to be a bit scared of todays budget

[asteri]

mainly as I work in the public sector (cuts there), have not long discovered I'm pregnant (more cuts there)and so I am really scared, will I have (another)pay cut or will I even have a job soon......

And any party that got into power would have had to do the same thing, otherwise they would have been horribly irresponsible and let the whole country slide further down the pan. Our economy and markets couldn't have taken much more.

26 weeks full paid maternity benefits is unrealistic and should be cut. Public sector workers don't get anywhere near that. As has been pointed out the gap has been eroded over the years so it's not like there is a big gulf.
I'm sorry if you find it hard but we're all going to suffer during the next few years to sort out the mess that the twat Gordon Brown brought upon us...... or don't people believe the irresponsible spending over the years?
It's tough for everyone so we'll just have to suck it up.

asteri CLEARLY I wasn't saying that you personally wouldn't buy 2nd hand! But I'm sure you know what I mean. Many people buy 2nd hand, but often those who can afford it least feel that they're not doing the best for their babies if they don't buy new, which is odd.

I am also quite sure that many people in the PubSec have been hit over the last few years, as you say. Those who work in departments where the responsibility for tax collection has been passed to the employer, to start with!!. I'm not into PubSec bashing in any way. I don't necessarily think that the PubSec per se have the Life of Riley. I just don't have much time for anyone who says stuff like "I could earn twice as much in the PriSec but I choose not to"... well we all have choices about who we work for and if the job doesn't earn enough we're all free to look for alternative work.

I think that the title of this thread is perfectly reasonable. Many of us, including me, were worried about this budget and how it would affect our families. My point is that we can't "blame the Tories" for it. This concept that the baby-blood-sucking-Tories have been sitting in the sidelines just waiting for their opportunity to be mean to the poor is ignorant and naiive - and offensive. I don't know whether what they're putting in place will solve the problem of our economy. It may be that they've cut too hard. It may be not enough. It may be just right. The best economic minds in the country can't agree about it. All I will say is that for someone to say that the evil Tories were just waiting for this opportunity is - odd.

I am not scared but very very annoyed. For all the fanfair, Osborne just tinkered at the edges with a bit of a cut here and a bit more tax there.

Really, as a Tory voter I wanted and expected a revolution and I DONT mean starving vulnerable people on benefits back to work or hammering low paid front line public sector workers either.

A complete waste of all that political goodwill towards the coalition in my view.

Well BeenBeta they said they cuts are going to be harsh but fair you can't get a revolution without someone being severely affected.

Both Dh and I are higher rate taxpayers and neither of us work in public sector, we both less than £100k. Hence we didn't really get hit by the last budget (ie 50% tax rate, restrictions on HR pension relief and loss of PA after £100k) - although we will both suffer additional 1% NI. Our youngest child (9 weeks old) will still get the CTF and I got the HIP grant. We were not entitled to tax credits, and don't have any assets on which we could suffer capital gains. So I guess we don't really get hit by this budget either (other than freezing CB, 20% VAT etc).

I agree that this budget hits the poorest, not really fair, although the best paid did get him quite badly with the new 50% tax rate, bank bonus tax, loss of personal allowance. Seems that its the almost high earners that get off the lightest.

MumNWLondon - I agree. I am a higher earner too. The budget seemed to hit poor harder than rich and did not really tackle things like simplifying the tax and benefits system with fairness and incentives built in.

Nor indeed did it do much to tackle the deficit which as the big issue everyone agreed on.