Majority of Britons receive more in benefits than they pay in taxes
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/12/19/more-than-half-of-britain-receives-more-in-benefits/?fbclid=IwY2xjawHRU-xleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHX3wjc_mdf9sR-wkGbYqD_UDak1SfuaNxG-CYqdo-hXVum30pTkg3NIwnw_aem_9eQJSZ9DOXNr-sz7QAVbHA
Posted by TheTelegraph
34 comments
More than half of people in the UK receive more in benefits than they contribute in taxes, official figures show.
A total of 52.6pc lived in households that received more from the state than they paid to the Treasury last year, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The figures underscore the challenge facing Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves as they try to tackle a ballooning sickness benefit bill and pressures from an ageing population.
The analysis, which reveals a decrease from 53.6pc the previous year and covers the 12 months to March 2023, factors in both cash benefits and the use of public services such as the NHS, schools and free childcare.
Working-age people are typically net contributors to the state – meaning they pay more in direct and indirect taxes than they receive in benefits and public services.
However, even among this group, 45.3pc received more from the state than they paid in taxes, although this partially reflects benefits relating to education and childcare.
Meanwhile, pensioners are overwhelmingly classed as net recipients, with 85.3pc receiving more from the Government than they contribute.
The latest findings have been released as Britain struggles with stagnant growth, faltering public services and a tax burden heading towards a post-war high, inflicting ever greater pain on workers.
These pressures are only set to intensify as the population ages and more people become so-called net recipients in retirement, with the number of over-85s set to double by 2045 to 3.1m.
The ONS said that it was the richest households that saw the biggest rise in cash benefits in the 12 months to March 2023.
The fifth highest earners received 7.2pc more in handouts than the year before because of the impact of cost of living payments and rising disability benefits.
Meanwhile, those on the lowest incomes experienced a 0.5pc drop.
The ONS said: “Disability benefits in the UK have been increasing since before the coronavirus pandemic with an increased number of claimants.
“Spending on disability related benefits is now more in line with other OECD countries, where previously the UK spend was lower.”
The finding comes as sickness and disability benefits are set to hit £100bn by the end of the decade, sparking concern among ministers.
The ONS’s analysis also suggests that despite the cost of living crisis, Britain is becoming increasingly equal in terms of income, with inequality at a 10-year low.
This in part reflects the fact that high earners have seen their incomes grow at a far slower pace than low-paid workers in recent years, fuelled by successive increases in the minimum wage.
Separate research by the ONS recently found that the number of high earners in the UK with 1.5 times the median wage has fallen to the lowest level since 1997.
The pensioners bit is the most intriguing.
The generation that had everything (well paid jobs, private pensions, cheap housing) and still they expect those working, who can’t even afford rent…. To pay for them).
Scrap triple lock. Get rid of their bus card.
Whenever you’re ready to accept capitalism has failed and we need a different system. Maybe, instead of persecuting the poor, vulnerable and minorities, you could focus on that instead.
Just a thought.
Hate sells though, right?
So many people near me get benefits for their “bad backs” yes happily do work on their cars, one even re-roofed his extension. If they crack down on those it’d be a start
50% of Universal Credit recipients are in work. However they are paid so poorly that the Govt tops up their income with taxpayer money. Effectively this was a huge backdoor subsidy from the Tory Party to the UK private sector paid for by working people.
Interesting that the Torygraph of all papers makes a nod to the fact that Pensioners are the biggest net recipient of benefits (and yes a state pension is and always has been classed as a benefit).
There is no easy answer. We need tax income. That has to come from a large working age population, which requires immigrants and we need to tax the rich fairly and close off offshore loopholes.
I’m not optimistic we will get much of this done under any of the political parties out there today (and that includes reform before someone chirps up with that info)
Guess I am in the minority then, I pay more in tax than I receive in benefit as I don’t receive anything whatsoever.
This has been the case for a long time though? I recall having similar conversations about this in the early 2000s…. Would be good to see how far back this goes.
It comes from having a large group of low earners not earning enough to pay (much) tax, and a small group of high earners?
