Amy

[Your Accountant @TJiMTS]

Andy Burnham, in two weeks of being PM, has perfectly illustrated the main problem in UK public finances.

Week 1: there's a cost of living crisis, so to help you we've taken £45 a year off your electricity bill and capped bus fares at £2.

Week 2: we don't have enough money to fund everything we want to do, so we're taking £630 a year out of your salary.

Same government, same month.

Credit where it's due first - taking VAT off electricity from October is real money, so is the £2 bus cap in January if you're on a bus twice a day. Immediate cost of living relief is genuinely needed by most people.

But I'm not sure how someone who couldn't manage without that £45 a year of relief is supposed to now manage with £630 a year less in their pocket?

The £630 is a 1.8% levy on income to fund a National Care Service costed at £18bn a year. On a £35,000 salary it's £630, on £50,000 it's £900.

It's charged as a percentage of your income.
It's collected out of your income.
It is not, apparently, income tax, because they're going to call it a levy.

It also only applies to taxpayers over 34... So you turn 35 and take a pay cut, at the exact age most people are stretched on a mortgage with childcare costing more than the mortgage.

But the UKs ACTUALLY problem? Spending is too high. And it's too high in ways that are fixable if anyone was willing to challenge the status quo rather than buy more votes with handouts.

This is where £1,383bn goes this year:

Health, £269.6bn
Pensions, £236.3bn
Welfare, £204.0bn
Education, £126.7bn
Debt interest, £104.6bn
Defence, £75.2bn
Everything else, £367.1bn

Health, £269.6bn: We need mandatory health insurance as an employment benefit and a hybrid model. Everyone hears "insurance" and pictures America, someone bleeding out over a copay, as if no other model exists on earth.

The Netherlands has mandatory private health insurance. Insurers are legally required to accept everyone. They cannot charge you more for being chronically ill. A risk equalisation pool moves money towards the insurers covering the sickest people. It's consistently ranked top three in Europe.

Welfare, £204.0bn: Income tax raises £330bn. So almost 2 of every 3 pounds of Income Tax taken from every working person in this country is spoken for by the welfare bill.

Welfare should be for people who cannot work. Disability, genuine incapacity, the people it was built to protect. It has drifted into a general income top-up, and the number that proves it is 4.2 million working age people now claiming at least one health related benefit, up a million since 2019.

Change how we determine eligibility, fix a lot of spending issues immediately.

Pensions, £236.3bn: The state pension is a Ponzi scheme, and I mean that technically rather than as an insult. There is no fund - the ONS says so plainly. Your National Insurance is not being put aside and invested for your State Pension, It just pays the payouts for last year's pensioners. Yours depends entirely on there being enough workers behind you.

Which, btw, there won't be. The ratio of pensioners to workers goes from 27% to 48% by 2050 (and these estimates are before we've seen the proper impact of AI/automation on jobs.

Australia already fixed this: 12% of earnings into a private fund with your name on it, mandatory, employer paid. It's your money, it compounds, it doesn't need a bigger generation behind you to work.

We could mandate the same tomorrow and let the state pension run down over the next 40 years, eventually saving £236bn a year.

You can't levy your way out of these problems. A 1.8% charge on everyone over 34 raises £18bn. It doesn't even cover the interest on our existing debt.

And in the meantime... If we're going to borrow anyway, why is none of it buying anything?

Norway found oil in 1969 and put the money in a fund... That fund is now worth $2.049 trillion. It holds a stake in roughly 1.5% of every listed company on the planet.

We found oil in the same decade and spent it.

The UK's National Wealth Fund is capitalised at £27.8bn. Norway's is about 73 times bigger.

So where is our position in AI, in data centres, in grid scale renewables, in batteries, in electric vehicles, in any of the things the next fifty years actually runs on? We borrow £133bn a year and almost none of it buys an asset.

Fix government spending immediately, increase government income over time (without milking people for every penny of 'levy' you can find), and quality of life will genuinely improve as people have more money in their pockets.

The UK has a spending problem, not a tax problem.

[Vodka & Seledka 🇬🇧 @seledka_vodka]

Earlier today, I posted about overhearing someone in a café - enjoying a full English breakfast while complaining to the owner that their housing association wasn't fixing problems in their social housing fast enough. I implied that someone on benefits shouldn't be dining out. I want to clarify my position.

I fully and completely stand by it.

If you are getting paid not to work, I am paying for you. You are reaching into my pocket and taking money I earned and made available to the government as part of my obligation as a taxpayer. That creates an obligation on your end - to spend as little of that money as possible.

This is exactly the same standard I apply to government itself. Every public body, from the NHS to the council fixing potholes, owes the taxpayer the same duty: extract maximum value from the budget you're given. I see no reason why individuals receiving benefits should be held to a lower standard. They are spending someone else's money.

