Is Anyone preparing/hunkering down for 'after the budget'

[IsUnemploymentRising]

The news is today seems to be full of headlines such as unemployment is going up, housing markets are softening, budget is make or break.

Lots of people such as Andrew Bailey quoting things like markets could crash due to debt and AI bubble etc

I just don't see how RR or anyone else for that matter can get us out of our current situation without considerable cutbacks and pain.

Raise Taxes - lots of people think this is maxed out now with rich leaving and businesses already hit (thus rising unemployment)

Cut Benefits - will they try this again. If so what will all the people on benefits actually do to live. Will they all get jobs. Is there jobs?

So are you hunkering down?

Me personally I wish they would just get on with it. I hope to move house in next few years and whilst I'm still committed to it I can see another frozen housing market coming where only forced sellers sell and everyone else sits tight.

I'm retired (although not getting any pensions yet as too young) and definately worried about pension values (ie stock markets, bonds etc). It's very difficult to plan when your pensions are dependant on things outwith your control. (not applicable to those with final salary/defined benefit schemes of course)

State pension is a good 14 years away for me (I'm fully paid up) but I worry it will be eroded when I have built it into my calculations for retirement not to mention the freezing of tax brackets which means we are all getting taxed more each year by stealth.

I'm probably in a better position that many to weather the storm as no mortgage or debts and holding cash etc but even then I worry about our currency being worth nothing soon if they go down the route of printing money again.

Am I being overly pesimestic. I mean how are they actually going to get us out of this. For those on benefits (apart from worrying, being scared etc) how will you actually cope if your benefits are cut.

A good start would be scrapping the "year by year" system and moving to modules instead, where kids can choose modules based on their interests and ability and not be strait-jacketed into a limited range of options based on their age.

I did them mid 90s. No coursework.

I just feel British kids are over tested

Europe is in a mess too, look at France at the minute. I wouldn't want our economic position tied to Europe currently, we would be expected to be baling them out! Not them helping us.

Well taught them mid to late 90’s and there was lots of coursework.

Must have been different exam boards. Did coursework for a levels but definitely not GCSEs in 94 and 95

https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/written-answers/1984/dec/20/school-leavers-examination-statistics

Gove basically expected everyone to do the equivalent of O Levels, which is unrealistic. The new white paper will hopefully deal with that. We cannot expect the bottom 30% attainment wise to pass O level standards in Maths and English Language, that much is clear now. Hence why so many fail resits too of Maths and English Language GCSE (2025 standard).

And society cannot condemn 30 per cent of school leavers to unemployability potentially, that much is also clear. Passing either Maths and English language with a 4 is an excellent achievement for many children from their starting point and other challenges. The system needs to allow everyone to flourish and become employable to the best of their ability. Especially with a top heavy ageing demographic. They cannot really scrap Triple Science and Maths GCSEs for higher attainers either as they need them to hit the ground running on A levels and then for unis and into tech and AI etc jobs as well.

Most countries manage without the heavy exam load that we have and exams at 16 are unusual

Wait for the screaming - she's looking at motability schemes.

Most countries manage without school uniforms as well. I think we have a very old-fashioned view of education in this country - it is resolutely and proudly committed to being old-fashioned - despite and maybe because of the pace of change elsewhere. We seem determined not to foster a spirit of curiosity and learning; as long as those exams are passed, we call it a success. Exam factories indeed.

I doubt she will do anything significant here. Motability props up the car industry.

Yes to hunkering down.

I have enough logs to run the wood burner all winter, I've stocked the pantry with home made jam & sloe gin, the freezer is stacked with frozen fruit &veg from the garden, and I've cut back to essential spending only.

17yo ds has a Saturday job, and is on track for good A'levels so he's happy & flourishing.

I just want to get to next summer when my mortgage will be paid off, before this useless govt send us all to hell in a hand cart.

Really? How many a year get motability?

I just checked it's 1 in 5 so not entirely accurate.

1 in 5 is a lot! If the car industry lost 1 in 5 sales they would be complaining about it.

Well we' ll see. It's another of these things that needs reviewed. Too many people with anxiety and the like as recipients.

'Hunkering down' is a privilege. Not possible for many.

I have three years of logs aged and seasoned and ready to burn. A log pile that makes rural estate agents swoon. We could hunker down warmly, but I think we might be bored to sobs if we did.

860,000 people

My child has very find memories of the COVID pandemic as well. But he was a lot younger and I was really stressed about it having a negative effect on him I really leaned into the whole thing. My abiding memory is spending a lot of time during the day checking emails in between reading books and baking. And at night time catching up on my actual work. So I got 3 hours sleep a night and he got undivided attention and learned how to play blackjack for maths practice. For teenagers I expect they were more exposed to the very doom laden news cycle and at the age where time spent with peers becomes more important than time spent with parents usually. Rather than just also important

I do wonder if it's worse in cities than in the countryside though. Access to green spaces is important but I've found cities can be better in some ways for children's socialising and independence. Your friends are more likely to be within a 5 minute walk. As a teenager I loved the nature part of the countryside but found it quite isolating. Especially before any of us were old enough to drive.

I'm glad you mentioned adults and social media. I didn't want to say, but I do find the contrast between the rhetoric about young people being to overwrought and needing to toughen up and some of the more doomladen reactions to things on this very site (possibly this thread) quite ironic. But I'm probably just as bad in a different direction.

About time too!

But the people who "could" afford a new leased car without the scheme would do so, so you can't say that 1 in 5 sales would be lost. The car lease firms may well have to reduce leasing costs to sell more cars too. Not sure why people think it's a good thing that we need the taxpayer to subsidise the motor industry, when we've thrown other industries to the wolves, like steel, shipbuilding, coal, etc. Anyway, most of the cars sold are imported anyway, so taxpayers subsidising other country's economies. Perhaps motability cars should be restricted to those produced in the UK to actually support the UK economy.

Thatcher threw coal etc.to the wolves really.**
We just spent millions trying to keep Britain's only virgin steel plant going. It's money worth spending IMO.
But I hate the rhetoric "Thatcher trashed this part of the economy. So it's only fair that other parts of the economy go down the pan". Apart from anything else, someone who recently lost their job in one sector and finds a job in another isn't going to be comforted when that sector goes under as well because "it's only fair".

**Not just Thatcher. Major and Blair etc continued that legacy. But if people want to reverse some of that or at least slow the decline then by definition that means doing things differently. Or not willfully destroying sections of the economy for short term political points/to break the unions. Because in 40 years time our children will be paying for it.