Another budget one. Sorry.

But as RR said: everything needs to be paid for.

295bkq you put it far more succinctly than I did!

Im not sure people realise how much extra this will cost mid sized up employers. Massive business with huge profits will be able to swallow it but many will barely cover it. There's no way prices for goods and services won't rise.

I think it's what Labour are banking on. The complete lack of understanding and the complete lack of shits given by those not directly affected.

Think labour have been 'clever' by not raging income tax and raising NMW.

Many people will be looking at this budget thinking they've dodged a bullet when in effect it's anything but.

I'd say they're treading a fine line between centralist and left politics and have done it 'successfully'.

How it will work in the long term is anyone's guess.

While it won't affect us directly in the short term I'm well aware that there are many who will now feel the effects, and not the groups that deserve or were prepared for it.

Over all it shows a mastery in politicking.
Trail it for weeks as being a nightmare for many and using scare tactics, it's succeeded to the extent that much of the population are today feeling 'phew!' Not as bad as we were expecting.

Unfortunately I think it's far far worse.

It doesn't personally affect me that much. I don't think its a great budget. It will have unintended consequences. It will keep wages low and raise prices. However I understand where Reeves is coming from. Taxes have to rise. No one wants it, no one wants to do it but it's either this or put up income tax presumably. Personally I think that would be more straightforward, especially placing the burden on the highest paid but for some reason people in this country just can't stomach it.

Well, they might not last long in this situation.

And this is true - the company that DH works at is already scaling down pay rises which were about to be dished out in the next few days. Management had them on hold until they heard the budget. So now, the pay rises that were deserved, agreed and planned will be cut.

It's a poorly thought out budget, very Labour centric but not really seeing the commercial bigger picture.

"Today we are setting a 2% productivity, efficiency and savings target for all [Govt] departments to meet next year by using technology more effectively and joining up services across government," said Reeves, in her Budget speech to the House of Commons.
So you could lose your job to a computer. Still happy?

I can't see that this is actually true. There is a thread from a GP whose practice will be hard hit by NMW/NI increased costs. If lots of GPs close their practices, we will all be hurt.

It seems on the face of it to be OK for most of us. But the way that "rich" people are being hit will hurt us all. And just to be clear - I don't think all those hurt in this budget are actually rich. Farmers might be asset rich, but they aren't cash rich - also there is a thread with an 83yo farmer who is considering killing himself before the IHT on farms comes in, in order that his grandson can take over the farm without a crippling/unpayable IHT bill.

And the private school thing, done to death on here, but if you read contributions, you will see that many people are facing serious consequences over this. I have also read a thread where a state sixth form is deluged with private applicants and it will push out state applicants who otherwise would have got in.

I don't really understand the full impact of DC pensions IHT, but I imagine that people are going to be less keen to build a big pension pot.

It's very dangerous to sit back and say that this stuff doesn't affect me/you/the majority IMO. None of it affects me just to be clear. Not yet. And that's the key.

I think it's one of the sneakiest budgets I've seen. Hurting minorities to please the masses.

This!!! The ‘Gold Plated’ schemes are not affected by the change. It’s the crappy DC schemes most private sector workers are saddled with that are affected. Let’s just hope we don’t die before we get to pension age.

I will be about £3k a year worse off. I have zero faith that any of my additional tax will create improvements in health, education or transport.

I don't trust business to pass on tax breaks to people, look at the 5p tax cut on fuel, do you remember the cost going down 5p? They certainly didn't where I was, took weeks to see it noticeable lower, the RAC have frequently reported how slow the forecourt is at passing down reductions when the price of the barrel goes down, but you can guarantee they'd have jumped up 5p today across the country had that initiative been removed. Big business plays the victim when it wants to, yes it is absolutely integral to a growing economy, but I am sick of Tory governments pandering to it protecting shareholders huge profits as services reduce in quality while we are expected to bear the weight of CoL.

Well it will affect business...especially small and medium size businesses. Increases in NMW plus Ni may mean laying staff off and putting up prices. Unemployment grows, inflation grows. Less tax collected. Public services cut. Government borrowing more.

Food security is also severely threatened due to inheritance tax on farms.

Its not a great budget. No forward thinking. It will affect you somehow

@photodiva if you are a civil servant and not in the civil service pension scheme then join it immediately!! It's a really good scheme.

(you say you don't have a "gold plated" pension. I dislike that sort of description but it is a very good scheme as it gives you a guaranteed income in retirement. I have 10 years of CS pension and then moved back to the private sector. Swings and roundabouts really)

As a pp has said it is mainly larger businesses

Why only larger businesses?

am I the only one who won't be (personally) directly affected? Or at least, in a negative way?
Wasn't there something about making the Civil Service more productive.

Any business that can will pass on the cost, so that will be a cost to consumers, rising cost may lead to increased inflation, which impacts interest rates etc.

Those business that can't pass on the costs will scale down pay rises, recruitment and possibly need to cut jobs.

No difference to me. As a pp has said it is mainly larger businesses and very wealthy people affected, but there will always be people who come off badly and find it tough. I do think in the current climate it should be affecting people who can shoulder the burden a bit more, rather than putting strain on people already negatively impacted by our economy.

I'm sure people will argue that the less wealthy are always supported by budgets, but the point is it hasn't been enough to slow poverty and economic growth has stalled, services have been underfunded and wages have stagnated. Previous budgets never addressed that. It is a step in the right direction I think, but so much more is needed.

Well, everyone will be affected. This stuff filters down. Farming is a big one, the IHT changes mean that passing on family farms is a lot less easy, which means land may end up being sold off and our country's food security affected. Businesses having to pay more NI will try to recoup that through higher prices and by smaller pay rises for staff. And so on. No one exists in a bubble.

The headline changes may not personally be targeting you, but we will all feel the effects of it.

I don't think it's a bad Budget, but to say that it only affects X and Y isn't really seeing the big picture.

It will when prices start going up because manufacturers can’t afford the massive uptick in wages and national insurance contributions without passing it on. Where I work have started discussions with the supermarkets already. We produce an everyday essential that 99% of people reading this will probably buy every week.

This and the post before it are interesting in that they miss that businesses employ people and the majority of extra costs will be passed on to employees (OBR)

Op if you're public sector you may not face the same issue

I'm sure it'll be felt indirectly as business passes on the cost, but I'm happy to give it a go, trickle down economics haven't been a success so let's go directly to the source.