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

There is none.

Unless your mother has an unusually (extremely so) large state pension she shouldn't be taxed at all on it now and the budget won't change that.

Either something is going very wrong, she's got other income you're not mentioning (outside of the £27pm private pension) or you've got hold of the wrong end of the stick.

Improving child poverty has got to be good. Where I think it's not as good is intergenerational inequality and also they could have taxed the mega wealthy a bit more, and raised the personal allowance a little bit.

It doesn't sound like she has enough private pension to cover the state pension tax so she may not have to pay any more as they won't be taking tax off those with just state pension and her private pension won't cover it all

I agree. nothing whatsoever to stimulate economic growth - I notice that's been quietly been dropped now. The private sector is essentially propping up everyone else. Unless we can stimulate growth there, the country has no chance of recovery.

There’s nothing for growth, nothing for housing and nothing for the NHS. There’s no welfare reform, and the poor will be worse off because the increase in the minimum wage is more than offset by inflation (caused by the last budget) and freezing the personal allowance for longer, putting more of an already low income in the governments hands in the form of tax and national insurance.

Some people do make bad life choices. Having a child without thinking whether the Father will stay around and then finding themselves alone. Then doing the same thing again. Rewarding people who make these choices is rewarding a certain behaviour.

Tin hat at the ready but some women do make daft choices and then find actually it’s not as bad as first thought because of the benefits they then become entitled to

As do I.

We’ll have to pay the additional council tax but happy to really. I’m glad they have got rid of the 2 child cap, but not entirely sure how much difference it’s going to make. I still think this government is an absolute joke and will struggle to stay in power.

Exactly this imo
Plus encourages a population growth in an already over-populated country (and planet) that doesn't have enough social housing.
That money could have been spent on a million more useful changes.

Nope, I agree with you too.

I’m not entirely certain. I didn’t want to dig too deep as she was so upset and she would’ve got angry if I questioned her right then. I’m going to ring her shortly and ask more details. However, she’s an intelligent woman who worked in banking all her life so I highly doubt she’s mistaken. Her maths skills are always impressive.

Will report back shortly.

I like this budget too, overall. Like some PP I am average earning working person, not in poverty, but not rich. I am happy to pay a bit more tax to see child poverty decrease and fund public services. I would have liked to see tax loopholes closed for big businesses and more tax for the super rich too.

Side point- I was appalled by the jeering, cheering, rude infantile behaviour in Hoc. A national disgrace. I also hate the partisan 2 party system where the opposition automatically slates whatever the serving govt do or say. Elected officials should work across parties as a representative coalition. They just waste time tit for tat.

I'm with you @isitactuallybadthough.

The poverty levels in the UK are terrible. Those of us (myself included) that can afford to need to pay a bit more.

People who aren’t working won’t get the extra money because of the benefit cap. It’s those who are working in low wage jobs (who have more than two children) who will benefit from scrapping the two child cap. These are the hard working carers, shopkeepers, teaching assistants, cleaners etc who cannot afford to feed their children - they are not the people who are lazing around at home and expecting the state to pay for them to pop out more and more children.

If you work and pay your way fully, you don’t get the luxury of having a limitless number of children that someone else pays for. Yet, if you are on benefits, you get everything without ever having to make tough choices.

If you work, you don’t get to decide whether you will get an above inflation play rise, yet if you are benefits, you will get exactly that.

The lifting of two child benefit cap is an extra £5 a year for these people. How many people making sensible life choices get this kind of luxury for being reckless. It’s beyond scandalous.

I’ll be £1000 a year worse off. I can afford it no doubt but I’m more worried about employment opportunities for my adult children and I don’t see much about how that will be improved

I beg your pardon? Bad life choices? So everyone on benefits, are so due to “bad life choices?!?!????” 🤨

@LemaxObsessive i've definitely missed something

Why is the tax on her pension going up so much please?

I’m happy with it. Brexit and Liz Truss are the reason we’re all struggling, the govt are doing what they can. The 2 child cap never sat right with me, as you’re essentially punishing children for their parents’ decisions.

Oh, you must like rising unemployment figures, continuing high inflation, low productivity, low growth outlook and paying a shedload more in tax without any discernable improvement to services? There's always one.

NO!

I think it was pretty good over all. I will pay more, but worth it to drop the benefit cap for sure.

It's not as bad as it could have been, but it's not great. There's nothing there to encourage economic growth and that should have been the priority. I'm not sure the worst off will be better off once you take into account the tax threshold freeze and the inevitable inflation, maybe a tiny bit? But yes, it's not appalling.

My widowed pensioner mum is already living in poverty due to having to pay £55 per month in tax on her state pension and due to the budget is now going to be paying over £130 per month in tax on her state pension. She’s 81 and worked all her life but due to a series of unfortunate circumstances beyond her own control, she’s only got a tiny private pension (£27pm) and is not entitled to pension credit. She’s fallen through the net. She called me crying her heart out. That extra £80 is literally her food budget each month. She’s saying she won’t be able to ever use the heating again and is going to have to sell her car and lose her last remaining independence, just to get through the next year. The last thing she said to me before she ended the call was “Hopefully I won’t be here anymore by the time the car money has gone”. It’s heartbreaking.
(No, I can’t help financially at all as I’m also on an extremely low income and a single parent. Besides, she would never, ever accept a penny from me)