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?

there are the rules by which the current game is played, which many (most?) do not understand. The way you are told the world around you works is vastly different from the way the world around you actually works

aint that the truth!

Chief I have made a lot of assumptions about your household and run your situation through entitled to. Depending on your area, you could be eligible for £953 housing benefit per month and some council tax relief also. I hope that helps in some way

scroungers found

For what it's worth I am no worse off or better off with the budget changes.

I agree Ellie that it's MY job to educate my child and I don't think I do a bad job of it. I focus in on his interests and relate as much stuff to them as possible. It is also MY job to ensure his formal education is done in the best way possible as well. Hence my battle with the local authority to ensure his Statement us adhered to.
Hopefully he may have a place at a new Free school set up for children with speech, language and communication disorders. Not only could he remain there until 19 but they will support him with work experience and communication.

Thing is that state support can be so vital, sometimes I can't see the wood for the trees as i am too emotuonalky wrapped up in it all and it takes an outsider to clearly see the things I might miss.

So fingers crossed here, if all goes well I will be back in work within the year and barring catastrophe I won't ever have to rely on benefits ever again.

Thanks Lougle. So we'd get Housing Benefit? Ha ha. I never even thought of that as we've never claimed it before. Thank you!

that should read NO scroungers found!

It's possible for someone to have left school at 16, worked until they are 19 and thus not fall into the link above Dawn - I have known several.

THe changes to dividend tax are the biggest kick in the teeth to small business there could possibly be.

And any business that operates as a partnership or sole trader (the Middleton Family for example)
will get hit by the wage rise but not benefit from the CT change

so will lay people off

and as pension enrolment makes people 11% more expensive to hire, jobs will be lost,
pushing more people onto what is left of benefit

anybody who cannot see that this budget has hit the hardest working entrepreneurs
is dumb

Its a good budget for accountants though talk

We have spent time this weekend working out how to minimise our £8k cut.

prepper
I am an accountant.
Its not funny at all, because clients are expecting us to have worked out the permutations before the Treasury publishes the blerdy documents.

Its not just the dividends,
its the interaction of
Dividends / ERS NI / CT / Pension auto enrolment / tax bands
which none of the twonks in whitehall thought through

ElliePHantspoo...Don't miss understand my posts, and if. I have been ambiguous, my apologies. I in no way condone the status quo. I merely point out that the system exists, and there are the rules by which the current game is played, which many (most?) do not understand...

Thank you for clarifying your position. I sort of get your pragmatic approach - I suppose that I have adopted a similar realistic outlook. I try to implement certain measures at a household scale to go some way to safeguarding against the inevitable chaos that history teaches us will happen.

There is part of me that is still a Utopian Idealist - I can see how a better society could exist, but I can see little mechanism realistically for it being achieved....very frustrating. We do need to take individual responsibility, agreed, for ensuring that there is some measure of happiness found for our family within the context that we find ourselves (I do my best to do this) - whilst at the same time making wise choices to protect ourselves from the breakdown that is likely to result from the inherent unsustainability of the current system.

I know you are talk and its clearly not funny. We are £8kish worse off after tax (and potentially more depending on how the business does this year). I run a one person business.

What do you think will happen when interest rates rise?

Talkin Haven't the self-employed for years had a more favourable tax position than the employed, hence why they set up limited companies in the first place ?

From your posts it seems they still will. In which case I can't see why you are so riled about it. Seems fair to me that there should be parity. In fact its still not parity as a lot of expenses can still be offset that the employed who incur similar can't.

I'm in your boat and haven't looked in to the specifics but suspect I will also be worse off by a substantial amount. I also have a property out on rent (my old apartment, not one bought specifically as a BTL) which I plan to move back to one day, so haven't sold. Will be hit on that as well.

In the face of some of the stories on here of people who will be struggling now to pay for the absolute basics, I really cannot see why I or you shouldn't be worse off as well. I can't understand your ire. What am I missing ?

It all depends on the individual diagnosis, but ASD does not automatically mean you can't go to be successful. Look at Darryl Hannah, Gary Newman, Peter Howson, Susan Boyle, Eminem for goodness sakes! I really hope you don't present your 'you've got no hope' attitude to your daughter.

