track, we go and take money away from them - seems counter-productive.
R&W, " the consumer" has almost 18 months of being looked after? … furlough scheme, an unprecedented drain on those who didn't get it [and bonus to those who ripped it off ] Boris has taken the bull by horns on more than one occasion … where in the past other PM's have failed......DISMALLY. The spongers in this country, and I know of a few.. don't work .because lazy, draw unemployment but work cash in hand, get paid for minor ailment having foxed the disability purse so don't work [ except they have an allotment, lay their own drives, clean their own windows etc ] WE as full time [ past or present ] have and will always pay for them.
Social care payment …….. Food banks …. I will never contribute to them, sorry. I am aware of a number of people that cry I am starving and use the food banks... house 1 come away from food bank, twice a week,with 3 carriers of food, which they unload from boot of car parked on the drive just been relayed with new wall around it …. front garden is size of more than 4 cars! House 2 with 3 kids .. food bank believed to use 3 different on same day Husband works for a supermarket driving van! They have meal in local Indian Friday nights, 2 kids just got new bikes and spend Saturday nights in pub and use one of their cars to take off on holiday for 2 weeks camping in Cornwall HOUSES 3 4 5 & 6 all have similar stories … amazing what you learn from peeps when out on my regular walks and have a friendly [ 2m spaced ] chat …………….. everything is to easy and expected now, a small word comes into what the aged population has done over the past 70 or so years …sacrificed … modern generation has shortened this to sacrifice … others need to sacrifice so I get fed on the cheap …. I do respect there is a very few probably 10% of food bank users that are genuine, maybe 35% are there because of their own failings/ resolve and more than half because it is freebies. In todays climate with over, well over 3m jobs up for grabs unemployment should be less than 1,000,000... but live among scroungers ………………….. TO BE HONEST I think there should be a separate "fund" [ not attached to NI / TAX/VAT … when you get to 21 you are expected to PAY 2% of your net wage to COVER oap needs after age 70 up to age 80 at 80 you or your family get a rebate, [ partial?] . from age 35 it is 3% at 45 it is 4% at 55 it is 1% [ usually kids flown coup and still healthy to enjoy life at 55 plus ] up to an equivalent 3 times national minimum wage [nmw] is level 1 [ above rates based on 40 hour week. so national m w is say £10 hour x 40 hours, = £400 pw x 3 = £1200 per week is level 1. then apply level 2 = 4 times nmw , level 3 above 5 times …… SORRY ABOUT THE LINES!
The pandemic will inevitably be used as the perfect scapegoat for what goes wrong from Brexit but it is a different discussion to be had. It has already been proven that this recent NI hike has nothing to do with Covid. Genuine question wiz, or anyone else, can anyone tell me one benefit we have had from Brexit? One tangible thing, that has improved the day to day life of you or I? Just one thing that was worth the hundreds of billions it has cost us, the empty supermarket shelves, the highest tax since the war, the constant international rule breaking, the battered NHS, the lack of workers. One thing.
