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Old 19-02-2015, 15:43   #21
Escapee
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Re: April 1st already? Get a free council house for coming off benefits

Quote:
Originally Posted by Damien View Post
Nope not true in all cases. As I mentioned there are a few contributors to the state but most of us are not among them. After all we're also running a deficit.

If you look at the average person then they'll have the cost of education to 16, around 12 years of free education. Then the state pension until they die. That's if they never use NHS services and never receive any state benefits (outside of the pension).

I tried to look up what the cost of schooling for an average person is but it's quite hard as it varies a lot. Still it appears it costs, on average, around £4,284 for each pupil per year in a primary school and they're there for about 6 years. So about £25,700 for that. Secondary schools, on average, is around £5,200 a year for 5 years so £26,000. The average cost to bring a child though the basic education system in the UK is £51,700. That excludes the two years of college.

As for a pension then if you were to receive it at 67 and live until the average life expectancy of the UK (81) then at £113 a week you would receive around £82,200.

It's too hard to work out these numbers for any specific individual as inflation, where and when they went to school, how long they'll live, what services they've used, what they've paid in etc is all too complicated to work out.

Still you can see how easy it is to be a net recipient from the state. There we can easily run up costs well in excess of £100,000 from only the state pension and education. You estimate to have paid over £200,000 from taxes but to be near the 40% mark you're some way above the average national wage (£26,500). I would also say the average person will use the NHS at some point at which time costs are also incurred.

I should point out I am not saying there is anything wrong with being in this situation. Most of us are. It's just worth remembering that when people say they've paid in and never get anything out then most of them are wrong. There aren't many people in the UK who can genuinely claim they're subsidising other people via the tax and benefit system. Also remember the biggest budget items are the NHS, Education and pensions. As an example the NHS is £97 billion a year, Pensions £74 billion a year, Education is £51 billion a year whilst Jobseekers allowance is £5 billion a year. Even the cost of debt interest is £48 billion year.

I should also point out that it's gets more complicated when you factor in VAT, working which can help increase GDP and generate more wealth etc.
As I have no children, have private health insurance and pay maximum into my pension scheme to be responsible for my future I think without even considering all the taxation I pay beside Tax and NI it will take many years of pension when I retire at 67 (If I can afford to) to refund what I have paid in. In comparison those career benefit claimants who have made no contributions and have no worries about funding their retirement.

The national average is a catch all meaningless figure ranging from minimum age workers to CEO's. I am earning well above the £26500 national average, when I started work in 1983 the national average was about £10000 and my wages were less than £2500. The interesting bit is that the current starting figure for recently qualified Engineering Graduates is about the same as the national average of £26500 and they usually get good wage rises for the three years on a graduate scheme.

Although graduates have higher qualifications, my 32 years experience means I am obviously earning considerably more than they are.
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