I Am Thinking Of Calling It A Day

[chrisbassist]

Sorry but IMO a tv is a luxury, we can get by perfectly well without it. Same with cars in most cercumstances. Although when it comes to travel there are times when a car is required. But within 5 miles you can easily walk most places, up to 10 is easy to cycle. It's healthier too.

Just my opinion.

I think vat is one of the fairest taxes since if you buy more luxury goods, you'll end up paying more tax, which means people with more money end up paying more in tax.

 

[ian]

I'm with Chris on this one, tv is a lux as is fish keeping. We as a nation have had it way to easy, everything in a home whenbougjt has to be brand new, in my parents era it was done thing to buy second hand. VAT is a fair tax IMO, if you want to buy a sofa from Dfs and get it on hp, then read the small print, you will pay double that and the payment will go up. As I said David Cameron didn't ask you to buy the sofa. People have to be careful what they buy and remember, it will get better.

 

[rdp50734]

I'm with Chris on this one, tv is a lux as is fish keeping. We as a nation have had it way to easy, everything in a home whenbougjt has to be brand new, in my parents era it was done thing to buy second hand. VAT is a fair tax IMO, if you want to buy a sofa from Dfs and get it on hp, then read the small print, you will pay double that and the payment will go up. As I said David Cameron didn't ask you to buy the sofa. People have to be careful what they buy and remember, it will get better.

So if your unemployed, finding it very difficult to get work and the sofa breaks, you expect a person to let their kids sit on a floor? Due to them already being on benefits which are cut, not having the cash to buy a one new or second hand and then get stiffed with 20% VAT and high APR for HP. You find that is fair?

 

[ian]

read my post again, I SAID, people have to be careful what they buy and learn to read the small print as most companies have you by the balls once things are signed. People can do what ever they want, i don't care whatever they do with there benifits, i do care when they abuse thier benifits. Also, people who cannot afford it shouldn't be spending waaaaay above thier means.

so RDP, do you feel people on benifits should be exempt from paying VAT or any other tax?

 

[rdp50734]

No I dont feel they should be exemp from paying taxes but I do not see the point in raising tax and cutting benefits its just kicking the poor man when hes down. I myself am on a good wage, however when redundancies come around if I lost my job how could I live? I couldn't keep a car, pay a mortgage or pay the utilities even on £50 pw. I dont understand why people want to keep the poor, poor.
Surely we should be giving incentives for these people to go back to work! A number of my friends do not work for the reason that they will be worse off by going back. ie less income more expenditure on childcare etc...

 

[JoshuaA]

Surely we should be giving incentives for these people to go back to work! A number of my friends do not work for the reason that they will be worse off by going back. ie less income more expenditure on childcare etc...

I'll jump back in on this one here...

On my first ever job after leaving college I did some sums taking into account the transportation cost (car) + insurance + petrol + anything else I had to spend out of the money I earned working to get stay there. I then deducted tax etc and in the end... there was no public transport to my destination so that was out of the question. Being 17 my insurance was horrific etc

I would of been better just going fortnightly to the job centre, sure I would of been a few hundred pound poorer in the year but by god I'd have 45 more hours free time per week - 30 minutes it takes to sign.

The only incentive I had for not staying on the dole compared to the wage I was earning was I didn't want people to look down on me as being a scrounger and not to look down on me as if I was just another figure on the TV when they talk about unemployment.

As someone picked up on the TV/Car not being a necessity would you prefer me not to have worked and "scrounged" on benefits because I couldn't get to my job? Or do you think it was fairer I was shafted proportionately more than someone on a higher wage just so I could "earn" a little more money than someone on benefits? Using the excuse "find another job, closer to home" is extremely useless as I searched for the 6 weeks straight that I was on JSA to find that job, I had to borrow money so I could actually insure a car to get there to start.

VAT doesn't work proportionately and labelling anything other than Baby Clothes/Food is not a necessity is a joke, so my socks have holes in my shoes are falling apart but because I have a lot to buy which isn't deemed "Necessity" by some big wig who's living in a nice lush flat rented for free via MP benefits I have to be shafted proportionately more than someone who earns a higher wage in which the extra 2.5% on a product means less to them.

Of course someone has to foot the bill... so why not dare I say... Pull out of the EU... , or will the rest of Europe pull a hissy fit and refuse to trade with us? I doubt that as it would effect them just as much as it would effect us.

 

[chrisbassist]

I did say there are exceptions to the transport stuff. But a sofa?!?! I went 3 months on £5 inflatable furniture saving for something better. Socks? At about 35p a pair is that a really big expense? How often do you buy lots of furniture anyway? Clothing wise, what I'm wearing now, including underwear, cost about £8, plus a tenner for my trainers. Not exactly a fortune.

If I go to the supermarket and buy potatoes I spend £1 and have enough to last a couple of weeks, no vat involved. If I had the money, I'd eat out more, getting burger kings etc, guess what, there's vat on that. That's how it balances. It ends up being down the you as the customer. If you choose to you can save lots of money, if you're not as careful with money, you pay more vat, and it costs you more money.

