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.....

Kardamyli Raggedy, shame on you for expecting other people to pay for your "quite a few children". As for the notion that your eldest will pay enough tax in his lifetime to make up for the vast amount of other people's money which his family have spent, he would have to be earning into 7 figures for that to be even remotely likely.

Wrong - you have no idea how much I receive in CTC - I am not on the maximum - if my oldest goes on to be a doctor and works for say 30 years, the tax he would pay on an average doctor's salary would be around 6 times the amount that I have received for all my children over their lifetimes. Thanks in part to the fantastic upbringing I have given my kids, most of them are likely to go on to have the potential to be higher earners. Strange isn't it that the government often cites the needs of the economy as a reason why we must continue to have high levels of migration into the UK - how does this fit with demonising people who choose to have more children? I have three siblings - they have two children between them - so counting my children, as an extended family we are actually at below 'replacement levels' of fertility! It all balances out.
Remember, the CTCs are for individual children - these individuals are likely when adults to go on to contribute to society and help keep our generation in our old age. Third and subsequent children are unlikely to be exempt from their fair share of that burden just because society chose to turn its back on them when they were young.

Ellie Because you are a martyr it doesn't mean we all have to be.
I was brought up without a television, by trendy liberals, back in the fifties and sixties. I know how hard it is to fit in socially without one, so wouldn't do that to my children who already have trouble fitting in. Yes, they are on occasion exposed to propaganda, we teach them how to identify it. They cannot go without food for a day, let alone 14, your theories are a tad warped.

Aww. Ellie you're like Head Austerity Prefect. See, Benefit Scroungers, look at Ellie, she goes without food for 14 days and she doesn't have a telly. And she's not complaining!

Ellie, 14 days without food but clearly you can afford a pc and broadband.....

Sickoffrozen Completely agree - this government is very adept at means testing anything that metabolises when it suits - but apparently it would be too complicated a process when it comes to the benefits bestowed on pensioners! They accuse Labour of having bought votes through their use of CTCs - yet this is just what they are doing across the board with the blessed baby boom generation.

But if your shelf stacker is on £9 than your supervisor will need a pay rise to reflect their position and so on..
which will mean price rises so profits aren't impacted. Will make bugger all difference after a year.

If you have to, you do what you must. Your body stops craving food somewhere around day 3. Between 48 and 72 hours food cravings are never out of your mind, but there comes a time when the mind accepts that you have no food and does not torture you with cravings.

The panacea to everyone's woes is not, 'go and take money from someone else and give it to me.' Surely someone has a solution that does not involve taking money from those who earn it and giving it to those who don't?

vvega There are times when people don't want those around them to know how bad things are. I am sure had I said something people would have helped, but I was ashamed. We learn from our mistakes.

vvega I bet I am not the only one on MN to have not eaten for an extended time through poverty and pride.

vvega Different times. We each of us work through our issues in life, in whatever way we know how at the time. I was single at the time, astoundingly in debt, and lost everything. My life now is very different. As a family we are not earning a lot of money, but we also do not need a lot of money to survive. People believe the need to spend £150 a month on energy, and £100 a week on food. They believe they must have televisions and mobile phones and cars and everything else that they can find to spend money on. In my life I have learned to distinguish between needs and wants. We have internet access because we choose to. It is an indulgence that we enjoy. One of our few luxuries. It also allows me to buy and sell stuff on eBay or Gumtree which in turn allows us to recycle stuff we no longer need, and get money back for them and in turn buy good quality stuff for the children and cheaper prices. There isn't anything I do now, except possibly not owning a television, that most people I know don't also do. That said, a lot of people I know who don't own a television earn substantially more than we do, and they say they don't own televisions because they don't want their children watching them.

Chuffinada - sometimes you are told you'll be dead in six months but it will actually be 4 years. Slightly missing the point of my post there, but anyway...!

blendedfamilygrinch - you asked
Is there a way of hiding certain posters?

masking tape? Spare Super Noodles that no one has? I'm entirely with you and I'm kidding. I do agree that a "hide" option would benefit this site immensely

I am currently on the living wage. This is something that was set up before today. It's just
Something that the government have decided to adopt the name of.

The living wage is currently in London £9.15 or thereabouts. When the governments version is rolled out, this will be something like £7.25 and rising to £9 in 2020.. How is this a good thing? It is less than the current living wage.

Now tax credits. The threshold has been slashed in half. There is also a reduction to housing benefit.

It's not a good thing for the working
Poor when the working poor are going to be around £100 a month worse off, because childcare has even been thought about.

Oh and as for refusing to work more
Hours.
How can you refuse to work more hours when the max hours are set by your employer and you are already working them?

Not everyone refused because of a reduction in tax credits.

Some people can only work x punt of hours because of a thing called child care and not many providers work after 6pm, before 7am and weekends.

bloodyteenagers, the London living wage has always been different than the NMW by quite a way. Today's budget hasn't separated it out, has it - so confusing. By 2020 the London Living Wage will need to be much higher anyway.

I am so annoyed with the blooming name-changing....they should not be allowed to change names willy nilly!

Dawndonnaagain Sorry. Missed your post. That's a good point. I was brought up by parents who wouldn't ever by sweets, like chocolate was the most evil substance on the planet, and it went through a long phase in my teens and twenties when I couldn't get enough of the stuff. I have no doubt that the absence of the TV will need to be moderated as DCs grow older, and of course friends and family all have TVs anyways. But for now we won't be damaging their cognitive development by plugging them into the magic babysitter, just as we will not be feeding them chocolate buttons or fixxy drinks. Everything in moderation as they grow older.

The current UK living wage is £7.85 a hour. This is what companies enforced by the foundation pay as opposed to the minimum wage.
This is still more than the figure flouted today.
According to the foundation, the £9 for 2020 will not be a living wage.

Endorsed not enforced.

From The Guardian coverage:

(Apologies in advance for the Android app symbols - no edit function)

The Resolution Foundation thinktank estimated that although some middle-earners would be net gainers, the changes would leave low-earners â?? typically on £9.35 an hour â?? worse off by between £850 and £1,000 a year.

Resolution chief executive Gavin Kelly said: â??By concentrating £12bn of cuts from a limited range of working-age benefits, the chancellor has focused a disproportionate part of that pain on the working poor.

â??We shouldnâ??t think that a higher minimum wage will compensate all low-income working families for their losses â?? many working households will be left significantly worse off.â?

ollieplimsolls

You will certainly be affected.Your DH's pay rises will be pegged at 1% pa for the next 4 years.

in answer to the OP
No if you are under 25 its not.