Who should I vote for? My views seem to be all over the place.

impatient the thing is that people do have to opt out - rather than in. And afaik have to opt out every year. And employers aren't allowed to encourage opting out...
And the increase is going to be gradual - so won't be a big hit - one of my issues was larger companies have started (think last April) and the contributions start at about 1.5% with about 4 years for it to get up to the combined 8%. Smaller businesses had a delayed start but had to get to the 8% within the same time frame....

Not sure what is happening now...we haven't got a start date yet. And for smaller businesses the NI allowance will help with that!

I like the idea of a living wage - unfortunately if we paid the staff a 'living wage' they just wouldn't have a job any more - our finances are that tight (charity).

I agree with that. A lot of small businesses would go under if the living wage became the minimum wage or if the minimum wage rose significantly. I also think that lots of employers would employ younger staff to benefit from the lower rate minimum wage.
I think that the minimum wage should be the same rate for everybody. I also think that VAT should be lowered. I think that there should be more govt financial help for low paid workers, rather than continually pushing up NMW or small businesses should get more help when NMW goes up. The help with childcare should go back to being 80%. There are things that can be done to help low paid workers without putting small businesses under increasing pressure.

^Haven't looked at it for a while (effects where I work, I do finances and budgets but keeps being delayed for small businesses)
IIRC eventually it will be 5% employees and 3% employer will have to contribute. That means that effectively employers will have given their employees a 3% increase, even though the employee won't see it in their pay packet just their pension.^

How many people on NMW are going to opt out of the new work place pension? I would imagine that quite a lot will opt out seeing as they are struggling to pay bills and put food on the table. Do you think that someone currently on NMW can afford to save 5% of their income?
It's all very well bringing in new schemes to encourage people to save for a pension, but currently people who haven't saved get pension credit and therefore some of those that have saved are not much better off than those who didn't save. I'm not sure how the new flat rate pension proposals will change the current unfair system, but based on the current system I would opt out of the workplace pension so I wouldn't be getting a 3% rise (as I suspect many others won't either).

NMW wage increase during the boom years can't be compared to the increase brought about by this government during a recession when most people (above NMW) have had pay freezes.
Also the introduction of the automatic enrolment for pensions affects how much pay can go up - employers have needed to plan for that ...

Haven't looked at it for a while (effects where I work, I do finances and budgets but keeps being delayed for small businesses)
IIRC eventually it will be 5% employees and 3% employer will have to contribute. That means that effectively employers will have given their employees a 3% increase, even though the employee won't see it in their pay packet just their pension.
But I would say is long term a good thing - if the NEST scheme which most small employers will sign up to is actually competitive. (problem with Stakeholder pensions most employees in poorly paid jobs didn't sign up, small employers just signed up to one that would cost them the least but might not be best for the employees)

Income tax personal allowance increase is a good thing. In 2009 you paid tax on anything more than £6035pa - now it is £10k . All the employees I do the wages for - all part time, term time workers are now out of the tax bracket (except one who uses all their allowance from other income).

Still have issues with NI (especially not being cumulative) but then a lot of these employees do make the lower limit without having to pay anything so are building up credits. And the £2k pa employer NI allowance just introduced is good for where I work, as we paid less than that and now won't have to pay anything. Gives us a little bit more in the 'staff cost' pot, so we can afford to pay the staff a wee bit more.

I like the idea of a living wage - unfortunately if we paid the staff a 'living wage' they just wouldn't have a job any more - our finances are that tight (charity). I would say that over the last two years our situation has slightly improved and also we don't seem to be having any problems getting grants etc. Things are looking up for us - 3-4yr ago I was thinking it was just a matter of how long we could keep going before we went under. But the staff have reduced their hours, had a pay freeze until last year etc - without them doing their bit we would be finished now.

I agree that the bedroom tax is unfair if people are trapped.
And I think private landlords for social housing is a mistake. I watched a 'Homes under the hammer' a few years ago. Someone bought a property and did it up to rent out. When the estate agents did their valuation, I can't remember the exact figures but say they said she could get £400pm rent - she already had a deal with the council getting £500 pm -and the presenter congratulated her on it !

Maybe councils should be buying houses like these for social housing.

I'm equally lost who to vote for ...think maybe we should start our own party.

The bedroom tax is my other bugbear that really makes me question this govt. I do think the general principle of the bedroom tax is good in theory as we need to free up bigger properties for families, however, there are too many people being financially penalised because their local authority cannot find them a smaller property to move into. If somebody wants to move somewhere smaller and has put in a request to move but the council cannot find them anywhere smaller then they shouldn't have their housing benefit reduced (unless a smaller property is found and they refuse to move into it).

Who is best at all that? UKIP and the Tories, not New Labour.

But are they though?
The low paid with children are not better off und the coalition because they used to get up to 80% of their childcare costs paid and now the maximum they can get is 70%.

The middle and higher income earners with children have lost their child benefit so those just under the current child benefit threshold have no incentive to earn more.

Inflation has been running quite high over the last few years, so higher wages are being swallowed up by the higher cost of living.

The help to buy scheme is pushing prices up very quickly so we have returned to the situation we had a decade ago where house prices are outstripping salaries and even people on middle incomes are struggling to buy a home even if they are paying less income tax.

There have been lots of policies under both the previous govt and the current govt which have made lower and even middle income families worse off, particularly those with children.
I don't buy the idea that Tory and lib dems have a magic solution which makes them better to manage the country's finances than new labour. I don't necessarily believe that new labour are best placed to help ordinary families either. Hence why I am currently undecided. However, the coalition mocking Eds plans to freeze fuel prices and then taking on the idea several months later (as a good idea) makes me question their ability to help ordinary families using their own initiative and planning skills.

