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.....

Sorry, did I miss something? DP earns £20K a year. Other than the increase in personal allowance which will reduce his tax, I didn't see any other implications. We are net winners in this budget. Did I miss some other implication?

DP is not employed in the public sector, and already earns more than £9/hr. I see lots of people saying its bad for the poor, but it doesn't seem to be so.

Ellie did you see my post at 11.10? The new min wage (because it is not a living wage) will not make up for the cuts to working age benefits for families.

Rofl. It just occurred to me. A family on £20K a year is not considered poor in the UK. National average wage is what? £30K? I assume that's why they picked that figure for council tenancy. Earning 2/3 the national average wage is still above the government's '2020 Living Wage'!

We can solve the debt problem in the UK by telling everyone they earn a decent living wage. They can go to bed with a tummy full of feel good factor.

YABU.

This was a terrible budget for those on low wages. The minimum wage may have been increased, but along with cuts to tax credits and welfare, it represents a drop in income for many, disproportionately those with less money.

I have stolen this from a friend's Facebook. (Apologies friend, I hope you don't mind but you summed it up so well!)

Key Budget Points

MINIMUM WAGE The eroded minimum wage will start to rise again, but not that much or that fast, and you still can't live on it, and it's been renamed.

BUY-TO-LET & HOUSING Rich landlords, that don't already own properties in companies will get a little less personal tax relief on BTL loan interest - but they'll still keep growing in wealth and number and may just put up rent, because they can.

THE BURDEN OF TAX Tax on companies continues to be cut - from 28% at start of last parliament, next to 18% - the lowest of all in the G8. Continuing the global race to the bottom. We pay more, or get less - so they can get more, or pay less.

WELFARE The safety net supporting the poor and sick has been cut further, almost across the board.

SUPER RICH Non-doms may be pushed to spend more time out of the country each year, but only if they've avoided tax for 15 years here first.

IPT Everyone who has insurance will pay a lot more tax on it.

TRANSPORT There are now fewer incentives for cleaner cars. There will be new roads, from new taxes. We must trust that the government will surely improve our overall transport system with this plan.

EDUCATION No-one, however poor, will ever get a grant again for education costs - the very last HE grants for the poor will now only be loans.

THE END OF THE WORLD We are still creating environmental armageddon and this budget only helps that probable destruction of life as we know it.

CONCLUSION Somehow today still ended up a good day for George Osborne, who wants to be our Prime Minister. And who probably will be, if Boris Johnson isn't. Get rich or die tryin'... to survive being ruled by those who are.

"Sorry, did I miss something? DP earns £20K a year. Other than the increase in personal allowance which will reduce his tax, I didn't see any other implications. We are net winners in this budget. Did I miss some other implication?"

Not if you don't claim tax credits.

Out electricity bill dropped by £26 a month when we sold our telly

I've done a back of the envelope calculation, and assuming TV was on 12 hours a day, 365 days a year, it would have had to consume 730 watts to consume that much.

My 2010 50-inch plasma consumes about 160 Watts, I think. By the same calculation, it would cost £6 a month in electricity to run.

However much more ancient plasmas than mine did consume a lot, they doubled as heaters, I've heard.

It's our Austerity Britain (for all but those who can well afford it)
I seriously don't get it? Why are we penalising the disabled and those in low wages but reducing tax rates for higher earners?
My local authority is besieged by complaints re cuts but nobody seems to relate it to central govt cuts to local authorities.

The current Labour council is blamed for all (the very stringent) cuts yet the Tory central govt restrictions which necessitate it are accepted wholeheartedly.

Drives me mad.

"I seriously don't get it? Why are we penalising the disabled and those in low wages but reducing tax rates for higher earners?"

Because the Tories are in power. It's what they do.

They rob from the poor and the most vulnerable in society and give to the rich and powerful.

That's what they did last time. That's what they're doing this time.

Their policies are not about helping society, they are about dismantling the welfare state and making profit for corporations and the rich.

reducing tax rates for higher earners

Do you mean changing the threshold at which people pay 40% tax? I didn't see any reduction in tax rates for higher earners?

So public sector payrises capped at 1% till 2019. With inflation and rising costs, will be a paycut then...I forsee a lot more strikes in the future and I'm not a clairvoyant. Typical Tory budget rob Peter to pay Paul.

They rob from the poor and the most vulnerable in society and give to the rich and powerful.

