The Labour Government

[mosssideblue]

they had no choice but to pay fairly the doctors and trains, both absolutely vital to the economy and well being of our nation.
they could have ignored negotiations and delayed rises and allow strikes like the Tories have done for years - which in turn massively increases the debt.

Whoaa, you can’t post the blindingly obvious on here

 

[The Light Was Yellow Sir]

Train Drivers are not that skilled, £45k would be fair, my mates SIL was on £65k before the pay rise, it's not a difficult job and the training was 6 months, absolute fucking joke.

And yet, there’s a huge shortage of them…

 

[bluenova]

In the Labour manifesto not a whisper of the WFP cut, it was a soft/easy target by the chancellor taking away the WFP. In the run up to the election It was all about Non doms

The number of people who claimed non-dom status in the UK has risen slightly since the Covid pandemic.
Some 74,000 people claimed non-dom status in 2022-23, up from 68,900 in 2021-22, HM Revenue & Customs data showed.
============================
The new Labour government has pledged to scrap the non-dom tax status to raise more money for the NHS and other public services and tax fraud, nothing yet about how they hope to achieve the billions of pounds tax fraud I expected to hear more about an increase in tax inspectors and fraud officers

Why they didn’t announce the WFP would be phased out slowly by the increase in a state pension much easier to accept by the left wing of government giving pensioners time to adjust, there was nothing about bringing down the price of gas and electricity that everyone pays less.
The trade union congress enjoying the passing of the Tory party members that lost their seats :) how they will work with government on restoring public services, that’s good to hear.

I think it was most likely a complete misjudgement.

They probably thought that with the price cap being more than £300 lower than last year, and by retaining it for the poorest pensioners, it would be a relatively painless way to look "tough but fair".

Reeves was probably looking for a benefit to cut for the optics, and they completely underestimated the backlash.

 

[hammocity]

And yet, there’s a huge shortage of them…

Really? My mate works as a guard for Northern Rail, he's an intelligent lad who joined them in 2007 on the premise he would be given an opportunity to be a Driver. I think he's had three interviews to become a trainee driver, each time he was told he'd not got the job.

Baffling really but he's 57 now so he's given up on that ambition, he'd previously been a Pension's Manager at CIS. If they're so desperate for Drivers you'd think they would promote from within the organisation.

As I said, I know nothing about the industry, only going off empirical evidence witnessed by others.

 

[kaz7]

What they should have done is to say we are means testing wfa from next september and spend the time getting the million people eligble onto pension credit , look at the level it is set as it does look like it will exclude some poor pensioners as it is

The forms for pension credit are mega , ridiculous but very dwp . People have to get together all of their finances and produce proof of it all, that is just too much for some people , i have to do health version , it is degrading to deal with dwp at any level , even if you do it they can take a year to give you a decision

Springing this on people right now is a cunts trick really

 

[inbetween]

And yet, there’s a huge shortage of them…

Aren't there thousands of applicants per job? The biggest reason for such shortages is the train operators aren't willing to invest in training.

It's the same in aviation where we're bombarded with messaging around shortages of pilots. The truth however remains that there is certainly no shortage of candidates.

There is really a shortage of already qualified candidates as the airlines prefer to hire those over spending hundreds of thousands on training new candidates.

 

[Chippy_boy]

Train Drivers are not that skilled, £45k would be fair, my mates SIL was on £65k before the pay rise, it's not a difficult job and the training was 6 months, absolute fucking joke.

Well we had all that spare cash taken of pensioners' winter fuel payments, so we had to find somone to give it to.

 

[Chippy_boy]

What they should have done is to say we are means testing wfa from next september and spend the time getting the million people eligble onto pension credit , look at the level it is set as it does look like it will exclude some poor pensioners as it is

The forms for pension credit are mega , ridiculous but very dwp . People have to get together all of their finances and produce proof of it all, that is just too much for some people , i have to do health version , it is degrading to deal with dwp at any level , even if you do it they can take a year to give you a decision

Springing this on people right now is a cunts trick really

And if everyone did claim, it would cost the government WAY more than they saved. Not least because the claims can be backdated. My mother-in-law went through it and got thousands, not a piddling £300.

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

Means testing WFA would cost more than paying it to all people if pensionable age, wouldn’t it?

Its scrappage has to go through Parliament yet and I’m not convinced it will happen.

 

[mackenzie]

There is absolutely no way on earth that the reference to claim Pension Credit was an actual desire from the Government for people to do so. It was a mere PR sop to push through the proposal re WFA payments and save money.
The desire and ultimate aim was to save money, not to make the welfare state bill bigger.