to ask how you will be affected by the budget announcements?

[manicinsomniac]

Sorry if there's another thread about this, I can only see lots of speculative ones.

Now that it's announced ... I admit I'm struggling to get my head around it. I don't think it's as bad as I thought? I don't think it can be that good though? I don't think there's a single thing in it that affects me. I'm not sure about any of that though because I find it all quite confusing!

So, ordinary people from ordinary families/households - how are you going to be affected, if at all?

as shown by this thread, the losers are families on a low wage

and IDS was air punching when this was discussed in the house of commons

seems all the dole scroungers documentaries have hit their mark.

ego, she isnt 18, she works 18 hours and has teenagers

Only work 18 hours, sorry, missed a word out. I'm knocking 40

Will the various charitable housing trusts in London drop rents to offset the decrease in HB?

Oh, and sorry to double post but, the living wage is for the over 25's only?

There's only three of us at work (bar the management) over that age. I guess I know who will be getting their hours cut again/ made redundant first....

Fret, by April 2016 when they change the name from NMW to Living Wage (just bullshit semantics) your minimum hourly should be £7.20 ph. That's for over 25s only.

I may be reading something wrong, but i think we will be unaffected? Support group esa (couple rate so no carers allowance), full pip and ctc

Lol at the DM infographic with a "low income, one earner family" earning £20k.

(£9.62 an hour for a 40hr week)

beyondthewall you won't be affected. Neither will we (similar situation). I don't really know how to feel about that...

62p above the 2020 "living wage" aim. Yeah, low income

Unweaved, honestly all i feel (for me) is worried for the next lot. Or that i'll lose pip when reassessed even though i'm much worse now. For everyone else, i'm still speechless. :(

Actually I don't think they like sah parents either. We are not contributing to society as not paying tax. Truly shocked by these figures. The have given everyone a sweeter with mw but screwed hard working low paid people and self employed. Working is supposed to pay but if I bacame a single parent I might as well not bother working based on these changes.
although it would seem single sah are not affected by tax credit changes so I am confused.

Fret, actually I'm now not sure about your pay increase. It may only apply to workers doing 35 hours a week or more, can't find a definitive source unfortunately.

I'm married with 1 toddler, we bring in around £100k between us - i'll be about £300 year better off. Not much but doesn't seem right to me - I think i'll donate it to charity.

Interesting that on that DM graphic the only group that is losing out is the low income family. We will be slightly better off, but we are a relatively high income household, I can't think this is fair.

BBC radio 5live are having a phone in now about the budget. It's really annoying me that the focus seems to be on the living wage change (that isn't really a living wage) on everything I've heard in the media so far. I'm going to listen to see if they get any calls about tax credits. I wonder how many people yet know they will be losing out. If you just listened to the headlines you might be under the impression that everyone is getting a payrise.

I am also really shocked that as a relatively high income household we too will be better off to the detriment of the low income families who have been totally shafted. They must have factored in he extent of the hit to those losing their tax credits and either accepted the queues at the food banks or there is a safety net somewhere we aren't seeing.

I'm really shocked and disgusted.

Its 30 hours free childcare for 3 and 4 year old term time if all working. Most 4 year olds get that anyway in reception so hardly that exciting.

£1500 pa worse off. ( Self employed so min wage rise doesn't affect me).

If DD goes to uni we will also lose the grant so add another £3k+ pa loss.

House, car and contents insurance will go up.

There may be benefits that I haven't seen yet - you never know.

The calculator is a little skewed. It would be good to have a calculator that told you how much tax you pay against how much subsidy you receive, then people could report that net figure on here instead and maybe other people would put their cudgels down. Vain hope.

Also, people complaining about pensioners having contributed "less" need to understand that it wasn't less at the time ; they have contributed for decades on the understanding they will be looked after now.

I have made this point about relative value over time so often on MN now my keyboard is hoarse.

I am £141 better off according to the calculator. I should move to the Ritz.

the only group that is losing out is the low income family.

We did 35 calculations for people who are employed yesterday evening. All of the people on low incomes stood to lose, because of the threshold changes to tax credits. Average was £1k a year, some were as much as £1400 a year.

The ESA work related group is being reduced to jobseekers rate. Grim.

If DD goes to uni we will also lose the grant so add another £3k+ pa loss.

Wrong

Your DD will get a (larger) loan and repay it herself if she earns above the threshold. It will affect your income /expenditure in no way at all

My sister on jsa of £71 ish per week will get no rise for 4 years

I take it she doesn't expect to BE on JSA for four years?

A lot of people in employment haven't had a raise in 4 years!