A decent budget for low paid workers.

[Sickoffrozen]

Aibu to think that overall the budget was good news for the low paid with a big increase in minimum wages announced?

Seems like a decent idea to me.

But I stand to be corrected.....

charmed i couldnt get the police or RSPCA to come out last week when a rogue snake was in my kitchen so good luck with getting them to come out because of a bit of swearing on a forum.

It appears in Scotland, you can't get them to attend a road accident.

No. I'd learn my lesson. But I wouldn't sue anyone for the sake of a hundred quid. Case in point. Little boy is encouraged to throw stones by bigger boys at my 6 month old Mercedes E-class. Little boy didn't know what he was doing was wrong. He was playing a game with bigger boys (none of them older than maybe 11). There were maybe five or six little dents along the right hand side panels and door. Lucky he couldn't throw bigger stones.

Mummy comes knocking at my door, devastated. Son had told her what he'd been doing when he'd been out playing and she'd done the decent thing. I really felt for her. Bad predicament, but you can't claim on your insurance in a situation like that and you can't punish the parent for daring to let her maybe 6yo out to play. He'll definitely have known how much he'd disappointed his parents.

So I asked her if he'd come down one day and wash the car, and we'll call it quits. I'm sure she did most of the work, but I'm sure he realised it was because he'd been throwing stones at it. So my brand new Merc' had been christened. Hopefully a little boy learned a lesson, and hopefully a mother had a less stressful week. I don't know, and I certainly couldn't give a F about a Mercedes Benz that I lost in bankruptcy a year later.

In fact the only people who got pissed were Barclays who financed the car and were handed back a motor with surface damage that must have cost them close to a thousand to repair.

I don't think it needs to be so personal. The essence is that the Tories have sensible policies which many many people support which ultimately benefit the less well off and we are lucky to have them and secondly that some people on the left do not agree with that and we are all lucky to live in a country where we are free to discuss these issues and try to convince others to our point of view,

What are you going to do when you retire?
If you retire?

Firstly, we (DP and I) do not intend to retire. Secondly, we are lucky enough to have a little pension plan of about £22K that I had squirrelled away when I was earning a little better and single. If only I had saved in earnest at that time. Hindsight and all that. Water... Bridge. Suffice to say, I still have that nest egg, and it cannot be removed from the pension system, and it was declared and not taken from me in bankruptcy. So it not resides in a vault solid form, as I suspect governments will come after pension pots, and it may make it a little harder to purloin, and I'm hedging my bets that the debt market will go pop, the Brits and their American cousins will managed to finally get the fuse lit on this war we all need for our industries, and when the dust selles, if it's still there, and I'm still here, the gold price will have topped and I'll move it into commercial property, which in all probablility will have tanked.

Failing that, at least it won't depreciate faster than the real rate of inflation, and on grounds that I never knew I'd be allowed to keep it, don't expect the government to let private pensions go unpunished anyways, and I'm adapting my life to live on soup and rolls, I'll pretty much live like everyone else. We'll all be in poverty by then anyways.

Have you got a mortgage or are you renting?

Nope, lost the house.

What if you get ill?

I'll die or I'll become a burden on others, and hopefully they'll see sense and put a pillow over my face and get on with their lives. Callous, and insensitive to those who struggle with their loved ones, I know, I'm sorry. But this is my opinion about me, not anyone else. I doubt DP or DCs would ever dream of such things, but I wouldn't hold grudges if they did. I love them and I wouldn't wish to be a burden. They owe me nothing.

Or too old to be employable or to work?
How will you pay for your life?
Who will pay for your life?

We have many irons in fires, fingers in pies, and wotnot. Where there is a will there. DP and I do all sorts of things to try to earn a little money hear, a little there. I proofread for publishers, DP works full time, we buy and sell things online, I do the odd piece of technical illustration, and a little freelance consultancy when the chance arises. DP also ets a little extra work when also. Moonlighting so to speak.

