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?

59% of parents claiming UC are in work so I think that's a very harsh statement.

One thing they could have done was raise the age for free prescriptions to 67. My DH gets his free, and he is still working full time!

You do realise that unless you’re severely disabled, ‘benefits’ don’t just allow you to claim forever as a choice, don’t you? Once your child turns 2, you have to begin preparing to look for work and then I think it’s when they’re two and a half years or 3 years old, you have to go back to work. Of course they could have more & more kids but there has to be an end at some point!
Those who are simply unemployed, have to log on and be tracked as they spend a minimum of 35 hours per week applying for jobs and working on their CV. So again, you absolutely cannot just ‘do nothing on benefits’. Even mildly disabled/unwell claimants have to do work related activities for a certain number of hours per week. It’s only severely disabled or terminally ill people who are left alone to ‘Sit on Benefits’ - which I doubt anyone with any empathy, would begrudge the severely disabled & terminally ill amongst us…….

There was funding for health centres wasn't there?

It was completely uninspiring and with no eye on the bigger picture.

This is not surprising as Labour do not have a plan or a vision for the future.

Yes, all 250 of them. Wow.

This is still going to hammer the “starter jobs” market (so pubs/shops/leisure centres, where kids try to get some money for Uni or something on their CV to help them get shortlisted).

Have you noticed that pubs and restaurants etc don’t tend to open Monday/Tuesday any more, or maybe they open later and close earlier? Just wait until after Christmas. If you are trying to balance a budget (or even make a profit), you have the choice of either cutting costs (the most ££ of which might be staff and/or utilities) or you put up prices. If you aren’t confident that people will be willing to pay the price hike, your unit sales will decline (which means you need to revisit the staff/utility costs). It becomes a downward spiral.

I am sure there are a few snippets of sensible ideas in the budget, but I’ve not spotted them yet.

You can claim for quite awhile actually and the 35 hr isnt true - certainly not for both parents or single parents who can get away with about 16 hrs per week, even when their child is way over 2 yrs old.

I don’t have any issues with any of it. The country needs to raise more money. People in this country want excellent public services but don’t want to pay for them. If this means paying a bit more tax, then that’s what has to happen. Scrapping the two child benefit cap may help families in poverty struggle a little less. Tax on electric vehicles is a good thing.

Those who deliberately have more children will do so, whatever the fiscal disincentives. Unfortunately.

No they’re not. It’s 37%.

Pretending to look for work is not exactly a hardship.

It’s so depressing that people think the only way to pay for things is to raise tax.

LemaxObsessive

Could you get your mum to Citizens' Advice? What you describe doesn't seem fair or correct.

Some of the things in the budget will end up costing so much more. When she said 300m for AI and automation I just laughed - it's going to cost much more than that sobit will eother get scrapped when they over spend and the money will be wasted or the cost will just be never ending. I haven't even got time to comment on all the other stuff.

I loved Kemi's response

Not being picky but why is your mum paying tax? Using those figures you gave her yearly income at the moment is £12296. If she gets the current full pension. That's below the tax allowance.
If that's right you need to contact hmrc with her because it doesn't sound right unless she owes them unpaid taxes.

Oh god are you joking? Look at the statistics, people aren't even having children any more. You had a kid at 16 and can't even have any empathy for people with kids.

Do you actually think people on benefits don’t spend their money on their children? I’m not affected by this change in the slightest as we are a working family with two children but honestly, everyone I know with children who are on benefits spends their money on their kids. What’s your point here? Getting an extra amount is going to go on fags and booze? 🤣

My understanding is that 37% of claimants of UC are in work however of those who are parents 59% are in work. I may have that wrong but I'm sure that's what I read.

Why is she going to be paying so much more tax? I’ve not heard about this, sorry.

No matter how hard I try, I can't describe it as good.

In my line of work, those eager job seeking parents once a child turns 2 are extremely rare. I hate to say but people regularly self pathologise or have another to kick the can down the road.

Is it? Really?
Or is it slightly more complicated?
I'm Very Old, and Very Cynical.

As does my husband, but in fairness he has asthma and needs his inhalers. He’s paid for them for years whilst others who have life threatening conditions got there meds free. Seems asthmatics got a raw deal…but that’s a discussion for another day.

I wholeheartedly agree