More than half of homes take more than they contribute

MookJong said:
Start by making corporations like Tesco pay their employees more. Workers on low wages get topped up with tax credits etc. which we pay for. All the while the Tesco directors are on millions and their shareholders are enjoying the benefit.
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let's not forget the companies like amazing , starbucks etc paying special mates rates tax settlements either

You couldn't make stuff like this up... but it's the people on benefits that get all the stink eye thanks to the newspapers that might as well be state controlled at times
In the UK, Amazon has more than 5,000 employees, yet benefits from Luxembourg's extremely low corporate tax rates. The strategy is legal but Amazon has faced fierce criticism from rival retailers, politicians and consumers over the amount it pays to HM Revenue & Customs in the UK.


The £4m Amazon paid in UK corporation tax is only 0.1% of the £4.3bn in sales that the company generated in the UK last year. But the internet giant also claimed a £4m tax rebate from the Luxembourg Government, where its European operation is based.
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So essentially as far as amazon are concerned they paid 0.0% tax on UK sales because of a rebate from luxemberg.

god knows how many places went out of business because of them and how many of those 5000+ workers will be on minimum wage asnd receiving tax credits and partial housing benefit payments ?

Surely it's costing the country more in benefits and services than they get back from amazon ? We can assume starbucks etc are exactly the same.

big business is bad for business in a country with a system like ours surely?
 
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mattyg said:
Rather than giving the benefits in cash give them credits to spend on a card.
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I've always suggested this.

The government should automatically deduct money from the person on benefits for things like rent/bills, whatever is left should then be converted to food vouchers, clothes vouchers and then vouchers for things like kids stationary for school etc.

I'm sorry but if you can't afford to live by your own means, then you shouldn't be enjoying the luxuries of smoking/drinking/sky TV/fast broadband etc.

I can only see this figure getting worse too. It will get to the point where the minority cannot afford to support the majority of people, and the government will have no choice but to drastically reduce welfare.
 
Semple said:
I've always suggested this.

The government should automatically deduct money from the person on benefits for things like rent/bills, whatever is left should then be converted to food vouchers, clothes vouchers and then vouchers for things like kids stationary for school etc.

I'm sorry but if you can't afford to live by your own means, then you shouldn't be enjoying the luxuries of smoking/drinking/sky TV/fast broadband etc.

I can only see this figure getting worse too. It will get to the point where the minority cannot afford to support the majority of people, and the government will have no choice but to drastically reduce welfare.
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it's not the people on benefits that are the issue benefits spending is fairly small...

about 6bn a year for job seekers..

read the thread realise most workers are getting more in benefits and services than they pay in tax.

also that articles statistics are based on stuff like a 23,000 earner using £4,000 of nhs treatment a year according to a bunch of the comments
 
MookJong said:
Start by making corporations like Tesco pay their employees more. Workers on low wages get topped up with tax credits etc. which we pay for. All the while the Tesco directors are on millions and their shareholders are enjoying the benefit.
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arknor said:
let's not forget the companies like amazing , starbucks etc paying special mates rates tax settlements either


So essentially as far as amazon are concerned they paid 0.0% tax on UK sales because of a rebate from luxemberg.

god knows how many places went out of business because of them and how many of those 5000+ workers will be on minimum wage asnd receiving tax credits and partial housing benefit payments ?

Surely it's costing the country more in benefits and services than they get back from amazon ? We can assume starbucks etc are exactly the same.

big business is bad for business in a country with a system like ours surely?
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Except who do you think will end up paying for the increase in minimum wage?

That's right, the customers - i.e. you and me. So your tax bill might go down by a couple of ££, but instead the price of everything else will go up.

Unless you start making the system more complex by limiting directors' wages to a certain multiple of the lowest paid employee.

The problem with that of course being that the directors will simply start a separate company and "contract" out their business to Tesco etc.
 
Calabi said:
How would these decrease the deficit and increase the tax that is taken?

Your idea would just create an in bedded poor that is even more dependent, that drags the whole economy down even more.
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Well I for one wouldn't want to work 40hrs a week and only get state benefit. I may as well get a proper job.....................................


I have no issues with job seekers getting JSA as long as they are actually seeking a job.
 
Ahhh Neo Conservative capitalism at its best.

Corporations need to maintain there profit margins for that magical growth. A Company that is only making 1-2% growth per year is still seen as failing. Those with a private pension should be quite happy TESCO are paying there staff less. Which can blame jumping into bed with american economics for the misery of the poor in this country.
 
Haggisman said:
Except who do you think will end up paying for the increase in minimum wage?

That's right, the customers - i.e. you and me. So your tax bill might go down by a couple of ££, but instead the price of everything else will go up.

Unless you start making the system more complex by limiting directors' wages to a certain multiple of the lowest paid employee.

