To be completely confused by the mini budget?

[towelhammer]

Just baffled really, how is it going to boost the economy & improve public services?

I wouldn’t get your hopes up about being able to spend more of you are a full time worker but not a higher earner.

isn't it just another form of austerity, eg cutting benefits & not increasing funding for public services. How are schools & the NHS going to pay for the salary increases & energy bills

And people voted for these idiots

🤣

Surely though, any small amount of tax saved (assume you are not a former 45% rate payer) will just have to be spent on med insurance, repairs to car (after hitting a pot hole) or on extra council tax charges.

The opposite to Austerity would be increases in public spending, we are not getting that.

Exactly. We will also supposedly benefit but this is not what I would vote for.

I just wonder how they will pay for it all.....

The party that sold us Brexit harping on about the importance of growth is quite a thing.

I thought killing the economy was the necessary price we might have to pay for sovereignty and the ability to have a bonfire of red tape.

I'm not sure what the wider effects on the economy will be but from a personal perspective I'm delighted, I'm a FTB and it's looking like we'll be liable for £10k less in stamp duty.

No need to be confused. The Tories are just doing what they have always existed to do...make the rich richer and the poor poorer.

So, yes, allowing bankers to get big bonuses, cutting the top rate of tax, piling the pressure on universal credit recipients... this is all totally in line with Tory values.

Surely nobody every really believed all that crap about "levelling up"? The budget today reflects exactly what the Tories are about, and what they have always have been about.

Absolutely this. As a public sector working I’m nervous for my job. Inflation and energy increases already have my employer talking about bankruptcy, that’s without a cut in govt funding.

I also think it’s designed to put Labour on the back foot for the next election, because they’ll have to commit to some kind of tax increases and the Tories will play on that in their campaign.

Why is it funny? 🤔

They won't pay for it at all. We will pay for it through our taxes for generations to come. Our kids will pay for it, and probably their kids too.

They don't care, it'll be Labours problem, i believe the Tories have already priced in losing the next GE so want to make as much money as possible for themselves.

They have done this before.

Fewer than half of the people who voted voted Tory. The fact that this leads to a huge majority in the HoC is a fault of the U.K. voting system, not necessarily the people.

Some of it I get, reduction of 1% on income tax payers a bit more money in everyone's pockets to pay for the increased costs of utilities, food, public transport, petrol etc, I don't get the banker bonus cap removal, stamp duty threshold raise which will increase house prices (look what happened before), or completely getting rid of higher rate tax, push the threshold up a bit maybe as it hasn't moved for years and is starting to capture people who are not particularly high earners.

Properly funding preschool childcare would surely be a boost for the economy, look how many on here say they can't afford to work because of nursery costs, also nurseries would also need to employ more staff

Makes me physically sick

I bet it doesn't, willyoujustbequiet

That aside, the NHS is a great big antiquated money-pit and should be comprehensively dismantled. Throwing more money at it will achieve nothing. People need to stop this "faith in our NHS" crap. Nobody gets sentimental about "Our Civil Service" or "Our Police Force".

Stamp duty ought to be abolished full stop. Ditto inheritance tax.

I'm weirdly jealous of higher earners now...aren't they effectively 21% better off after this tax cut?

It’s mad. They will tank the economy and mortgage repressions will go through the roof in the next five years. I honestly feel sick.

Agree completely.

Ah no, I've misunderstood, is it just 5% then?

DH and I say this all the time - imagine if we had kids drawing pictures and people clapping for the Passport Office, HMRC or the DVLA. The way we treat the NHS in this country is like a quasi-religion. It’s strange and is making us sicker.

First, you should take something for the physical sickness. It’s curable.

Second, the amateur dramatics about Tories are evil doesn’t show a great understanding of anything.

Our kids will pay for it, and probably their kids too.

There's not enough kids though, we already have an huge demographic shift. Immigration isn't so popular either 😆

Some of the measures are a difficult sell politically. At a time where a lot of us are struggling, reducing the top rate of tax for people that earn above £150,000 doesn't sound great. But the reality is that higher tax at the top end doesn't generate any more income as it pushes talent abroad and encourages creative accounting. The 45% tax rate was always more about appearing to hammer the wealthy than actually generating revenue. And what business is it of government to tell a private organisation what it can or cannot pay its employee? Removing the cap is righting a wrong stemming from politics of envy.

What I am disappointed about is that there has been no effort to increase the higher rate threshold. It was never intended to catch people earning £50k. Also, I'm disappointed that no effort has been made to reduce the burden of the annual allowance and lifetime allowance charges on pensions which are forcing skilled professionals, especially doctors, to retire early to avoid huge upfront taxation, at a time when they are most needed.