Am I the only one that thinks that the budget is good?!

[isitactuallybadthough]

NC’d for obvious reasons.

I mean it seems that they’re trying to help the working class?

I am not on benefits. I’m also not lucky enough to live in a property worth over £2,000,000. But surely the worst off in society will be better off under this? With the energy bill cut and two child benefit scrap? Also books for libraries, national wage increases. I do understand people feeling frustrated at the pension/ISA parts, that will probably affect DH and I but overall I’m pleased as the worst off will be slightly less worse off?

The £2000 per annum cap is absolutely ridiculous. It'll cost us thousands a year in tax.
We have planned for an early retirement because we have a disabled child and we don't want to have to put them into care constantly when they leave school (they are currently 7).
So we've scrimped and saved to increase our pensions and our savings...now the greedy bustards are going to take thousands of that each year for tax.

I'm all for helping those less fortunate but it's literally an unbelievable amount.
I've been Labour all my life but this government are an absolute joke between disability benefits, what they are doing to send kids and now this.
They should have done free school dinners for all instead. At least then we know it's benefitting the kids.

The £2000 per annum cap is absolutely ridiculous. It'll cost us thousands a year in tax.

Have you understood it correctly? You still don’t pay any tax on your pension contributions and the NI relief has only ever applied to salary sacrifice schemes which most aren’t.

I dont think you have understood what the £2000 relates to. All it means is that if you pay pension contributions via salary sacrifice then only the first £2000 of annual contributions will have NI relief. I dont see how that would cost anyone thousands a year?

Without growth and investment we will all be worse off. This budget did nothing to encourage growth and investment. It is palliative.Not looking at overall picture

Agree and that’s pretty much the take from economists, the op would be the only one saying it’s good against that.

I find it a bit odd that this part of the Liz Truss budget is just completely memory-holed.

I don't know how many times I've had a conversation along the lines of "wasn't Liz Truss terrible? Ruined the country over trying to cut bankers' taxes. The only good thing they did was help with energy bills"

Why is this not called the Keir Starmer budget, why is the Kwasi Kwarteng budget called the Liz Truss budget. Why was Liz Truss the lettuce and not KK, who should be the lettuce this time, for this budget, RR or KS.

Well neither of them have tacked 2% on the long-term cost of the entire national debt yet, so perhaps they'll manage to avoid that pitfall...unlike the Conservative government before last?

Money clearly isn’t an issue for you. Have you seen the effects of the reduction in state services? The reduced number of social workers? Have you not seen how youth services were cut for there to be an increase in youth offending?
I’ve seen my wages reduce, I’m not saving as much money as I’d like and I’m buying less luxuries however I am aware there are huge amount of people less fortunate than me who need help. Don’t forget we have not recovered from the financial disaster of leaving the EU or from Truss and her government’s disastrous fiscal management!

Where in the budget do you see an investment in the services you are talking about?

Substantive new money - not just renamed and shuffled about to create the illusion of something new.

Haven't read the full thread, full disclosure. Also don't know the ins and outs of the budget. But are they investing the extra tax into public services? I work for the NHS and it is a shit show. The worst I have ever seen it in nearly 20 years of working there. By a long stretch! It needs investment. If this will help, then I don't care about paying more tax. How else will the government raise funds to be able to cover the ever rising costs of the public services that are necessary yet falling apart?

I will go and Google it now - but increased benefits to those who need it also isn't a bad thing.

yep..at least the nail/lash, botox and filler and hair salons will benefit sic

There is NO £2000 cap on Salary sacrifice contributions.
It’s still a fantastic tax dodge, higher rate tax payers will be hit by a £200 NI charge for every £10k they sacrifice over £2k.They are getting a better deal than basic rate tax payers who will have to pay 8% NI. Someone on £40k and is able to sacrifice 10%, will pay an extra £160 in NI.

Some people are too dim to look beyond the rage bait on twitter 🙄

I’m interested too. The spend in the budget is on welfare, two child benefit lift.

