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Labour ‘must spend billions on welfare or poverty will soar’
(www.theguardian.com)
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this post was submitted on 25 Feb 2024
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UK Politics
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Fair point that I should have checked the 1/3 claim before posting. It was a figure I'd heard before. I think there is some debate over the cumulative figure though, for example this article suggests that the total cost of outstanding claims could total £83 billion - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-51180944
In terms of general government funding I disagree that it is something we can tax our way out of. The current tax burden is the highest it has been for over 50 years (https://obr.uk/box/the-uks-tax-burden-in-historical-and-international-context/) and at a certain point you get diminishing returns from raising taxes due to the laffer curve.
Again that figure is the "total outstanding" amount and isn't the yearly cost. If a mistake during childbirth causes permanent disabilities for that child over the course of their life then the compensation will be a decent sum paid out over a long time. There are other better targets for saving budget or raising tax revenues.
We need to grow the economy from the bottom up. Trickle down has been proven to be bullshit. There's plenty of scope to raise taxes on corporations and via asset/investment returns marginally to offset investment in growing the economy and helping the worst off. The report you linked says that the UK has a lower total tax burden than many other developed nations. We don't need to go crazy, but at the moment the tax burden is too heavy on big workers and too light on capital.
Rather than ask "how can we afford this?" try asking "how can we not?" The country is in a dire state. Cutting taxes on the wealthy and cutting services and benefits haven't worked, trying it again is daft.