Absolutely rinsed in this budget - almost £1k a year worse off.

We do it then @Mushroo make the changes you have the choice to do to make your work life balance better

I was just about to say this. I appreciate your frustrations - but you are definitely both higher earners.

Not much of it makes a huge amount of sense!

A closer look shows actually many of the changes are after the date for the next election.

Third person today with household income well over £100k moaning about money. I suppose that show RR did indeed deliver a Labour budget. If you are worried about your house breaching £2m forgive me if I don’t cry you a river.

I hear you! It feels like on these sort of salaries we should be able to have a better lifestyle whereas it's a constant degradation in lifestyle. I'm genuinely no better off now than when I earned half of what I do now because salary increases never go up in line with inflation. with a household income of £140k a year it should be possible to send your kids to private school and live in a nice house but in reality many people can't.

The only people I can see getting worked up about this appear to have houses worth more than £2 million, can afford to do salary sacrifice of a fair amount, and maybe have EVs - the amount anyone can earn/receive before paying any tax as far as I can see is one of the highest in Europe-( believe me I know this stuff from when we looked to move around Brexit and little has changed) - some countries it really is next to nothing and offsets are£4to £5k at most. So my heart isn’t exactly bleeding - personally I would have banged 2p on basic rate too, but took the higher rate level to £55k which isn’t exactly a fortune these days.

no one it seems wants to mention positive things like business rates , or energy costs.

The only thing I don’t agree with at all ( and I’m a centre left voter) is the child numbers cap - I might have upped it to 3 at most -

If so I’d like OP’s broker details.

I mentioned this on another thread. I earn £60k yet have the same net income as a fellow single mother with the same number of children who works 16 hours a week and gets tax credits (no DLA/PIP etc, just basic credits for working PT even though she has been offered full time work)

And I don't have any student loan deductions so someone else on the same salary may be worse off

I have a slightly higher salary than you. Neither you nor I are middle earners. You’re deluded.

Yes precisely. We can’t afford a 2 mill house with a larger income. Didn’t add up to me…

As I understand it they will identify the homes worth £2million plus by re-valuing all band F, G and H homes for the first time since 1991. While many of those won’t be worth £2million (certainly where I live there are plenty of Band F homes worth under 1 million, the re-valuation hanging overhead could make potential buyers of those homes pause and wonder things like is it going to be re-banded to G which there have been lots of rumours about doubling council tax for? I think it’s just generally uncertainty about whether anything will change for those properties as a result which might make owners or potential owners nervous and make them harder to sell.

I think, I may be wrong!

Your choice to take on a ‘mahoosive mortgage’ and pay school fees, these are privileges not entitlements 🤷‍♀️
Not much sympathy here, sorry 🎻

Maybe she took out a 100 year mortgage

It will be easier once you don’t have nursery fees. I assume you mean that you were considering private school but now aren’t, as that would be way more, and unaffordable before the budget announcement and probably even before VAT changed.

This budget was always going to be a difficult one, and it’s always hard to balance the needs of people who’ve made poor choices but live in poverty, people who work hard but live in poverty, people who still work hard but have slightly better houses and cars, and really high earner who pay loads of tax but earn so much that they live in luxury.

I’ll probably be worse off but have a sufficient standard of living so I’ll be ok, as I think you will. I hope that it will improve the overall living standards as a population so that there is less inequality, as a widening gap doesn’t help us.

No salary sacrifice scheme in NHS either. A quick Google seems to say govt doesn’t allow salary sacrifice in public sector schemes.

I wonder what this "end terrace" looks like...

Not with mortgage payments of £2.5k a month - unless she paid a £1.5 million deposit.

Big hugs OP. I understand how you can be objectively “well off” but still feel stretched and stressed. Deep breaths. You’ll find a way to make it work.

I think you are stretching the definition of “middle earners”

And btw, I totally get where you're coming from. It sucks to work hard and not get to reap the rewards you think you have earned/ deserve.

But the country is fucked financially and while Labour aren't exactly covering themselves in glory when it comes to running the country, they inherited a shit show and this economic situation is global - so there's huge limits on what they (or any govt) could actually do to make it better...

Probably because they are planned future costs when her nursery aged DC starts school.

This is another hackneyed Tory myth. The truth is that hardly anyone on MN is on minimum wage. Most of those on this thread who think OP is being crass and selfish are also financially very comfortable and will be paying a healthy tax bill. They just aren’t Tories, so they don’t resent paying their fair share.

Maybe sack the expensive kitchen remodel off then

I don’t understand why you think the council tax thing will impact you? Unless your house is worth over £2.5 million, in which case - no sympathy 😂