For people not understanding how the pension NI increase could cost people thousands per year:
Employer NI is 15%. Employee NI is 8 or 2% depending whether you earn over about 50k per year.

Assuming employers pass on those costs then individuals will lose 17 or 23% of pension contributions over £2k per year.

So someone who invested 12k p.a. in pension now (joint employee and employer contributions) will be £1.7k worse off or £2.3k worse off. The larger percentage is perversely for people earning under £50k because that's the NI rules.

It would have been simpler to cease salary sacrifice schemes and make all income taxable. I'm aware of pension, cycle to work, tech, EV and childcare as salary sacrifice schemes.

£3 billion of it. Most of it’s going to service the debt.

The cost and repercussions of the lifting of the 2 child cap is shocking to me. So many working people are living on bare essentials these days. So many people have to choose to work longer hours and never see their kids to make ends meet, and have zero left for luxuries.
If you work 16 hours a week or are unfit to work you are entitled to these increases in benefits and the increased can be staggering. £300 a month PER CHILD. Why 16 hours? Why not full time? The woman in the news yesterday who is now entitled to £900 a month extra on top of her regular benefits. How many families are genuinely short of 900 a month and need that for 'essentials'. It's lovely that her kids can now go to a football club and dance classes (although that doesn't add up to 900 A MONTH) but loads of children can't afford those things and are now paying more in tax so hers can. There is already child benefit which has never been capped and helps towards the cost of additional children, we already offer that support. But 900 on top!
Lifting children out of poverty is important, of course it is, and historically I've always been a left wing voter, but these numbers are ridiculous. To get a pay rise at work is almost impossible and if I'm lucky I'll get 2%, which for me is £55 a month.
They are getting an EXTRA 900 a month! For doing nothing! That is not 'bringing a child out of poverty' that's excessive and reckless spending of tax payers money. For some even larger families of course it will be more.
I was flabbergasted on a thread I read recently where people were discussing holiday budgets. As a family we try to put aside enough for a holiday every year, but it's always low budget and sometimes it's not possible due to other expenses.
There was a poster who said she spends 6k a year, and that she has to, because if her savings go over the threshold she wont receive her universal credit. 6k a year on holidays, at tax payers expense. If you're a tax payer and you don't see how totally wild and ungoverned and unfair the welfare system currently is then you're either very privileged and comfortably off or you're blind.

I think this is the most accurate evaluation of the general frustration people feel around the topic. When it's easier to NOT work rather than work for almost the same amount of money, you perpetuate a broken system and open the door to it being abused; throwing money at it will not allow for the shift in attitude required. I'm with you!

Me too. That family is reckless, having child after child and then the man gives up work due to MH issues. They are playing us.

Original. 🙄

They are unlikely to come out of the system. If the husband goes to work, benefits are likely to stop or reduce; the stress, in turn will exacerbated his condition, which will subsequently stop him.from working...again

And where's the incentive? With £2700 a month in benefits, that's £32,000 net a year, untaxed. That's the equivalent of a £42k income for doing nothing. On top of that they will get free school meals for all their children and other benefits that come from being on universal credit, such as free dental, free prescriptions, council tax reductions and many more potential savings. Not to mention, and most importantly, endless time with their children that most families don't get. I think that's what frustrates me the most. It's not just about the unfairness of income, it's the gift of time. How many of us would love to be able to pick our kids up from school every day and spend evenings with them, but we can't. How many people would love more children but can't afford them. I strongly believe in helping children in genuine poverty but this just isn't the fair way to do it. The welfare bill is now extortionate, it's untenable.

Why bother going to work when you get paid more for doing nothing?

Neither did the ‘Liz Truss’ budget. The bond yields (the interest rate on our debt), which spiked at the time, dropped back down after about a month. There is no long term cost, the yields rise and fall all the time depending on the state of the economy.

The bond yields are higher now than they were under Truss.

It’s still affecting some people’s mortgages.