If you can afford to dine out, you should not be on benefits. You should not be in social housing. To me, that is a clear signal that you are receiving too much and abusing the system. I am not willing to fund someone's restaurant meals while also housing them.

Benefits and social housing are meant to be a bridge, not a destination. They exist to carry people through hardship until they can stand on their own. Social housing is temporary accommodation - it is not a home. At least, it shouldn’t be. The moment it stops being treated as temporary, the entire logic of the safety net collapses.

This brings me to the part people will call draconian. The moment public funds begin flowing into your bank account, you should expect zero privacy into your family's finances. That should be the deal - stated plainly, signed away upfront. You get the money. We, the taxpayers whose money you are spending, get full visibility into how it is spent.

Cash withdrawals should be disabled by default from any account receiving benefits. If cash is needed, invoices and receipts should be uploaded promptly. If they don't reconcile, if dates are wrong, if there is any suspicion of luxury spending or wrongdoing - benefits stop. Simple as that.

I know people will invoke human rights and privacy. My answer is equally simple. You take my money, I take your privacy. If you spend that money without taking the mickey, you have nothing to worry about. And I think a great many people would think twice about abusing the system if this contract were real.

Because here is the truth: if you are in genuine hardship and you know the money you are receiving belongs to someone else, you are not dining out. You are not buying luxuries. You are spending the bare minimum to keep yourself going until you find the next job and get off the benefits. That is what genuine hardship looks like.

There are plenty of countries in the world where this safety net does not exist at all - where individual families bear the entire burden, and where those without family simply fall. We should never become one of those countries. We should always help those facing hardship through no fault of their own. But the point of a safety net is that you bounce back. If you cling to it indefinitely, it becomes impossible for those of us maintaining it through our taxes to keep it standing.

For anyone facing genuine hardship, this system - this social contract - will work just fine. It is only a problem if you are abusing it. And that is exactly the point.

[Amy @SargentAmye]

@RestoreBritain_ @NickTorfaen why?

[Rupert Lowe MP @RupertLowe10]

As an MP, I will not comply with Digital ID.

I just won't do it, and I hope many millions of British men and women will join me.

Send a message to Starmer - share this graphic absolutely everywhere.

I will not comply with Digital ID.

[Amy @SargentAmye]

@musk_news13 👍🏻

[Amy @SargentAmye]

@Keir_Starmer By lowering the threshold for first time buyer stamp duty…. Yeah right… great plan 🙄

[Griff_MissThomas @GMissthomas]

These two boys will be playing in the cup final for district at the Principality Stadium. We are all looking forward to watching you via the live stream. We will be cheering you on and supporting you both!! Amazing achievement boys 😃 @Griff_MrPembrey @Griff_HEAD

[Amy @SargentAmye]

@TheLathums superb performance! You just get better and better! Heart goes out to Dylan and the boys 😢💕 @CalaMijasFest ✌🏼😎

[Taylor Wimpey @TaylorWimpey]

Celebrating their 125th anniversary, @BristolSaracens provide valuable support to the local community. Our #Bristol team were delighted to donate £3,000 to supply the club with commemorative polo shirts to mark the occasion 🏉 Read more: https://t.co/ce29iJYswt

[Amy @SargentAmye]

@RadioX Gotta be The Lathums!! How Beautiful Life Can be! ✌🏼@TheLathums

[Amy @SargentAmye]

@Thefarnorthband Hi 👋🏼

[Amy @SargentAmye]

@TheSnuts @GibsonGuitarUK @jjjacobcampbell See you in Cardiff tonight ✌🏼

[Amy @SargentAmye]

@WalesOnline I don’t get time for a week or a drink most days either… it’s been the same way for 10 years… it’s called hard work

[Amy @SargentAmye]

@easyJet That’s great! Thank you so much 😊

[Amy @SargentAmye]

@easyJet when do you anticipate releasing your summer 2022 flights for sale? I know you probably can’t give exact dates atm but approximate month would be good?

[Amy @SargentAmye]

@easyJet Thank you, when do you anticipate July 2022?

[Amy @SargentAmye]

@Charlottegshore At least 12 months before life as we knew it 😢

[Amy @SargentAmye]

@theatrenurses @emilyeavis It is pure luck! I have a very slow connection and managed to get through for friends! Let’s just hope I am as lucky when I try for myself on Sunday 🤞 good luck to you too if you are trying again

[MikeyMeic🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 @MikeyMeic]

My dog was attacked in the park at 0730hrs today and pursued by large dogs. They came back with blood on them. My dog is now missing, presumably still in Pontypool park. If you see her, please ring 07549153154 or message here.

[Radio X @RadioX]

Come on 2018 💪