Anyone watching the Budget 2024?

[LadyofRutshire]

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

Do you think an extra 6k starting salary above minimum wage is fair compensation for the extra education and training a doctor requires vs a minimum wage job that requires no qualifications? Bearing in mind the student debt for the doctor.

I love that MN is now supporting Junior doctors because when the strikes were happening it was classed as greed.

I think they deserve more, of course. They are underpaid imo. But it’s not minimum wage. Also, they have huge earning potential for the future. Unfortunately , if we
pay doctors what they’re worth, you’ll get howls of outrage from those who talk about her ‘giving massive rises to the public sector’.

Are the contracted working hours of a junior doctor the same as actual working hours of a junior doctor?

The statements from the OBR are not very consolidated after the budget. A suggestion that BofE may need to delay interest rate cuts which would be terrible for average families who have been hit hardest with this.

I don’t think the change in entrepreneurial tax relief is great and I think the NI increase will be passed on.

The OBR does not expect GDP to grow much over the next 5 years.. which is the opposite of what Labour said they were after..

Agree that it seems like a very short-sighted budget designed on the surface to look like it won't affect the ordinary "working person" (and therefore appeal to them).

However:

• the effect on local family-run farms which are asset-rich and cash poor. Imagine lots will have to sell up to pay IHT, and there will be increased buying by housing developers (with reduced restrictions on building). Impact on environment, food supply, food costs due to increased imports, etc.

• the effect on SMEs of increased employer NI contributions and NMW - increase to costs of goods/services, fewer staff (fewer jobs and worse customer service).

• SMEs increased costs - also has impact for research, HEIs and third sector - there are matched funding schemes for research and knowledge exchange - if SMEs are struggling, less likely to be able to take part.

• Increased costs to HEIs of employer NI contributions and NMW - for those unaware, there is a massive financial crisis in HEIs, even in Russell Group institutions. Unless there is a big govt intervention, likely to increase job losses and possibly even lead to bankruptcies... The loss of an HEI has a massive effect not just on the students and staff, but the local economy, research, knowledge exchange.

So much for growth...

GP practices are not and never have been NHS. They are small businesses contracted by the NHS to provide a service.
They also do private work, eg pilot medicals, firearms medicals, HGV drivers medicals etc.

Interest rates will be coming down as the economy heads towards a recession!

Assume you're not in the UK.

The UK has one of the lowest welfare benefits in western Europe. Hence why people on benefits (in the UK) are often in dire poverty.

The "generous" benefits cost the UK billions in (substandard) temporary accommodation costs - due to being too low for most private landlords to accept tenants on benefits.

And the punitive benefits system (and the low amount of money) is, ironically, a major reason why the benefits bill is so high. Because... false economy.
Poverty and stress cause and worsen ill health - meaning more people are unable to work and so in need of benefits - and also costing the NHS billions as a consequence.

I don't know a single junior doctor who has managed to actually work to the recommended suggestions (under 72 hours, no 7 days in a row, etc) while undergoing training. They are working for very little and with a lot of stress. It's worth looking in to the reasons behind the strikes earlier on this year.

Nope actually. Most were gobsmacked that it had been cancelled.
Again they’ve increased the employers allowance.
I don’t get this. First Tory austerity, a policy rubbished by vast majority of economists. The next biggest fuck up to hit the economy was Brexit. Tory Brexit. The damage was already done before Brexit which made things hundred times worse.
Posters can hardly come on hear moaning about Labour when the Tories have done a huge amount of damage.

So, the news do say: no increase to income tax, NI contribitions or VAT. So no tax increase for salaried workers.
The tax has been increased for business, amongst others.
That will include massive coorporations taking out immense profits, instead of keeping a balanced price for their customers. So I do see this as fair indeed.
I am a bit worried about small business indeed. Not that there are that many left around.

Yes. And this is one reason why, aside from the postcode lottery, that there's such a huge variation in quality of care between different GP practices.

Well yes, they were hammered by Brexit weren’t they.

No chance for that first line. Amazing how people change on things just due to Labour doing it.

It's a huge tax hike, largest since 1993 apparently, you're not paying so that's good, but businesses will be so I'm not sure your post on they get some allowance changes much.

But yeah, public sector folks can rest easy

Public sector employers will still need to cover the increase in NMW and employers NI against ever reducing budgets. My local authority is looking at a 10% reduction in budget for social work next financial year - before today's budget, which will mean a cut in essential services and no doubt a loss of jobs.

Yes I’m in the UK. The UK is addicted to benefits. Benefits and low taxes. I’m not here to sugar coat the truth.

No idea how the government could tackle this now, as it's just been left to happen over many years - decades, actually - but it would help a lot if the UK had affordable housing and childcare. Childcare should be subsidised and if I ruled the world we'd revert to a system of very conservative limits on mortgage funding to keep a lid on house prices. Property standing empty for more than a few months should be confiscated and used for social housing.

And that is the reason why they should be part of the NHS.

Exactly.

I can't exactly see much of the 'growth' that she was emphasising in her drawn-out introduction?

You can't sugar coat what you can't find.

Yes, indeed.
By the crisis in 2008, followed by Brexit, Covid and the buy everything online new world we have been left with.
Buying online can be quite a stress for some items, but here we are. Guess the size, actual colour and so on....

I think he was throwing them further than his private jet can take him 😂

I agree with you actually re owning a private jet.
But the braying, clapping and general nastiness about 'teaching The Rich a lesson' is what I really, really can't stand.

@PinkFruitbat is that true? Approximately 1.63 million people claimed unemployment benefits in the United Kingdom in the second quarter of 2024, one of the lowest claimant counts since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 1986 Q2 (peak Thatcher) the number of unemployment benefits claimants was 3.03 million.