Budget 2015 - what do you think?

[KateMumsnet]

Today at 12.30pm - and with only 50 days until the general election - chancellor George Osborne will deliver the last budget of this government. Amongst other things, he’s expected to announce an increase in the personal tax allowance, a reduction in the rate at which savings are taxed and, possibly, a move on inheritance tax. We'd love to know what you'd like to see emerge from his briefcase - and to hear what you think as he announces his measures.

[meglet]

he won't do a single thing to help lone parents. probably make it a bit harder for us tbh.

but there will be more help for people with savings and business I expect.

[GratefulHead]

I'd like to see a change to Carers Allowace so that if a Carer is able to work at all they can do so with a tapering off of Carers Allowance if they earn over £102 a week. Currently once a working Caref reaches the arbitrary amount of £102 a week in earnings they lose CA totally. This often means the Carer is significantly worse off in work.

As a parent of an autistic chikd I get Carers Allowance, there are times like now that I cannot meet my son's needs and work. There are other times I could work around his needs but my jobs have always taken me just over £102 a week. I promptly lose Carers Allowance, Housing benefit and council tax help. All in all I end up significantly worse off financially.

[GratefulHead]

Not holding my breath though....

[BaronessEllaSaturday]

Call me cynical but it will be a major give away where everyone benefits then as soon as they get back into power (if they do) they will do an emergency budget and cut everything they can to make money to afford the giveaway. Of course if they don't get back into power despite being ever so generous they can then turn on the new government and say we promised all this and you are taking it away.

[Michal12]

I would like to see a system of tax smoothing on income that is income tax spread on income over the years rather than each financial year.
In my case, I have had some large income some years and zero other years. Simplistic example below:
Something like this income after personal allowances year one £100,000, income year two £20,000 income year three zero.
say tax rate is 10% up to 20k then 20% up to £60,000 and 50% over 60k instead of total tax bill for 3 years = £42k
How about income after personal allowances = £120,000k over 3 years / 3 = income £40k a year therefore total tax = £18k QUITE A BIT OF A DIFFERENCE

[Hillingdon]

I suspect depending on your own situation people will want something that benefits them. Issue is that not everyone can have everything.

My view - give carers more, child care incentives for lone parents to get back to work. Maximum of benefits for 2 children only. Bedroom tax to stay, why should someone who lives in a three bedroom house and whose children have moved away be allowed to stay because they have been there for x number of years. My DB lives next door to a lady in a Central London who is in a three bed flat and because she is over 60 doesnt want to move. The block if half council and half private.


Look at more care in the home for the agin population as opposed to shipping them off to hospital where they bed block because no one knows what to do with them.

No benefits for people from the EU until they have been contributing for 2 years. Stop CH being claimed by people who kids dont reside in the UK.

Require any one coming to the UK to provide proof of private medical insurance (translated into English!)

[skyeskyeskye]

They definitely need to stop paying benefits until you have been a resident in this country for a certain period.

Increasing the personal allowance would be good. It would also be good if some sort of childcare schemes could be set up using the empty schools during the summer holidays. There is a distinct lack of childcare where I live.

[InMySpareTime]

I'd like to see a further rise in NMW, so a full time wage is always enough to live on and so FT workers don't need benefits to live.
Tax measures to encourage business to move out of London to other UK cities, should take the pressure off the housing bubble there as London house prices are unsustainable.
MPs to lose second home allowance, when in London they can stay in a dedicated apartment block with conference facilities (not going to happen, but it would save a lot of money!)

[ItMustBeBedtimeSurely]

Agree, use tax to encourage business owners to move to other cities.

Build houses. Lots of houses, everywhere. And services to go with them. Loosen up planning laws and tax developers who buy land and do not build on it.

Raise MPs salaries and ban them from taking second jobs.

Raise the personal allowance and NMW, including for young people.

Cap child related benefits at two or three children.

Subsidise childcare, heavily.

That's what I would do, anyway.