The problem with that of course being that the directors will simply start a separate company and "contract" out their business to Tesco etc.
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That is the thing
It's similar to the idea of having jobs for the sake of jobs. Or subsidies
Someone has to pay for that. And if it is serving no purpose it's cheaper to provide for that person on benefits

As brutal as it sounds I do agree with stamps
If I lost my job I wouldn't expect to have anything else but food, basic bills and accommodation paid for me. In other words... Things that can mostly be paid for other than cash
Of course managing this system in real life is probably more expensive. But i still think the majority of working people would prefer it. This extra cost may be offset by people wanting to get jobs due to lack of a 'life'. But.. If there are more people than jobs someone is always going to be left trapped
 
The £4m Amazon paid in UK corporation tax is only 0.1% of the £4.3bn in sales that the company generated in the UK last year. But the internet giant also claimed a £4m tax rebate from the Luxembourg Government, where its European operation is based.
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How much of that £4.3bn is profit.
Turnover does not equal profit.

How much does Amazon pay in employers NI for employing those 5000 people. How much VAT did they generate on those £4.3bn of sales. Just because they didn't pay corporation tax doesn't mean they didn't pay any tax
 
So, reading the article, the two main factors in the change were unemployment due to the economic downturn and our ageing population.

Hardly a surprise, is it?
 
We have a benefits culture. The reason we have a benefits culture is NOT because its hard to get benefits or because they don't get enough in benefits.
 
arknor said:
It's because the minimum wage is artificially low and the government tops up loads of peoples wages with housing benefits and working tax credits etc

It's not a living wage
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Exactly this, I bet majority of people here who have kids claim Child Benefit, I bet single parents here take the 25% (I think, although that may be a Northants only thing I'm not really sure) decrease in Council Tax etc.
 
al4x said:
That is the thing
It's similar to the idea of having jobs for the sake of jobs. Or subsidies
Someone has to pay for that. And if it is serving no purpose it's cheaper to provide for that person on benefits

As brutal as it sounds I do agree with stamps
If I lost my job I wouldn't expect to have anything else but food, basic bills and accommodation paid for me. In other words... Things that can mostly be paid for other than cash
Of course managing this system in real life is probably more expensive. But i still think the majority of working people would prefer it. This extra cost may be offset by people wanting to get jobs due to lack of a 'life'. But.. If there are more people than jobs someone is always going to be left trapped
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are you serious? job seekers allowance is only around 6b... disability allowance is only supposed to be around 1% fraud

most of the money going to scroungers will be single mothers with children that don't have to work even if the child has a full time nursery placement etc

not people on JSA

biggest problem is pensions but we are bringing in immigrants to pay for our old folk, then we can bring in more immigrants to pay for these immigrants pensions and the cycle continues forever.
 
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The Dread Pirate said:
As a Single 27 yr old with a mortgage, no debt, no credit and no benefits I get angry at these statistics :mad:
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most people don't understand the reality of benefits unless you have children you don't get a whole lot from not working.

theres probably some people on here who can give you some stories if not check the benefits calculator and then wonder how you are supposed to manage on that.
 
arknor said:
are you serious? job seekers allowance is only around 6b... disability allowance is only supposed to be around 1% fraud

most of the money going to scroungers will be single mothers with children that don't have to work even if the child has a full time nursery placement etc

not people on JSA

biggest problem is pensions but we are bringing in immigrants to pay for our old folk, then we can bring in more immigrants to pay for these immigrants pensions and the cycle continues forever.
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Yep, I get women leaving work to bring up their children whilst they're before nursery/school age but then there isn't many excuses to not go back, for example my mum worked right through me going to nursery/school etc. but then realised she missed out on so much but knows that if she wants to survive when my sister goes uni she'll have to work full time because as you said above, there isn't an advantage of not working if you don't have dependants.

People on here don't really know the reality of living on JSA for example, you don't get nice things the only people on JSA that get real nice things and the ones that miss the majority of their energy bills etc. the reality of JSA is your living from paycheck to paycheck.
 
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That vast majority of rich people do just about anything to avoid paying proper taxation, they have that already. If they'd stop shipping all the money abroad and god knows what I might say it was a bit unfair, hell if they played fair we could afford to reduce taxation on the wealthy.

But if isn't just the rich avoiding paying their dues, it's the greedy shareholders in big business who are largely responsible for this great imbalance.

Working people keep earning less and less and the prices keep rising more and more, it's no surprise the tax they pay doesn't cover the services they receive.

If it isn't unscrupulous employment practices it's outsourcing to china and telling the remaining staff to think themselves lucky they have a job, or hiring people on zero hour contracts or part time contracts, or using slave labour from the "back to work" scheme.

I'm wealthy, I'm fully aware the more I earn the more I contribute - and that is what I do. I don't bitch, this is society - we help each other. If you get greedy you just ruin society.
 
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