Why the UK is financially broken, in a few simple numbers👇
We now pay £212 billion per year on on 'illness-related inactivity'. This is about 70 % of the ENTIRE INCOME TAX TAKE of the government.
So 70p of every pound you pay in tax goes not to nurses, teachers, doctors, schools, or to fixing potholes… but towards paying this bill. Towards paying people not to work.
It gets worse.
On top of this, the government will spend £111.2 billion this year just on servicing our national debt. On interest payments, not reducing the principal owed.
What does this mean?
That every single penny you have to pay in income tax is spent either on enabling people not to work, or on paying interest.
Not one single penny you pay goes on the things you might expect to pay tax for – on the police, on schooling, on healthcare, education, or defence. And remember, this is with the highest tax burden since the Second World War.
The system is running on fumes. Something has to give.
Quite a moment. The Mayfield review has calculated the lifetime cost of writing people off as long-term sick; it’s £1m in lost earnings for 22yo “with the state incurring a similar cost”.