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

I’m interested too. The spend in the budget is on welfare, two child benefit lift.

There is NO £2000 cap on Salary sacrifice contributions.
It’s still a fantastic tax dodge, higher rate tax payers will be hit by a £200 NI charge for every £10k they sacrifice over £2k.They are getting a better deal than basic rate tax payers who will have to pay 8% NI. Someone on £40k and is able to sacrifice 10%, will pay an extra £160 in NI.

Some people are too dim to look beyond the rage bait on twitter 🙄

yep..at least the nail/lash, botox and filler and hair salons will benefit sic

Haven't read the full thread, full disclosure. Also don't know the ins and outs of the budget. But are they investing the extra tax into public services? I work for the NHS and it is a shit show. The worst I have ever seen it in nearly 20 years of working there. By a long stretch! It needs investment. If this will help, then I don't care about paying more tax. How else will the government raise funds to be able to cover the ever rising costs of the public services that are necessary yet falling apart?

I will go and Google it now - but increased benefits to those who need it also isn't a bad thing.

Where in the budget do you see an investment in the services you are talking about?

Substantive new money - not just renamed and shuffled about to create the illusion of something new.

Money clearly isn’t an issue for you. Have you seen the effects of the reduction in state services? The reduced number of social workers? Have you not seen how youth services were cut for there to be an increase in youth offending?
I’ve seen my wages reduce, I’m not saving as much money as I’d like and I’m buying less luxuries however I am aware there are huge amount of people less fortunate than me who need help. Don’t forget we have not recovered from the financial disaster of leaving the EU or from Truss and her government’s disastrous fiscal management!

Well neither of them have tacked 2% on the long-term cost of the entire national debt yet, so perhaps they'll manage to avoid that pitfall...unlike the Conservative government before last?

Why is this not called the Keir Starmer budget, why is the Kwasi Kwarteng budget called the Liz Truss budget. Why was Liz Truss the lettuce and not KK, who should be the lettuce this time, for this budget, RR or KS.

I find it a bit odd that this part of the Liz Truss budget is just completely memory-holed.

I don't know how many times I've had a conversation along the lines of "wasn't Liz Truss terrible? Ruined the country over trying to cut bankers' taxes. The only good thing they did was help with energy bills"

Agree and that’s pretty much the take from economists, the op would be the only one saying it’s good against that.

Without growth and investment we will all be worse off. This budget did nothing to encourage growth and investment. It is palliative.Not looking at overall picture

I dont think you have understood what the £2000 relates to. All it means is that if you pay pension contributions via salary sacrifice then only the first £2000 of annual contributions will have NI relief. I dont see how that would cost anyone thousands a year?

The £2000 per annum cap is absolutely ridiculous. It'll cost us thousands a year in tax.

Have you understood it correctly? You still don’t pay any tax on your pension contributions and the NI relief has only ever applied to salary sacrifice schemes which most aren’t.

The £2000 per annum cap is absolutely ridiculous. It'll cost us thousands a year in tax.
We have planned for an early retirement because we have a disabled child and we don't want to have to put them into care constantly when they leave school (they are currently 7).
So we've scrimped and saved to increase our pensions and our savings...now the greedy bustards are going to take thousands of that each year for tax.

I'm all for helping those less fortunate but it's literally an unbelievable amount.
I've been Labour all my life but this government are an absolute joke between disability benefits, what they are doing to send kids and now this.
They should have done free school dinners for all instead. At least then we know it's benefitting the kids.

In this case the figures are incorrect. And the poster was going to check this with her mum but has not come back to post.

There should be no tax payable on an income of 12K which is stated as this is within personal tax free allowance.

No, you're not 😀

Until the government make any working person, better off than someone on benefits the work shy will proliferate, and y not.
I worked all my life and am fed up with spongers and the government giving away billions of our money that is needed here.
Can't afford children, don't keep having them

Because those in the media who want to control the narrative are keen to have a 'feckless labour' overview so the right wingers who will happily gut the country of it's core services for profit can sweep in at the next election.

Despite the fact it's a pretty moderate budget that's been well received by 'the markets'. If anything the NI on pension is a misjudgment compared to loading more onto businesses & asset owners who should still be carrying more.

It is not heartless. It is the truth unfortunately. They need to get a grip on benefits.

Oh, and what sort of magic wand are Reform planning to wave, then? Do enlighten us.

OP I agree. Not especially ambitious, but she couldn't afford another Liz Truss debacle-we're still all paying extra for that!

I've heard a lot of "benefits scroungers" type comments but VERY little recognition that the UK government borrowed around £56bn over 3 years to subsidise energy costs at the peak of the (Russia invading Ukraine) energy rises.

That money subsidised every residential user in the country, for every kWh used. Which means it disproportionately subsidised the well off with large houses (multiple properties, even).

Broad brush, it works out the country borrowed to subsidise the value of around one year's worth of energy bills.

So I find it hard to swallow anyone spending £4k, £6k, £10k a year on energy whinging about welfare state gone mad, when they've happily had that paid off with it just tacked onto the tax burden for EVERYONE...

For me they have yet again broken promises. The freeze on tax threshold will affect us including my soon to be 18 year old and the same for ISA. I am annoyed at being charged extra NI on my pension contributions which are set where is the incentive to save for retirement so yet again I Pay more. The child benefit cap being lifted doesn’t do anything overall as it is not means tested so will not target the poorest in society. They haven’t gone for targeting the super wealthy but us middle earners that are squeezed every time.

I voted labour but I have not seen anything in the party so far that seems to live up to their promises on the NHS which as someone who works hard in the NHS is frustrating and demoralising

Yes I agree

I believe there's quite a lot of research that lifting the 2 child cap will lift quite a lot of children out of poverty.

https://www.lse.ac.uk/news/employment-alone-wont-turn-the-tide-on-child-poverty-new-analysis-warns

I believe it's also one of the interventions that costs the least.

Yes over all im pleased. Its hard to please everyone but after 14 Tory years of total disaster and the lies pedalled about Brexit its the best we could hope for