Universal Basic Income would be more equitable.
It reminds me of a work environment- the most competent people do a disproportionate amount of the work- and if they aren’t compensated fairly they will eventually leave.
Including nhs, schooling and childcare as a cost is a bit of reach. Take those factors out and the figures would be completely different.
The average Telegraph reader knows the price of everything but the value of nothing. We *all* receive more in benefits than we pay for in taxation because we all benefit from being part of a society. Even the rich cunts.
Laugh in skilled worker visa holder. 40% tax payer, my employer paid £1K NHS surcharge x sponsored year and cherry on top I can’t claim any public funds (e.g. child benefit, meaning daycare it’s prohibitively expensive for us)
Are a lot of those benefits including tax credits? Tax credits where employers get away with paying a shit wage because the tax payer pays a portion of it?
No shit, the triple lock is too much
Regardless of whether the private sector can’t or won’t employ everyone, it’s the state that ends up subsidising those wages with newly created money. Fiscal orthodoxy requires the government to tax and borrow to match the amount they spent into existence.
Imagine if we trimmed the fat with frivolous claims, did something about benefit fraud and made the cost of living a non-issue, then we’d probably see a massive reduction in claims being necessary, because people would be able to afford to pay for all bare essentials.
I believe the majority of humans are too proud to take unnecessary aid, and the reason the volume is high is due to necessity. It’s not their failing, but the governments failing to foster an environment that doesn’t make life seem pointless.
Things are more unaffordable now than ever because we are being shafted.
Where was this article a year ago when the figure was higher?
Majority? Hmmm
They do?! How do I get in on that?
That’s not an economy which can do well for anyone unfortunately.
There’s absolutely no way I’ll pay back in tax, what I received in benefits. Before he died my son (who had ultra rare Battens disease) had Enzyme Replacement Therapy in the NHS for 4 years. The medicine alone cost the NHS £500,000 per year (not to mention the hospital costs, claiming DLA and carers allowance and UC elements etc). Must have totalled about £3million in total. I haven’t paid anything extra in NI and Tax – nor should I.
Not that those numbers count for anything given the limited time I had with him. But the important thing is that I did. I’d be bankrupt and my son would have been dead years earlier if I lived in the US.
The thing is, even now, I speak to some people who raise their eyebrows like I’ve committed some sin in taking from the state of something. Like they wouldn’t do exactly the same.
Is that just income tax or are we talking VAT etc?
Shows u how fucked our wages are
Because…. Wages are crap!
I mean pay a living wage so working families don’t have to rely on a top up of universal credit for a start 🤷🏻♀️
Someone’s getting my share then. When I had to leave work in September 2022, I couldn’t get eff all from the SS because I chose to quit rather than be sacked. Luckily I had savings, they’d have let me starve to death.
What benefits I get zero benefits
It’s hard to believe at least from my perspective.
I pay well over 15k in tax a year.
But I never use the NHS, or recieve any benefits. I have to pay £400 out of my own pocket this year because dentistry isn’t really covered in NHS.
The state pension age will probably be over 70+ by the time I’m old (30+ years from now), so won’t get benefit from that.
And presented by those egalitarian and socially conscious arbiters of truth, equality, and justice: The Telegraph.
I’m sure what the Telegraph meant to say is:
LABOUR AND KEIR HARMER INTENTIONALLY RUIN COUNTRY IN BUMPER BENEFITS GIVEAWAY
Play the system as much as possible. There’s no shame in it. Don’t let finger waggers tell you otherwise. We are a high tax low yield country that just launders all the wealth in London and steals from the rest of the country.
Doubt.
Certainly not in England. They get f*ck all back for that tax. Scotland has a baby box, free prescriptions, free tuition fees, nationalised water, and pays their fair share to cover them.
England doesn’t have any of that. What do they even pay for? Raw sewage coming out of the tap?
I’m pretty sure benefits include the state pension. Yes, we have an aging population and nobody can afford to have kids…..
Turns out propping up companies paying poverty wages with government money might not be a great idea 😂
Probably safe to say that socialism and mass immigration don’t work well together.
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