Chancellor’s spring statement

[Cheesecakeandwineinasuitcase]

AIBU to think that today we are about to be hugely disappointed by what Rishi says in his spring statement and just to realise just how out of touch he is with the grim reality that normal people (I.e. not millionaire politicians) in the Uk face?

My prediction is that he won’t back down on the 1.25% increase in NI contributions that he is making people pay from April. There will be a paltry reduction in fuel duty (maybe a few pence if we are lucky - but that will easily be cancelled out within a few days as prices increase to compensate). Maybe he will reduce the duty on champagne this time or some other gimmicky sweetener (wasn’t it Prosecco last time?). He might raise the threshold from which people have to start paying tax but for most working families that won’t make a jot of difference.

So it feels like we are sitting ducks and that as time goes by more and more people end up really struggling.

I think people really lack an understanding of macroeconomics.

We could always keep voting tory, hopefully get another Cameron so that we can make the dirty superfluous welfare claimants and faux-disabled pick up the tab so that our rish, oops rich friends can relax.

Or is that not fashionable or acceptable now?

Most of MN were lapping it up back in 2011, with every second AIBU thread focused on benefit bashing.

@jcyclops

The 5p cut in fuel duty (which is actually 6p due to VAT) benefits the rich far more than the poor. The richest 10% buy 8 times more fuel than the poorest 10%.

Blimey, the government can't win. On the one hand, posters are saying that the duty cut won't go far enough. On the other hand, posters are saying that it would only benefit the rich anyway.

The NI still needs to go up so that the NHS is better (I won't say adequately) funded (though to be fair, it is adequately funded in my view, it's how a lot of money is wasted that is the issue).

Reducing fuel duty is populist and is rubbish for the environment. Yes it's expensive but if people can afford to get to my road 3/4 of an hour before school pick up and sit there with their engines running, it's not expensive enough. According to someone on Twitter, it's the refineries profiteering at the moment, I have no idea if that is true (this was a source in Germany).

Sneakily reducing the chances of part time workers qualifying for full state pension. 🙄

@jcyclops

The change to NI threshold and rates means that every worker earning over £9568/year and less than £41300/year will pay less NI than they did this year.

£15,000 pays £329 less
£20,000 pays £267 less
£25,000 pays £204 less
£30,000 pays £142 less
£40,000 pays £17 less

If this is correct it is a good compromise. Lower paid better off but not abandoning the extra funding for the NHS.

@RafaIstheKingofClay

Why do people always trot out the US system? What about the systems in the dozens of other developed countries who have insurance based systems?

Don’t many of those governments in countries with insurance based systems also pay more or a greater % of GDP for their healthcare systems than the U.K. pays for the NHS? Or at least that was the issue in the past.

The main reason why the Conservatives never privatised the NHS is that it is big and simple. Introducing complexity would increase total costs.

Apologies, I hadn't realised that there is a threshold where people that don't pay ni still get the benefits of having paid it. I stand corrected.

@lecreusetpeppermill

English wont be happy until, in their utter peevishness and spite they have voted to reduce the UK to Dickensian squalor.

I imagine the moron suggesting getting rid of the NHS has either never been ill, had a loved on depend upon it, need drugs for a chronic condition or has ever had to struggle to pay bills.

Roll on destitution, at least i can laugh at the workshy proles then!

/s

Perhaps they've experienced the excellent Dutch, French or German systems of healthcare instead which cater for everyone while giving people the choice of healthcare providers?

I think the current NHS situation of people often paying twice for much needed surgery to keep their quality of life by going privately when the NHS won't carry it out within a reasonable time is absolutely appalling. Apparently too the NHS will only give you one cataract surgery so if you have two cataracts, just be blind in one eye if you can't afford to go private.

@Ifeellikedancing

Sneakily reducing the chances of part time workers qualifying for full state pension. 🙄

The lower NIC threshold (the one that counts for state benefits) isn't rising to £12k, so people paid between around £8k to £12k will still get "credits" even though they don't pay any NICs.

@DdraigGoch

Blimey, the government can't win. On the one hand, posters are saying that the duty cut won't go far enough. On the other hand, posters are saying that it would only benefit the rich anyway

Its meaningless, Brent crude hit new highs today, the 5p cut is less than a £2 saving for on a tank full of fuel for me, its meaningless in the grand scheme of things and will be quickly swallowed up esp as forecourts don't need to pass it on do they? its a waste of money.