[misstiredbuthappy]

I think they should scrap the bedroom tax.

No benefits unless you have lived and worked in the Uk for more than a year.

[misstiredbuthappy]

Oh and no more imagrents unless they have a job its ridiculous.

[YonicScrewdriver]

Marking place for later

[Isitmebut]

Look to carry on creating the environment of more and more UK wide private sector jobs, via encouraging the sector to invest in old and new businesses however he can - as whether a small, medium or large business, they need to plan for years (not months) ahead - and currently see a huge political uncertainty, adding to the current economic uncertainty STILL within the EU and beyond.

www.dailymail.co.uk/money/markets/article-2956127/North-West-s-growth-catching-London-capital-s-production-output-grows-3-7-12-months.html

Worrying about who takes the jobs is not a chancellors main job, other than specific programmes e.g. to get unemployed 16-24 year olds in work via to date the 2 million apprenticeships and National Insurance holidays for employers.

[SoonToBeSix]

Grateful you can now earn I think it's £110 a week. I received a letter the other day. Personally I don't think it should matter how much you earn. My dh works 39 hours a week he still cares for me for more than 30 hours.

[Armchairathlete]

he won't do a single thing to help lone parents.

So the very generous benfits, free childcare plus any CSA ,money aren't enough??

[WhenSheWasBadSheWasHorrid]

Help with childcare would be great
Increase in tax free allowance would also be nice.

What I really want is to see some wealth distribution from south east to up north.

[JillyR2015]

Would like

• abolition of most tax reliefs including for pension contributions and charitable contributions, Patent Box, film finance and all the rest,
  
• much lower taxes (flat tax combined with NI, ideally capped as on Guernsey),
  
• abolition of IHT and stamp duty and
  
• a much smaller state.
  

No chance. All parties are as wet as each other at present. What I fear is -

• a new system for the self employed where every time I am paid (rather than once a year) I have to report it to HMRC meaning hours and hours of admin
  
• new business rate system where by those of us who work from home at a computer suddenly have to pay some huge new rate charge
  
• new IHT reliefs not applicable to those of us who choose to be net payers into the system so have to live in London so pay more for housing so are double whammied with being excluded from IHT reliefs.

[misstiredbuthappy]

Free childcare ? I must off missed that

[Armchairathlete]

www.gov.uk/help-with-childcare-costs/childcare-tax-credits

[Plonkysaurus]

Childcare tax credits only apply under a certain threshold - and they're often miscalculated!! Last year I changed jobs and had a significant pay rise. I then received a letter stating that I owed TCs nearly a grand, which swallowed up a big chunk of my wages after tax.

Fact is we shouldn't need tax credits at all, because wages should be high enough.

I would like to see money ring fenced for education and the nhs. Not going to happen.

[SoonToBeSix]

Armchair the max help you can get for childcare is £220 a week. Nursery for two dc full time can be £500 or more hardly free.

[Armchairathlete]

Still a huge amount. Far more than couples get.

[BadgersBum]

Changes I would make to Britain;

Benefits to be set at the number of children the claimant has at the start of their claim.

Zero hour contracts to be made illegal.

Bedroom tax to stay but be more subjective, no charge until after the occupier has turned down 2 reasonable offers of alternative accommodation.

Net income from a full-time NMW job to be higher than the maximum allowed in benefit claim (not including genuine incapacity claims).

MPs to have a set wage and no longer allowed to claim day-to-day expenses (trip abroad for genuine work-related reasons = yes, pack of sandwiches from a service station on the way home = no).

More pressure on huge businesses and rich famous people to pay their bloody taxes.

Less foreign imported goods and more British manufacturing again please!

[OodlesofBoodles]

There will definitely be an improvement in inheritance tax thresholds. Which is irrelevant once your hard working thrifty parents get dementia and their savings are decimated and their house gets sold to pay care home fees. the same care home fees that will be fully covered by the state if they hadn't been thrifty and wasted all their money.