Life is a little tower of cards. We stack them up and try to do the best we can. There are always things that can shake the foundations, bond government can wreck your life anytime they please. So we work, we save, and live small, and we keep our options open.

Labour didn't bankrupt anyone. That global crash would have happened regardless. Can't agree with you there. You only need to look at the legacy of all labour governments in the past fifty to a hundred years. And it's not like no-one knew the banking crisis was happening. It's not like they didn't have the option of cutting back on spending and shoring up the reserves. No, they spent and spend, but the biggest deficit in British history, and sold half the country's sovereign wealth to the Chinese, at the lowest inflation adjusted prices in twenty years, and made sure they got as little money as they could get for it by telegraphing the sales months before hand. What kind of morons were running this country? Labour. And I'm no Tory voter.

Daisy, you've yet to give any good reason why anyone should share your point of view.

The working poor (and there are many) are going to be considerably less well off as of next April. This £9 per hour won't be introduced until just before the next election (yeah right like that's ever going to happen anyway). So that's 4 years of just sucking it up, getting into debt just to have heat, food and a roof over their heads and going out to work for the privilege. With the rises in the cost of living, that £9 an hour is not even going to touch the sides.

I say it again - you really know nothing.

Actually, the biggest deficit in British History belongs to the last coalition government. They exceeded all the Labour governments put together.

So, please explain how Labour caused something that also happened in the rest of Europe, the USA, Iceland and just about every other 1st world economy.

Also it isn't 'honest work' if it isn't declared and tax paid on it. Or should we all be tax dodgers to save us from a life on benefits

That's right. We should jail the parents of children who babysit. Exploitation of children. Undeclared income. What a ridiculous statement that personal enterprise should be outlawed in a thread about dependency on state welfare. That is EXACTLY why people remain poor. Well done you.

No. People remain poor because businesses don't pay a decent living wage and the rich just get richer - in simple terms.

So you went bankrupt? I don't suppose you'll be paying back all the money you owe your creditors - or do they just have to suck it up as lost money?

I fought the long fight for eight years, but they kept ramping up the interest rates when they realised I had no way of paying. I paid back £118K on £44K of joint debt with an ex over that period, and even then, they got 56p in the pound when they came for the equity in the house. I learned a lesson. We all make mistakes. Some of us live lives we can't afford on credit cards. I was young, not financially literate, but wielding a salary that facilitated excesses. No-one lost any money. A few banks lost projected profits, but they had collateralised the debt and sold it within a week of creating it. The collateralised debt continues to pay interest. You need to understand how money is created and moved through the system to take an accurate moral judgement. Debt and money are not what you have been taught they are.

Today at work we got a marketing email from a law firm - suggestions for clients how to respond to the budget effect of the living wage - reduce peoples hours, consider redundancy, look at increasing duties and capability procedures - so that will be nice! The rich will crap on the poor as much as they can on any way that they can.

You only need to look at the legacy of all labour governments in the past fifty to a hundred years.
Sorry Ellie it's a myth. Check it out. There have been more financial crises under Tory governments than Labour.

... or go bankrupt when we balls it all up.

It was ballsing it all up on a £65K salary that caused the change in lifestyle. Not the other way about. It was the dependency on a consumer lifestyle and the loss of all the 'things' that resulted in the loss, and the realisation that we don't need all the 'things'. I'm not saying I wouldn't be happy earning £65K a year, I'm saying I'm happy as I am. If an opportunity presents itself, I'll damn well take it. I'd rather have more money than less, but I ain't about to live on benefits if I don't need to, because I fear that I may become lazy and learn to depend upon them.

The rich will crap on the poor as much as they can on any way that they can. Simplistic, but that is a fact of life. The rich exploit those less well off than themselves. It is how they become rich. It is the very first thing you learn in business. To explain to employ someone else and you take profit from his labour. The more people you employ, the more profit you can take from their labour. That is how the world has always worked. It cannot be changed. You can complain all you want. They write the rules.