Am I the only one that thinks that the budget is good?!

Yeah that’s exactly what I said 🙄.

No one can be sure when they have 3 children that their circumstances won't ever change. Evidently you DO seem to bugrudge people needing universal credit due to cancer, parkinsons, or any other type of illness, especially if they happen to have more than 2 children. Your essentially saying only billionaires can have more than 2 kids, okay sure- lets leave Ellon Musk to populate the planet.

As a family with 2 working adults you could earn £120k and get full child benefit as a household. I personally think you either scrap it entirely and slightly adjust universal credit so more families with kids can claim it or you recognise it as being a payment to under 18s like the state pension is a payment to the elderly and give it to everyone regardless of income.

It doesn't matter whether it shocks me or not.

On the question of whether the two-child benefit cap disincentivised families having more children, there is an evidence base to draw on.

Freezing tax thresholds just encourages people to work less to float below the thresholds. I know a few tradespeople who don't work a couple of months a year specifically to stay below the threshold. Increase the thresholds, increase growth.

You behave yourself. I never said they were rich. I was pointing out to the pp that the threshold for stopping receiving child benefit is no longer £60,000 as they had sa8d body with an income of £60,000 gets child benefit.

Yes it is slightly oddly,.

Isn’t it reforms policy to remove the 2 child benefit cap anyway?

It's a lot more than £100 a month, are you confusing it with Child benefit which is a different thing.

@isitactuallybadthough yes. Minimum wage may be going up but that will only affect businesses that will put their produce up. So shipping will cost more. Especially if you’re a smoker or a drinker as now cig and alcohol tax is going up (doesn’t affect me but that’s by the by) Also with tax and NI, they may not be able to afford appropriate wages and result in closing altogether. It won’t affect big businesses but will affect local, small, family businesses who may need to close.

Also benefit cap for 2 children being lifted, may help you in the short term (again doesn help help me) but who’s paying for that? The tax payers. So anyone who has more Han 2 children will get more benefits but everyone else is paying for those, therefore a tax hike will be incoming. Electric vehicle tax (which does affect me and I think is ridiculous considering electric vehicles don’t affect emissions at all) and will affect multiple others who have decided to go green and avoid petrol/diesel.

tax on gambling seems like a win win but at the end of the day only affects the middle man cos those who are seriously in debt with declare themselves bankrupt.

pensioners again being caught in the fire line! It’s a sin to grow old these days!

You can’t save as much money tax free anymore! Because tax needs to start from when you’re born, to when you’re breathing to when you die!

it’s an absolute shit show and if you support it, you’re part of the problem.

the £60-£70k families are not rich. Behave yourself

Yes you do. Child benefit high income charge dosent start until £60,000. You then lose 1% per £200 over £60,000 up to a maximum of £80,000. There are plenty of families in the 60 - 70k range who claim child benefit.

I agree with you OP. It’s a good, solid budget.

Do you really think an extra £100 a month would encourage someone to have another child? The child would cost more to bring up than that

I think the measures to have a bit more tax on unearned income vs earned seems like a decent move and the benefits for extra children being reinstated seems like the right thing to do (particularly given there is no actual evidence taking them away made any difference to the number of children people had anyway). I’m not keen on the pensions change for salary sacrifice. I accept it’s going to make more difference for businesses than employees but it feels regressive & I’d have expected encouraging saving would be a good thing. Maybe though the main benefit of this is for higher earners and the economy would be better off if those people saved a bit less and spent a bit more?

Unemployment is people actively looking for work. How many are economically inactive?

On the other hand, supporting families in dire straits also sometimes has the paradoxical effect of increasing the number of families who are experiencing the thing you're trying to protect them from.

I don't think it's a simple story of either "give them money so the innocent children grow up to be productive taxpayers" or "let the kids starve to punish their feckless parents" but depends on the details of how the incentives play out across the whole population.

Could you run me through the figures on this one please?

My reckoning - £130 pm in tax is £7800 pa taxable income so an income of over £20k pa. This is a net income of £350 pw. What are her expenses which mean she can't manage on this?

Re the removal of the Two Child Benefit cap: I am a lone parent to one child and am significantly worse off than those with two children in terms of benefits. I understand that two children cost more but I am still a lone parent which massively limits my capacity to maximise my earning potential. I disagree with lifting the cap.

I’m a business owner and additional rate tax payer. I think it’s a fair budget. I want the country to succeed and thrive - all of us, not just the wealthiest of us.

I don’t understand the pearl clutching over it. It’s the best any government could have done in the circumstances. No one wants to pay more tax. We are where we are. It feels quite elegantly done and fairly spread.

Im now going to join the working taxed and we will be clobbered with the EV milage when it comes in, but that's about it for us

We live in a reasonable priced area, a big house but cheap ( compared to London which we moved out of 20 years ago so no where near 2million ). Neither of us earn enough that less savings is going to make a huge difference

We dont have a bad life, sure I need to shop around and we dont splash the cash like its going out of fashion, we spend carefully - so I dont feel that we are doing so bad, even though our joint income is below 30K

How price increases across the board to cover the pay rise Im going to get effects us - who knows - Im sure a lot more items will become treats

Yep. I’m private sector but have a non contributory, defined benefit pension. There are years my employer has put 50% of my gross salary into my pension pot.

I think it's fine. We earn well but not exceptionally. They will take a little hee and there ..but I was expecting worse to be honest. I feel there are a lot of people which questionable agendas on here trying to make it all more dramatic than the boring budget it really is.

Also to add unemployment is 4.4% which is very low. I grew up in the north under Thatcher and it was 25%. Now that’s unemployment to lose sleep over. The main worry about unemployment is the number of NEETS - young people too anxious etc to work, study or whatever. Opting out of working life at a young age is of course a real concern. The govt has launched an investigation into this so I guess measures will follow and may be reflected in the next budget. But raising the minimum wage for 18-20 year olds is a nudge in the right direction IMO.

That is annoying tbh. I think the budget was reasonable but it does seem a little unfair that some of the most sensible people (like yourself) are losing out because you paid into something they wanted you to. I guess there will always be some people that it affects negatively that aren’t rich by any means.