I’m curious what the ‘right’ amount of people being supported that makes it magically sustainable. UK pop is close to 70 mil, with half a mil in Leicester (ISH). Let’s be generous and say 0.5% of the population gets these PIPs then. Tax Rates are upwards of 40% for some folk, logically we can afford to care for this many people (and more). Hell the massive Social Security bill is always 2/3 pensions. I’d suggest raising the retirement age a year, which would more than cover the discrepancy, but there’s some evidence that life expectancy is going to decline in the coming years, which in concert with the raising ages means retirement is going to be a luxury if they aren’t careful. Of course the actual solution to this is the same one that never ever gets discussed. Raise wages and increase Tax take, given it’s the wagies that actually pay tax, not the massive mega corps. I’d hoped for a visionary take on the Labour party, the focus being Great British Energy to get energy security, followed by a modern farms initiative to get food security. Instead we get the same old shit sandwich we’ve been being fed for thirty or forty years.
When the scores are settled sure, doesn’t mean there’s not mechanisms in any particular country that make this harder. Work two Jobs in the UK without carefully sorting PAYE and one of those will be collected at 40% emergency rates. You get it back eventually, but if you are paying transport, meals and other expenses to attend the second job I can see how it could get close to nothing. You get most of it back later, but that doesn’t help marginalized people trying to earn extra right now.