You can't take anything from the poor if it was never their money in the first place. What you mean is they give less to the poor for free and leave more in the pockets of the people who earned it.

We all know where continual ballooning of a welfare system goes, and no one wants to face the fact that you cannot give away free money to everyone who wants it forever. Sooner or later the system fails, and there were plenty on MN condemning the greedy and lazy Greeks and their bailouts.

We can point the finger all we like and play the blame game, but it never fixes anything. The only way out of poverty is to gamble and win, or work your arse off and save. Begging and asking for handouts from those who do work does not solve the problem. It only breeds dependancy and neuters people's natural instinct try to overcome.

I'm sure we'll have the argument, 'we'll, I'm disabled....' But that is deliberately missing the point. Those who deserve and require benefits would have all the benefits they need if those who were capable were not bleeding the system dry.

So public sector payrises capped at 1% till 2019. With inflation and rising costs, will be a paycut then...I forsee a lot more strikes in the future and I'm not a clairvoyant. Typical Tory budget rob Peter to pay Paul.

Wrong. Inflation according to public sector employees is 1% and bills are not rising. We all know that is BS, but public sector workers should at the very least be willing to stand by their employer's dogma. If you support the system, you have no right to complain when it bites you. Until public sector workers admit they are part of the problem, and start to get their own house in order, they will continue to waste and squander taxpayers money. At least now they will only benefit to the tune of their own 1% for the next four years.

"Begging and asking for handouts from those who do work does not solve the problem."

People receiving tax credits don't work?...

But that is deliberately missing the point. Those who deserve and require benefits would have all the benefits they need if those who were capable were not bleeding the system dry.
Bullshit.

Esa (work related activity group) will be the same as job seekers allowance. Esa support group unchanged. That isn't 'almost across the board'. DLA/pip won't be taxed which I know had been mentioned so that's good surely?
So it's okay for some people with disabilities and illness to suffer, but not all?

I'm sure there are some people who do "deliberately bleed the system dry". In any such system, there will always be a few. But I couldn't give a flying fuck about them.

They're vastly outnumbered by the good guys. Any measure, even the most simple, tells you that - the amount of 'welfare" (horrible word) paid to working people dwarfs that paid to those out of work. A large proportion of the budget goes on pensions. The amount of money lost to benefit fraud is a tiny, tiny amount of the benefits that people are entitled to, but which go unclaimed.

I honestly don't understand how people can not understand this. It's really not hard. The idea that we're being overrun by benefit scroungers is one of the most wicked, insidious, calculated, cynical lies this country has ever been fed. And I have no idea why so many otherwise intelligent people fall for it hook, line and sinker.

And (I'm on a roll now...) it fucks me right off how they think they can make a random, paltry amount of money a Living Wage just by calling it a Living Wage. Yeah. Sure. That's how it works. Nominative determinism ftw. Ffs.

Ha, public sector workers have had a pay freeze for the last 4 years, well I have. So realistically I have 8 years of a pay freeze.

But that is deliberately missing the point. Those who deserve and require benefits would have all the benefits they need if those who were capable were not bleeding the system dry

I completely agree..

Why do you agree? Can you back up your statement with some sort of evidence, please?

PuntasticUsername if you would have all the deserving souls given all the money they need! without the need to work for it! who would you have sent to work to pay for it? Who would you take the money from, and under what threat? You see, you can never be righteous or noble in cause if you choose to achieve your goal with threats of violence and incarceration.

Oppression aside, no-one ver is willing to explain where the money comes from to fund the welfare state. The country has spent more money than it takes in in taxes for some 48 out of the last 50 years. You can pretend that you can continue spending money, increasing debt, and printing billions and billions of pound each year to fill the whole, but I'm socialists in Greece, far more influential than ours, had those self same arguments. Those who cannot, do not, or will not provide for themselves will always end up destitute. It is the most basic primal driving force of human existence to provide for oneself and ones children. Neutering that instinct to survive and flourish by providing a continual drug of free money can only destroy the recipients. Yes, they need the money once they have learned to live on it, and yest, they forget about their instinct to provide and survive on their own, but it destroys them and in many cases their children and their grandchildren too. Our welfare dependants are no different from those in Greece, and we will see very soon just how bad things can get. Brits would be wise to watch and learn, becuas it could be your family, or your parents. It certainly could be mine.