{"id":425847,"date":"2025-09-15T08:48:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T08:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/425847\/"},"modified":"2025-09-15T08:48:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T08:48:14","slug":"real-reason-uk-is-going-broke-rachel-reeves-just-made-it-a-certainty-personal-finance-finance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/425847\/","title":{"rendered":"REAL reason UK is going broke &#8211; Rachel Reeves just made it a certainty | Personal Finance | Finance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Growth has stalled, debt is rising, households feel poorer and people are getting angrier. Welfare spending is spiralling and so is the national debt. Taxes are at a record high, and set to rise again when chancellor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/rachel-reeves\" data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|AutoLink\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Rachel Reeves<\/a> unveils her second Budget on November 26.<\/p>\n<p>Yet she\u2019s still on course to borrow another \u00a3150billion this year, with around two-thirds going on servicing the interest on our debt.<\/p>\n<p>Labour hasn\u2019t got the answer to our problems. If the Budget lands badly, which is highly likely, it might even trigger a bond market revolt, a run on the pound and embarrassing visit to the IMF.<\/p>\n<p><a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/finance\/personalfinance\/2107563\/keir-starmer-doomed-same-reason-every-labour-leader-ends-in-ruin\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Keir Starmer&#8217;s poll ratings are collapsing<\/a>, just like former Tory prime minister <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/rishi-sunak\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Rishi Sunak<\/a>\u2019s did before him. And for the same underlying reason. One people almost never talk about.<\/p>\n<p>Behind today\u2019s crises lurks a deeper problem that makes all of them harder to fix. And <a href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/rachel-reeves\" data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|AutoLink\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Rachel Reeves<\/a> has just made them worse. Much worse.<\/p>\n<p>Demographics is destiny, they say. If so, we\u2019re in deep trouble. Britain, like the rest of the West, is ageing fast while having fewer children.<\/p>\n<p>In 2024, the UK\u2019s fertility rate fell to just 1.41 children per woman, well below the replacement rate of 2.1. That leaves a shrinking pool of workers trying to support a swelling number of older people. It\u2019s happening everywhere, even China. And no government has found the solution. Labour isn\u2019t even trying.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/state-pension\" data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|AutoLink\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">state pension<\/a> isn\u2019t funded by some mythical pot. Disastrously, today\u2019s retirees are paid out of today\u2019s taxes, which piles the burden on younger workers.<\/p>\n<p>Medical advances mean more of us reach our 80s and 90s, but unhealthy lifestyles see millions fall onto benefits in their 50s or early 60s, adding still more pressure.<\/p>\n<p>We urgently need young people working to work, thrive and contribute. Yet we now face a disastrous \u201cunemployment epidemic\u201d, with a record 1.1million under-30s on jobless benefits. And Reeves <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/news\/politics\/2108133\/business-gives-damning-verdict-angela\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">must take a huge share of the blame<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In last year\u2019s Budget, she hiked employers\u2019 national insurance by \u00a325billion. In response, firms laid off workers, slashed hiring or simply went bust.<\/p>\n<p>At least 175,000 jobs have already disappeared, <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/finance\/personalfinance\/2107614\/400-britain-largest-shops-face-closure-labour-tax-hikes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">with another 100,000 jobs at risk in retail alone<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Reeves compounded the damage by lifting the minimum wage by an inflation-busting 6.7%. Employers faced a double hit, and it\u2019s younger workers who\u2019ve paid the price.<\/p>\n<p><a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/news\/politics\/2105657\/rachel-reeves-jobs-freeze-budget\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The upcoming Budget is spooking bosses too<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Chancellor&#8217;s timing couldn\u2019t have been worse, with artificial intelligence sweeping away whole categories of entry-level jobs.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, mental health problems are keeping young people at home.<\/p>\n<p>Employers worry about Gen Z\u2019s work ethic and are wary of hiring them. Incredibly, Labour has chosen this moment to make them even more nervous. Its upcoming Employment Rights Bill will grant full legal rights to new staff from day one. If they never get out of bed, businesses still have to pay them.<\/p>\n<p>The result: companies won&#8217;t recruit workers with a hint of prior mental health problems.<\/p>\n<p>Britain desperately needs its younger generation in work. Instead, Reeves has locked them out of the jobs market at a pivotal time. It will only accelerate <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/news\/politics\/2106460\/uk-economy-doom-loop-labour\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the doom-loop that Labour has trapped us in<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The workforce is being squeezed at both ends. We will all pay for this, and far sooner than we think.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Growth has stalled, debt is rising, households feel poorer and people are getting angrier. Welfare spending is spiralling&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425848,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[83476,1700,16484,12,619,16,10051,145428,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-425847","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-demographic-challenges","10":"tag-economy","11":"tag-job-market","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-rachel-reeves","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-uk-economy","16":"tag-unemployment-epidemic","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115207451681810220","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}