I could easily go a month or 2 without paying a single penny in vat.

 

[the biffster]

yes but when the vat go's on fuel everything
will go up from potatoes to socks it will all
have to go up as its going to cost more to
transport the goods to the shops we might
Evan lose the pound shop as they wont be
able to absorb this large increasing vat
fuel go's up everything that as to be
transported to the shop will go up
i price



its not the increase in vat that bothers me
its were do the disabled like my self stand
after this budget we do collect other benefits
besides DLA

 

[ian]

so Biff, let me get this straight, you are disabled? You think they council will kick you out of your home?

I don't understand this as DLA won't change, they are thinking of giving GPs more power and making them assess whether you actually need it. You will also be claiming the dole? If this does change, i think it'll only change by a couple of quid a week. I really doubt the coucil would kick a disabled man out of his home.

To be fair it does need a overhaul as i know at least 2 people were i walk my dog who claim DLA, one for a bad back, however he wals about 3-4 miles a day. He could work. I also know someone who claims DLA for stress! been claiming for 5 years now.

 

[chrisbassist]

Yeah stress isn't a disability, we all have that.

My brother is currently on DLA. He recently had an assessment to see if he should still be on it. I mean you look at him now and first impression would be he seems fit enough now. But since his bike accident, he may have healed physically but mentally? Nope, it bought on pretty severe manic depression. That was one of the hardest things about my mum dying, looking after my manic depressive brother. There's no way he could go back to work yet.

And fair point on fuel driving other prices up biff.

 

[rdp50734]

Fuel without tax costs 45p per litre in britain, how on earth can they justify putting so much tax on it? Its all about revenue, speed cameras are another form of revenue tax duty on alcohol, cigarettes. But then the govenrments are giving out handouts to other people such as the somalian family whose rent was £1400 per month, council tax and utilities paid for. Extra tokens for food and clothes, New car taxed and insured and all a gift from the british tax payer! I understand they are not allowed to work in the country for a period of time but there should be restrictions on handouts. I believe charity should start at home, look after our sick, disabled ,elderly and needy first.

 

[JoshuaA]

Speed cameras are a totally different thing though I will touch on that...

Speed cameras are necessary though in my eyes, whether it pulls in money or not. If it didn't include a fine when you got you'd be footing the bill through tax more to fund the speed camera, if you're careless enough to get caught by them don't bother trying to argue about it. I know multiple people who have been caught and use the somewhat illogical excuse
"They place them where they know they will catch people to make money", Yes they do place them where they will catch people because they know that area is a hotspot for speeding and accidents because they catch people proves too many people are speeding. The money fine currently isn't a big enough incentive to not speed including the points... perhaps they should increase the amount of points and money you are fined with. The money of speed cameras no longer goes back to the police department and you can expect to see a decline in speed cameras in the coming years since the government changed the way the fines work.

Depression is a horrible illness and terrible for the families to cope with, unfortunately it's seems to easy to "fake".

Anyway, pretty much anything other than your potatoes chris and you'll be paying increased VAT, some people with larger families who don't have to support just one or two people, for example buying school uniforms etc you do that for 2 or 3 kids and you'll definitely notice the difference.

 

[BethK]

My son is autistic, to afford what I need for him, bills, rent etc, I'd need to earn £23k pa after tax. I can't get a job paying that around here, believe me I have tried. Yes, I get a small amount of DLA,which pays for transport too and from his weekly appointments and I am grateful for that, I have enough money to pay for rent,food and bills but not luxuries.

What I have, is from when I worked and that came from ebay, sales and freecycle etc, I'd take a good bargain and not ashamed of it.

I get no help from my son's father but I am not one of these 'benefit scroungers'. I'm at college, with the help of the jobcenter, in the hopes that this time next year, I will have a decent job, with a decent wage.

I lost my job last year in the recession and it was a major pain but instead of moaning, I got off my bum and looked for the positive in the negative x

 

[JoshuaA]

I lost my job last year in the recession and it was a major pain but instead of moaning, I got off my bum and looked for the positive in the negative x

Good on you, all well and done but for some who have taken courses they may find they finish them end up in debt and haven't progressed any further as there is no one recruiting. I know someone who did a degree in tourism and leisure and did it 3 years ago and still hasn't found a suitable job to use it. He still works in a pub!

I'm pretty sure though if you're in college you can be given some assistance money wise towards you and your son.

 

[the biffster]

2.5 mill unemployed soon to be another 1.5 mill unemployed
there are between 5 to 7 people after the same vacancies now
what will it be like in a years time when another 1.5 mill
are unemployed they say there is going to be more jobs created
in the next year than there is made unemployed if so were are these
jobs going to be created in what trade we dont produce anything any
more ships cars steel coal and many more have gone there is also going to be an increase in homelessness and it looks like a cut back on the police
as well i see the uk sinking into a see of lawlessness and despair
were disabled people are treat like they were in the 1800s ridiculed
and out cast or put into asylums i dont see the uk going forward i
see it going backward and the rich getting richer and the poor getting
poorer and more downtrodden