Anyone watching the Budget 2024?

[LadyofRutshire]

I couldn't find a thread on today's budget. Anyone watching live?

How does this work with the minimum wage laws? HMRCare tasked with ensuring all employees earn at least minimum wage and they audit businesses by checking hours worked, costs employees are expected to incur etc. does this also apply to the public sector?

And if the party asked the pledges to give more “benefits” then they get the votes of over 50%

Makes sense you want to keep the over 50% on benefits and shaking the tin cup for more more more they vote for L again

Nothing nasty or envious at all about taxing private jets.
It's much nastier to say I'm so rich and don't give an absolute fuck at all about the environment that I can't even stand flying first class in a normal plane (hardly an imposition).
I say they should have taxed private jet travel much more. I'm not envious, childish or envious to quote your words, but I do worry about climate change and I do think that those with the broadest shoulders should pay their fair share.

I am a doctor. Yes, its a vocation, but I also need to eat and house myself and my children. Of course we work for money.

No, they have not. Income tax has not raised. I do live of my wage, so no tax has been increased for me, or my neighbours, or the other houses down the street, or the ones across the main road....
As far as I got it, no tax have been increased for pensioners either. So that is the majority of people I know had no tax increase.

What lies are you seeing? They’ve done what their manifesto said they would, and the vast majority of taxes they’ve changed/raised to do it were laid out in the manifesto too. Are you taking that from what Sunak said? Because he’s the one who lied. Repeatedly. For years. But pertinently, about the budget.

Simple. Doctors / junior doctors get extra pay for extra hours/extra shifts.

She promised money for capital investment. Electrification of transport in the north. Building houses. Extending and completing HS2. Better investment in school buildings. That’s a lot of jobs.

oh come on, doctors don't have to be doing it because it's a vocation. It's a perfectly acceptable career choice, a decision made with a combination of what you are good at, what you can earn, what you enjoy, what gives you the work/life balance you can live with, etc. It's a job. yes many medics do want to help people and choose it because they enjoy that side of it, but it's still a job, not something like being a nun. I don't expect it of my doctors and nurses; I want people in those jobs who want to be there, who does a good job, and who is generally caring. They can also want that job for decent money!

Why’s that then - people receiving more in benefits and services than they
contribute in taxes ? What could the reason be ?

‘Working people’ have had tax rise. In fact the biggest tax rise since 1993 with employers to bear the brunt - headline from Sky

I know public sector and state support is high on mn but surely some know people who own a small business or know someone working for one.

@Flixon silly you thinking all that training etc you do and you are just meant to do it for peanuts and altruism. How rude to expect to get paid enough to eat and pay the bills.

Employment allowance - the relief employers receive on employers NIC - is being doubled, so not quite as awful as is being made out here

Taxed who in every which way they can?!

most of the £40bn is employers NI. That’s not every which way

Because work should be fairly compensated? Because being a doctor is an incredibly important job? Because the consequences of working that role can involve literal life and death? Because it's a job not very many people can do? Because it requires a higher level of education and training?

Also - tell me you haven't met a lot of surgeons without telling me you have met a lot of surgeons. There are a lot of reasons someone may go into medicine -from plastic surgeons in it for the money to researchers in it for the intellectual curiosity. And everything and all in between.

Mostly, it should be well paid because if it isn't our young, highly educated, highly useful to society, high tax paying individuals will bugger off elsewhere where the pay and conditions are far better.

Good luck with the waiting lists when we can no longer train people.

Are you talking about doctors or nurses ?

The amount of times I saw HS2 was a waste of money in here pre Labour doing the same

You need to incentivise SME growth, they seem to have done the opposite

Being candid, because benefits are far too generous and taxes are far too low for average and low earners.

I doubt it. I'm quite sure the majority of people on benefits would rather having the dignity and independence of not needing benefits. And that is what they'd vote for.

A way to significantly lower the benefits bill is more council housing aasp - across the UK. Not only would that reduce the housing benefits bill (and save billions, currently needed for often substandard temporary accommodation) but it would also reduce disability benefits and save the NHS money - because bad or insecure housing harms health.

Related to housing but including other expenditure (energy, food, transport etc), the focus is always on increased wages/benefits. Instead of what it should be - lower cost of living.

@Katypp It’s really not about being nasty or envious.If you can’t pay your staff, then you shouldn’t be running a business.There are so many people working and claiming benefits, this has been the case for many years, not just recent.How is this fair on all tax payers.

That only impacts a tiny minority though - any business that employs more than 4 people on minimum wage is already out of cope of the employment allowance aren't they? For someone on the UK average salary the on-cost for an employer is about £1,000 per employee. Which individuals will be paying fro with a lower payrise, or we will be paying for in higher prices. Neither of which will encourage growth in the economy!

Junior doctors do not work 60 hours for 32k a year. The contract is 28 hours clinical and 12 hours study-they shouldn’t be working more than 48 hours. If any take on extra shifts, it’s paid according to local rates. Nurses start on around 28k (I think-long time since I qualified as a HCP) for 37.5 hour week. Again, extra shifts and time are paid. Sure there will be some nurses who don’t take breaks, work after their shift for no pay but that is not part of Agenda for Change.

Fix benefits by handing out even more benefits?

You must know people who work for an employer, why is it good if small businesses are facing being targeted by that tax hike?

When people start getting laid off or organisations stop recruiting due to NIC increases I wonder how many people who think this is a good budget for workers might change their minds.