Another budget one. Sorry.

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I keep seeing posts about how this budget will be so bad for us all, am I the only one who won't be (personally) directly affected? Or at least, in a negative way?

I get the issues around businesses and NI but I am a civil servant.

I will get a pay rise! Yep, you read that right. I earn NMW so my wages will go up.

And I don't have a 'gold plated ' pension.

I totally get there will be a lot affected but I can't be the only one who benefits can I?

No I am pointing out the ones that simply don't see past their own situations.

Well of course anyone can avoid tax by gifting their assets or utilising LLCs and trusts. Whilst lawful it’s generally frowned upon, especially on MN. If we’re going to carve out a moral exception for farmers why not make it a legal one?

I work in the voluntary sector - we provide vital services which are mainly free - the employers NI changes will probably mean redundancies or cut in hours for some of my team
Our costs for everything are soaring and yet we are being asked to reduce the amount we apply for in grants or commissioning

Ultimately money has to come from somewhere.

Businesses are taking the brunt of this tax.

They won't want to be losing profits so gradually costs will filter down to the consumer.

The current workforce may not get predicted pay rises as profits will be down, again passing this indirectly onto the working man.

And recruitment may be for essential posts only with others expected to cover absent posts.

The result will probably look like less in a pay packet in a few years due to reduced pay rises.

Jobs will be harder to find.

The cost of things will rise.

The extra NI contributions might be paid in the first instance by business but most businesses won't take it as a loss.

It's actually a very clever strategy to raise major taxes that does affect everyone without it appearing to at first glance.

They are the minority and I wouldn’t be surprised if some have no intention to do anything about it. I’m not sure why that annoys you so much - lots lie on an anonymous forum. Even if they are making empty threats, the reality is many children moving into state sector at normal transition points are going to take up spaces at good schools which otherwise could have gone to someone with lower income.

The reality for many who choose the private schools that are on the lower end of the fee spectrum (us included) is that the outcomes are not that different to the top schools in the state sector despite the funding discrepancies (which are not always as much as you would think - fees are under £11k/year for primary pre vat). Had we moved house to guarantee a place at the local excellent primary, I believe my children would have had similar outcomes but we didn’t because of our careers - lack of wraparound and reliable childminders was a big issue.

Current school is of very high academic standard and chances of getting into a selective state secondary are good. As a result, more and more are going for part selective or highly selective (the former do not fall into the 163 figure you have quoted). This is going to be replicated across the country now

I can't really work out the direct impact yet. I have lots of little jobs. My minimum wage one will see an increase.. A couple will be neutral I think.

I'm a bit worried about one of my jobs though as I was earning below the employers' NI threshold but will now be caught up in it. The finances of that organisation are quite tight, so I think I will be asked to cut hours.

Geneuine question why do you have lots of little jobs and not just 1 job. Does it work to your advantage or is it just how you've managed to piece together the income you need?

It was the only way I could piece together the income I need around a child with complex sen who attends school part time. I have to make use of evenings, weekends and have a very flexible job in the day.

I actually don't mind it as it feels like the chance of losing all the jobs at the same time is pretty unlikely. It has been am uphill struggle with hmrc though.

Thanks I just wondered, I sometimes think of doing similar I.e 2 part time jobs.

There are even fewer partially selective state secondaries in England than there are grammars.

Glad you agree that lots are lying on here about taking their kids out of private school. It has certainly annoyed me that certain private school parents have argued to keep their own kids in private school and their tax bill down by pretending that they care about the impact on state school kids, and in particular disadvantaged state school kids.

Yet I see the numbers leaving in real life. 10% in DDs year.
Just because you don't believe people doesn't mean it isn't happening/won't happen.

NI rises, NMW rises... businesses will simply pass these costs on to consumers.
So where people are seeing slightly more money in their pocket each month, a noticeable increase in monthly expenditure will also be seen.

I don't think anyone claimed that no one would leave as a result of this policy. It is certainly in some people's interests to claim a mass exodus though, therefore anecdata isn't particularly useful.

We won't have concrete data though because it simply isn't measured. ISC will hopefully start recording it now though as part of legal challenge

So what you describe then is not growth but contraction. People stop buying, businesses get smaller, profits reduce, turnover reduces, tax and VAT payable also reduces = less money in government coffers.

Also again posters demanding the UK treat their unskilled workers like princes and pay accordingly, while actually buying their shit from China, sweatshops and enslavement.

That’s assuming the same number of children remain in private education. If many leave the tax take will reduce.

This! I'm a small business owner and we employ 9 staff, we need more staff but now need to decide if it's worth employing more staff to increase production or whether it's more cost effective to stay small and just increase our prices slightly to cover the increase. Thankfully our prices are already low and so we know increasing won't cause too much damage to trade, but hiring more staff was the original plan and I just don't know if we can withstand the increased cost of it.

If you have a private pension then you’ll also know you can opt out of it…

Yep

The country voted against its own economic interests for well over a decade, including Brexit, and watched the NHS and schools and social services get gutted while moaning about the lack of provision, and now moan that it has to be righted somehow.

Baffling but not surprising.

I agreed some are lying, not lots. As is the case about many things. I still fail to see why it bothers you to the extent that you argue vehemently and derail the threads about it.

Those who are have children in the private sector are about to be hit with a spite tax and are very upset and posting. If you truly believe it is going to affect the state sector so little and of minimal relevance to so many, why argue incessantly? If there is a similar thread about a topic which has such little impact on me, I just ignore no matter whether I agree with the general consensus or not. Find it odd you have nothing better to do with your life

This is the problem currently post Labour budget and cost of debt, from another poster who summed it up well

Government debt is also around £2.8 trillion, and with money between 0.25% and 0.5% more expensive that’s another £7 to £14 billion for the treasury to find. I think the OBR is estimating £9billion? Either way, the negative impacts pretty much wipe out the £20/25 billion raised from taxing employment more.

Name a prince on £12.21 an hour.

Prince, no; princess, yes
(taking your question literally)

Well Lady Louise is a princess, though she doesn't use her royal title. And she had an unskilled job in a garden centre, and I expect that would be around NMW (at the time she was 18, so possibly £8.60 when she did it)

Yes, her family is wealthy, so that's not all she had to live on. But she did it.
And should she be treated properly by both her employers and the general public? Of course. As should all her colleagues

Everyone will lose out as family farms are taken over by investors. Its an awful budget for us, farmers and farm animals.