I really don't think that these exceptions (who have enormous talent in other ways and the breaks needed) can be held up as typical examples!

To higher rate taxpayers who hold themselves up as givers - we definitely are in terms of cash out and cash in now, but all the infrastructure etc that you was built using income from generations.

Those people were all also diagnosed as adults with the money to pay for the assessments. My GP won't even refer me for assessment despite the fact that DS has ASD and I am told that he is not dissimilar to me as a child.

On the plus side despite the fact I really struggled at school I now have a degree and a professional qualification which means while in work I need no benefits.

The other plus is that I hope DS will go the same way.

It all depends on your type of ASD. If you have Aspergers then it is likely you will be academic. Dd really struggles with school work so it makes it difficult.

The economy is a human construct that should serve the priorities and needs of society.

That is ideology. It has never been the case in the entirety of human existence. The economy serves the the needs and priorities of those who wield power, be that the oil barons, the dictatorship, the oligarchs or the tribal chiefs. If those priorities and needs happily coincide with the masses within the domain of influence, then that is bennificial and pleasant to the masses. If it is not, the masses suffer the consequences. At the moment we have one mass of people who are disgruntled that those of influence will not be giving them such generous handouts. They can complain about it or not as they see fit. They can act to improve their lot in life, or not, as they deem most suitable to them. But they have no choice. The only thing they can do free of charge, and no detriment of cost to themselves, is spend time educating themselves about how the world around them really works, because sure as hell, living your life with your head in the sand leads to a whole world of heartache that may be avoided.

It all depends on your type of ASD. If you have Aspergers then it is likely you will be academic. Dd really struggles with school work so it makes it difficult. What does she like to do? Academic excellence is greatly over valued, as a lot of graduates will find out in the years ahead. We have the highest educated hamburger salesmen in the world.

... But also some of the most sought after artists and musicians in the business.

What do you think will happen when interest rates rise? That is a question anyone who has debt should be asking themselves Pink. How many people can afford to pay the extra on their mortgage? Do they even dare look and find out what even a 2% increase in the base rate will do to their family budget let along a return to the 5% norm? If you took out a new mortgage since 2008 and you didn't calculate it's affordability based on a 5% BoE base rate, you may well be in for a world of pain (or a caravan).

A return to historic norms inevitable will coincide with a housing market crash, so remortgaging at a higher interest rate based on a house valued substantially lower than the outstanding debt, could be catastrophic. If people don't already have the funds available to deal with the increase in mortgage payments, selling at a loss, foreclosure, or bankruptcy, may be their only options.

It is hard to say what she will do as she is only young. It is harder though due to lack of executive functioning skills. My dh is the same, and it makes life difficult for people.

Mistressmia
The self employed do not get holiday pay, sick pay, back office support, company cars, childcare and all the things that employees take for granted.
If there is a downturn their income drops instantly.
Risk and reward.
The self employed face much greater risks so our reward is lower tax.

If my clients take an extra month to pay, I go hungry.
If your employer's clients pay late, you still get your salary.

And the rules we have played within have been in place for many, many years - but Gideon just tore them up.

Interestingly the single employee thing will hit quite a few small charities who have a sole employee who is not a director - so their cost of employment rises
but their funding does not.

Another group of losers from this nasty budget.

raggety3

There is part of me that is still a Utopian Idealist - I can see how a better society could exist, but I can see little mechanism realistically for it being achieved....very frustrating.

The flaw is the human condition. Socialism only works as an ideology, because it requires trust and a common goal. Leadership precludes that, and when leadership is partnered with those willing to follow, you have the seeds of politics, power, and with it ambition. At this point the germ of failure is already sown into the seed of socialist ideology.

Theoretically it should be possible, the maths can be made to work. Indeed, given correct allocation of labour and resources, the planet should be able to feed everyone with abundance, and very few of us need ever work. But it does not work if humans are are permitted to act in their own best interests. Humans pick and follow leaders. We train them from very young to select their idols and worship them. We believe that voting for them makes the world a better place, and gives us self-determination and freedom. We never question the narrative. We must have leaders because we wouldn't know how to live without them.