My mother, who works at a large well known charity, took the political compass test and now takes great joy in admitting that she is 'further left than Ghandi'.

But while I think the compass is pretty good as a guide (and fun), it ain't perfect. I'm a psychotic totalitarian militarist (who the hell do I vote for? I don't believe in democracy at all!) but I still end up in the socially liberal, planned economy quarter.

That's the one I used before Ria. Thanks!

I recommend vote for policies - it lets you compare party manifestos by subject without knowing who's who.

You have to incentivise people and promote enterprise. You have to let people keep more of what they earn and you have to take the low-paid out of taxation. You have to make work pay and increase the tax threshold. It is no use paying a higher living wage and then clawing it back in tax.

Small and medium businesses need to be promoted and their rents, rates and taxes need to be decreased in order to kickstart employment and create wealth that can then be shared around.

Who is best at all that? UKIP and the Tories, not New Labour.

Impatientismymiddlename, you're right. I remembered it wrong.

Claig...Labour lowered VAT a few % in fairness, with I believe a 2-year time horizon, plus a £2k 'cash for clunkers' new (foreign?) car policy - which was their master plan for 'growf' - but would shop keepers have passed all the VAT cut on.

Osbourne raised it, seeing it as a tax on consumption, and the more richer you are and consume, the more you pay - Labour should have loved that. lol

I haven't decided who I am voting for yet as I have similar dilemmas to the OP, but I have decided that there are certain parties who will not be getting my vote.

VAT was reduced to 15% under labour, it was increased back to 17.5% by the coalition in 2010 and then in reads to 20% (I think in 2011).
VAT is a tax which impacts on the poor more significantly than it does on this with higher incomes (even though wealthier people buy more vatable goods). VAT is a regressive tax.

Interesting compass website. Apparently, I'm roughly with Ghandi too.

A ‘living wage’ is desirable by all, but apart from a lean government/low tax environment e.g. the £10,500 start rate of taxation budgeted for next year, I’m not sure how it can be guaranteed, especially in periods of slump/recessions.

The term ‘full employment’ does not usually mean everyone is employed, it means we are as close as we are going to get.

FYI the stronger the economy, the tighter the jobs market gets, and private sector pay rates rise, but clearly not for all – but then INFLATION tends to rise, interest rates follow, so it’s a constant moving target.

And clearly during the last boom, not everyone can share the proceeds of growth, even if keep raising welfare/benefits, as then taxes have to rise to fund that. A tough balance.
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1245080/Embarrassment-Brown-major-report-reveals-inequality-increased-Labour.html

Yes, I think you are right about part time work, I don't know the details there.

I think Vat would probably be the same under both parties. I think Ed Brawls raised it to 20% and now he says he would lower it, but one wonders if what he says and what he does will be different.

Impatientismymiddlename, Osborne probably has increased the minimum wage by less, but he has substantially increased the tax threshold too, so there is some swings and roundabouts too.

Not if you work part time and earn below the threshold (in which case you would have also been battered by changes to supplementary benefits and VAT rising to 20%). Swings and roundabouts as long as you at not on the lowest wages or on low wages and working part time.

Impatientismymiddlename, Osborne probably has increased the minimum wage by less, but he has substantially increased the tax threshold too, so there is some swings and roundabouts too.

He has not had an easy time of it because he is dealing with the worst recession since the 1930s after the dire state of our finances left to him by Gordon Drown, the luvvies and the amateurs in charge of financial mismanagement under New Labour.

Very interesting that put me between Gandhi and Farancois Hollande!

www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2013/oct/01/uk-minimum-wage-history-in-numbers

A history of national minimum wage can be found on that link, clearly showing that it has risen much more slowly (percentage wise) under the current govt.

Tobybox…whether you are looking across ALL the issues, or a few specifically, peel away ‘the class war’ rollocks, there is now plenty off historical data to help you decide.

On taxation, in 1979 Labour passed over income tax rates around 32p as the lower rates, 65p and higher for the upper rate, around 96p for unearned income and Corporate Tax 50% - and slowly, when they could, the Conservative reduced to cost of the State, improved business conditions and lowered taxes SUBSTANTIALLY until they were far lower in 1997.

Labour in 2010 said they would continue to spend on the big fat state and raise taxes, but were never politically brave enough whilst in government to give any detail to the electorate. FYI in 1997, their first year in power, they brought in various ideological taxes that were not needed, and never mentioned within their 1997 manifesto. As we will have £1.5 tril of national debt in 2015, the only way to reduce it is by Private sector led growth and/or extra taxes, and as we are currently paying £32 billion a year interest on our debt, it has to be reduced asap – we need as vibrant a Private Sector as we can encourage.

As for education, Free Schools are controversial, not least because there isn’t a long enough academic record, but what was clear, was that went before wasn’t working for our children. If you haven’t read it yet, may I suggest the following post, as throughout the thread all sides give good input.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/politics/1990838-UK-education-what-is-the-REAL-problem

Oh, UKIP also want to increase the tax threshold even further.

Labour say that they are in favour of a "living wage" but what they say and do is often different. Meanwhile, Osborne increased the minimum wage by about 10% I think.

NMW has not kept up with inflation, particularly under the current govt. 10% over 4 years has not been sufficient. Other essential workers have had their pay frozen and are effectively worse off than they were 4 years ago.

Like most people you seem to like different issues represented by different parties. All you can do is read the manifestos carefully prior to voting and decide which party has the most policies that you agree with on the issues that you feel most strongly about.
I don't think you will find any of the parties fits all of your ideals exactly and you have to bear in mind that promises are not always delivered regardless of which party gains control.