http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/10106437/Revealed-how-much-you-pay-towards-benefit-bill.html

The calculations by The Telegraph (above) are an attempt to replicate what HMRC are going to do next year, that is prepare personal statements to each taxpayer to show where their direct income taxation was spent in the previous 12 months.

Its not definitive, its the newspaper's best guess based on what HMRC have told them but it'll do as a rough guide to what the income tax and NIS deductions on your payslip are used for - unfortunately accompanied by the typical desire for every newspaper editor to put their own slant on things and in the process make massive assumptions and mis-report what could be a useful item.

For instance the headline uses the extrapolated figure of £200,000 over a lifetime of work that an individual on £50k would have contributed to "the welfare bill" and keeps emphasising this figure throughout in what you can only presume is some sort of shock tactic to support the current trend of demonising anyone who has the audacity to use any form of welfare, "they" being the "shirkers" in the current governments way of thinking.

What the newspaper doesn't go to great lengths to point out is that the Welfare item also includes pensions and so their example "middle class earner" who contributes £200k over 43 years will, unless they manage to die before 65 years of age (at the moment), start to draw on that welfare contribution.

By extrapolating the annual contribution into a career contribution they not only exaggerate the figure but seem to forget the point that a middle class £50k earner is highly unlikely to have earned the equivalent of £50k all of their life, will possibly have taken career breaks, or worked internships or apprenticeships, may have had years out during child raising, etc, etc, etc - there won't be too many who started work at 16 years of age on £50k or its equivalent figure in 1970 - the lifetime contributions are sensationalist rubbish and hopefully HMRC won't be going down this path, if they do then we know that they are being massively politically controlled.

Another point that The Telegraph seem to miss, or avoid, is the relatively small amount that the average earner pays towards a pension, a state pension without get-out clauses, one that does not rely on an insurance company to bid on your end-of-career pension pot in a sort of auction of generosity where you have to read the small print to make sure that your annuity is exactly what it seems at first reading - a state pension pays out until the day you die regardless of what you have paid in, and frankly at those annual contributions you would not receive anything like the figure in the state pension if you are on an average wage making those levels of contribution, nor would your "Welfare and Benefits" contribution pay for unlimited private health insurance either.

EU contributions come bottom of the list if you're on National Minimum Wage you could probably pay your annual EU contribution out of the change in your pocket right now, your next round in the pub will certainly be more than your annual EU contribution, your next pint in some pubs will be more in fact - will this take the focus away from the EU at the next election, is it really such a huge topic that at least one political party make it their total focus for power ?

If it makes interesting reading then you'll be getting your own personal one from next year, just in time for the next general election, will it make a difference to how you view the political parties manifesto's ?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/10106437/Revealed-how-much-you-pay-towards-benefit-bill.html

The calculations by The Telegraph (above) are an attempt to replicate what HMRC are going to do next year, that is prepare personal statements to each taxpayer to show where their direct income taxation was spent in the previous 12 months.

Its not definitive, its the newspaper's best guess based on what HMRC have told them but it'll do as a rough guide to what the income tax and NIS deductions on your payslip are used for - unfortunately accompanied by the typical desire for every newspaper editor to put their own slant on things and in the process make massive assumptions and mis-report what could be a useful item.

For instance the headline uses the extrapolated figure of £200,000 over a lifetime of work that an individual on £50k would have contributed to "the welfare bill" and keeps emphasising this figure throughout in what you can only presume is some sort of shock tactic to support the current trend of demonising anyone who has the audacity to use any form of welfare, "they" being the "shirkers" in the current governments way of thinking.

What the newspaper doesn't go to great lengths to point out is that the Welfare item also includes pensions and so their example "middle class earner" who contributes £200k over 43 years will, unless they manage to die before 65 years of age (at the moment), start to draw on that welfare contribution.

By extrapolating the annual contribution into a career contribution they not only exaggerate the figure but seem to forget the point that a middle class £50k earner is highly unlikely to have earned the equivalent of £50k all of their life, will possibly have taken career breaks, or worked internships or apprenticeships, may have had years out during child raising, etc, etc, etc - there won't be too many who started work at 16 years of age on £50k or its equivalent figure in 1970 - the lifetime contributions are sensationalist rubbish and hopefully HMRC won't be going down this path, if they do then we know that they are being massively politically controlled.

Another point that The Telegraph seem to miss, or avoid, is the relatively small amount that the average earner pays towards a pension, a state pension without get-out clauses, one that does not rely on an insurance company to bid on your end-of-career pension pot in a sort of auction of generosity where you have to read the small print to make sure that your annuity is exactly what it seems at first reading - a state pension pays out until the day you die regardless of what you have paid in, and frankly at those annual contributions you would not receive anything like the figure in the state pension if you are on an average wage making those levels of contribution, nor would your "Welfare and Benefits" contribution pay for unlimited private health insurance either.

EU contributions come bottom of the list if you're on National Minimum Wage you could probably pay your annual EU contribution out of the change in your pocket right now, your next round in the pub will certainly be more than your annual EU contribution, your next pint in some pubs will be more in fact - will this take the focus away from the EU at the next election, is it really such a huge topic that at least one political party make it their total focus for power ?

If it makes interesting reading then you'll be getting your own personal one from next year, just in time for the next general election, will it make a difference to how you view the political parties manifesto's ?