We need to help people on low wages and on UC, how the heck these folk will manage is beyond me but my millionaire neighbour is getting extra Solar and is installing a GS heat pump, so all good.

Once the NHS door is opened then enjoy walking through it. Which model has the funds to lobby and which will offer sinecures, NEDs, investable shareholding and is currently providing significant donations to one political party? It won't be a Western European model.

Who do you think the Chancellor's electorate and constituency is? Not the public and not his geographic constituency. The electorate of Conservative MPs when the next PM elections are held, perhaps? What do that electorate favour? Higher benefits and windfall taxes? Or a sop before the election and lower spending now?

Perhaps they've experienced the excellent Dutch, French or German systems of healthcare instead which cater for everyone while giving people the choice of healthcare providers

strongly doubt it in this instance

Few people in the uk are aware of them.

Not true. My MIL had cataracts in both eyes, and had two surgeries before Christmas. Now only needs reading glasses. Has worn glasses since she was about ten years old.

That was meant to quote SucculentChalice

Well he obviously didn't want to backtrack on the NI increase. The threshold increase in better than nothing. In one hand and back out the other for most people.

I held off fueling up yesterday to see what would be announced today. 5p a litre is what £3 off a full tank? Wish I hadn't bothered.

I feel for those on low incomes and with little disposable income. Nothing Sunak has announced makes a dent in the rise of living costs.

So if you earn under £13k a year, will that mean you don't qualify for your "pension" stamps each year?

I’ve spent winter with no heating, and at one point borderline hypothermia.

My standing charge alone (so no using electric at all) will be over £400 a year. My water bill is going up a lot too. I already can’t afford essentials.

The advice I’m being given? Get a job (impossible with my illnesses); rent out a room (I’ve only one, literally); pop it on credit card (maxed out); get a bank loan ..

You are almost all just mean people being mean. It's getting like a (family member of a) billionaire can't play to the gallery of his powerful stakeholders and build a reputation for fiscal conservatism with the constituency of electors for the next PM and schedule in a pre-election sweetener for the masses (well the masses who haven't starved or frozen before May 2024) without you all criticising him. So ungrateful. It's like the UK has stopped being a country for the hard-working, those who aspire to be billionaires. It's levelling up for the billionaires, not levelling down. The important people will leave for lower tax countries like LLoyd Weber threatened to do if Labour were elected. And then the lights will get turned off. Haven't you read Ayn Rand? And Rees-Mogg the elder?

And there's no such thing as a magic money tree. Unless a £bn or two need to be found when an election goes wrong. Or £10s of billions can be directed to the powerful during a pandemic. And don't say a nation's economy is fundamentally different to a household economy. You're right economically but even so. Mrs Thatcher was a grocers daughter so she knew about purses and how to cut benefits. Well, knew enough to marry a millionaire when a million was worth something.

Don't forget, it's been at least some time since tens of billions were channeled to donors during COVID and the important people have short memories so we need to keep them sweet. Pay peanuts and get monkeys. Like MPs with an extra £2500 and all the other revenue streams and the second jobs and the City. No, we don't need to pay the NHS and care workers more, though do it for claps. In that way they are like monkeys.

Tally Ho!

@Becca19962014 I'm sorry to hear that. Life can be hard sometimes.

The BOE need to raise interest rates to combat inflation but they know if they do it will collapse the housing Ponzi scheme. People are addicted to low interest rates - interest rates need to be around the same as inflation to get it under control but they know what will happen - black Wednesday all over again. The country is fucked until that happens!

@lecreusetpeppermill putting aside Greensill, was it DC who imposed a housing cap for the benefit claimant's entire accommodation to rent that was less than the cost of the new kitchen in No 10 (or number 11, I know sometimes the PM lives in No 11 if they have children as it's bigger) that they had to have even though the last one was serviceable but not pretty?

@Lifeisaminestrone

What do you expect him to do. The UK has high levels of debt. There’s not a magic money tree. Printing more money = greater inflation (it’s already high).

The Government can’t afford to bail out people anymore. We generally had a good Keynesian approach during lockdowns, but it is unsustainable.

Do something to increase productivity?

@Zilla1 of course!! That’s it!!! I’m just being a meany, old miser. I’m disabled, how dare I expect any better. I’ve read dickens!