Anyone else irritated by the media coverage of budget?

Pretty much this

Another major problem which did not exist years ago is the acceptance that people in full time jobs do not earn enough without also claiming top up benefits (UC, child tax credits) to survive, if an employer feels they need an employee to fulfil a role, they should make sure they pay enough for them to be able to live. Sometimes there are 2 working adults in a family and benefits are still needed . I am not criticising the people claiming at all. When did it become normal practice for an employed person not to be patch enough to live. The blame lies with the employers and previous governments who have allowed this race to the bottom in terms of salaries.

@AuntieJoyce Reeves could have just chosen to reverse the latest NIC cut and would’ve plugged a massive chunk of the gap. Instead she’ll have to make smaller cuts in a number of areas and piss a wide range of people off in doing so.

The right wing media would have absolutely crucified Labour if they’d suggested doing this before the election. The fact is the Torys made those cuts knowing the country couldn’t afford them and they did it deliberately to screw the next government.

They rather made their own bed by promising not to raise PAYE tax. Thus implying that you can have Scandi style public services, paid for without taxing "working people" any more.

There's a case for higher taxes and better services, but you have to actually make it.

Earlier this year, as shadow chancellor, Ms Reeves told GB News that checking her bank statement made her “wince” as she found that “the money coming in is increasingly short of the money going out”. This was at a time when MPs were earning more than £86,000.

This is someone who worked at the Bank of England and whose household income – including her senior civil servant husband’s wage – must be four or five times higher than the UK average.

You haven’t or you wouldn’t continue arguing a non existent point.

That was changing anyway it was announced at last Tory budget

I have.

Try not defending the indefensible for just once. Your credibility is in tatters because your beloved party are Teflon to you.

Read the article.

Sorry, who’s the encumbent Chancellor. The one who will make decisions on the 30th, the pre-effects of which are already being felt by many?

Remind us of her name please?

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/jul/01/iain-duncan-smith-among-19-mps-to-have-official-credit-card-suspended

Not as simple as that as this article shows.

@Zonder

What say you?

The only reason labour are in power is people wanted the tories out. As was also reflected in the low voter turnout.

Well, be careful what you wish for.

And no, I didn’t vote for either of them. But “the tories did…” isn’t going to fly for long. Labour bankrupted the country last time they were in power, and they too are already lining their back pockets.

IMO world politics is screwed.

The best thing they could do is overhaul the system - the below stats highlight the current model is not easily sustainable

https://www.poverty.ac.uk/report-benefits-tax-welfare-system/%E2%80%98most-households%E2%80%99-now-net-recipients-state-money

In 2022, 53.8% of UK individuals were net recipients of benefits, meaning they received more in benefits than they paid in taxes. A much higher proportion of retired individuals were net recipients than non-retired people.

Here's a breakdown of how the UK government is expected to spend its social security budget in 2024 to 2025:

Pensioners: 55% of social security spending is expected to go to pensioners, with £167.6 billion spent on benefits for this group.

Working age and children: £138 billion is expected to be spent on benefits for working age and children, including Universal Credit and non-DWP welfare spending.

Disabled people and people with health conditions: £89 billion is expected to be spent on benefits for this group.

Housing benefits: £35.3 billion is expected to be spent on housing benefits.

we were reading an article from a year ago about pensions and personal tax allowance, how this was going to create problems for future governments.
a stealth tax.
as it has but no one will remember that, least of all DH who rants about it and starmer and reeves so much that I cannot listen

Nine years ago, Ms Reeves had her parliamentary credit card suspended because she owed more than £4,000 of unauthorised payments.

A Freedom of Information Act request revealed that Ms Reeves, then shadow work and pensions secretary, was one of 19 MPs to have their cards suspended by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) after failing to show spending was genuine.

And she’s Chancellor? Jesus wept…

I think the coverage reflects the absolute chaos of the Labour government.

They never should have pledged to not raise taxes for 'working people'. It was an illogical pledge that has now severely limited their options when looking to raise huge amounts of money. They are stuck looking at changes that have a very real prospect of either costing the country money directly or indirectly through seriously restricting growth.

You seem rather delicate OP.

i for one am glad that the papers are highlighting the pitfalls of some of the policies they could’ve brought in (like the impact on pensions tax relief for higher earners).

Reeves could have just chosen to reverse the latest NIC cut and would’ve plugged a massive chunk of the gap. Instead she’ll have to make smaller cuts in a number of areas and piss a wide range of people off in doing so.

A lot of it is ideological like cuts to IHT (posited) and the WFA (actual) so no wonder the UK press don’t like it

I'd say they need to cut the benefits bill for a start. It's out of hand. Also better of pensioners can pay national insurance. No reason why they shouldn't. I don't like Labour but the Tories were horrendous.

No, no, you are right.

Starmer and Reeves are clearly pros when it comes to collecting the lovely goodies - my bad.

Not prepared for quite the depth of the shit the Tories had left them, yeah

Labour are amateurs 🤣🤣🤣

Compared to the pros of the Tories? Liz and Boris being fine examples. Not sure what they were pros at mind you.

God yes. Couldn’t agree more. They campaigned to get in, but seem to have overlooked their planning for actual governance.

It’s easy in opposition to shout down your opposition and give sound bites, it’s far harder to be the government that has to implement working policies.

Having said that, I have to admit that the last Tory government was an utter shambles with their continued infighting and I’m really not surprised they lost the election. I don’t rate either of the candidates that are the final two in the selection process of who will be leader either.

No I’m not on glue, maybe you are if you think this goverment has been a “car crash”.

Labour are amateurs. Take the attack on non-doms, why concentrate major tax raising from a small cohort of the population and then drive them overseas based on no more than one hooky piece of academic literature. Many of us see stupidity for what it is, and few will stick around to pick up the pieces.