Budget 2015 - what do you think?

[KateMumsnet]

Today at 12.30pm - and with only 50 days until the general election - chancellor George Osborne will deliver the last budget of this government. Amongst other things, he’s expected to announce an increase in the personal tax allowance, a reduction in the rate at which savings are taxed and, possibly, a move on inheritance tax. We'd love to know what you'd like to see emerge from his briefcase - and to hear what you think as he announces his measures.

Jilly there is a monthly maximum savings limit of £200.

I would quite like not to pay for child benefits and child care costs for other peoples children. I know this sounds imflamatory but I have spent 30 years contributing NI/PAYE and now I do not have an income myself. Probably someones husband has my job. Makes me feel good .No! Wish the government would wake up to this fact instead of encourging everyone to keep reproducing.

Whistlingpot ….. regarding your post, may we first look at the dire UK economic and employment conditions/trends the Labour government left, from which WHOEVER took over in 2010 had to first implement policies to CORRECT those of the past 13-years, and create a climate of confidence, before putting their own policies into place over the next 5-years to 2015.

Firstly looking at the forth graph on the link below on UK employment growth UNDER LABOUR, the main growth was in the Public Sector over the taxpaying Private Sector funding it: arguably sustainable when a government decides to ‘create’ budget deficit financed UK employment from 2001/2 - but certainly NOT when the budget deficit had reached over £150 bil a year and the (then Labour) government was like a rabbit in headlights wondering what the flick to do about that economic incompetence.
www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-12-22/uks-holiday-cheer-in-four-charts

In effect, while other governments from 2008 had chosen to give tax cuts to the masses and finance measures to stimulate small, medium and large business growth, the UK was blowing any opportunity for a Fiscal Stimulus to our economy, by sustaining the unsustainable, a honking fat inefficient State, full of new Labour government quangos and non jobs. This was a huge imbalance in the economy that had to be corrected sensibly from 2010 onwards.

So may I suggest the growth of new businesses is heavily influenced by a Coalition government CREATING THE ECONOMI CONDITIONS for small business start ups to launch/expand, especially from those wanting to for years, but waiting for the tax rises Labour said pre 2010 general election, that were to come afterwards.

Re Youth Unemployment; can anyone explain to my why when the UK was going through a global boom, youth unemployment was TRENDING UP as that was what the Coalition was handed; the 16-24 year old unemployment rate in 2004 was 580,000, in pre crash 2007 it was 711,000 and in 2010 they handed over 921,000. FYI a government can NEVER promise apprenticeships for our youth, if their job focus is increasing the size of the governments payroll, rather than a healthy Private Sector that PAYS for it.

As to “the worst fall in real wages in living memory”, do you not think that this has something to do with the fact the UK had (from 2008) its longest and deepest recession in living memory* LOSING around 7% of economic output (GDP), which is why the Coalition helped ‘the many’ via around £3,000 in Personal Allowances tax cuts (while stimulating the private sector) - when the Labour alternative would have been to keep supporting its quango and non job State not-so-few.

Productivity levels are a problem but I severely doubt if any socialist government has any answers to that, as they’ll put taxes UP, killing investment and jobs and lowing productivity levels still further.

If growth in employment was so easy to achieve, why would economies a similar sized to ours STILL be struggling; if not for inflexible labour laws, similar to the 1970’s here, when apparently we’d rather have NO jobs, than the platform of lower paid work as a ways and means to higher skilled work.

FYI to our 5.6% unemployment rate, Italy has 12.9% unemployment, France has 10.3% unemployment – so we must be doing something right.
www.cityam.com/208382/32-charts-showing-why-eurozone-unemployment-its-lowest-two-years

“The Eurozone has finally had some good news: unemployment is down to 11.4 per cent, its lowest rate since August 2012. Although admittedly, 11.4 per cent would cause a mutiny in the UK.”

”The figure's drop was relatively small: it was 11.5 per cent in November and 11.8 per cent in December.”

Can't argue with that. all of that.

IFS challenges George Osborne over £12bn welfare spending cut plan

Thinktank says chancellor must specify how he will reach targets announced in the budget, given that the poor had been hardest hit by benefit changes

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The Institute for Fiscal Studies on Thursday told George Osborne to specify how he planned to cut welfare spending by £12bn, as it said the poor had lost most from the coalition’s benefit changes of the past five years.

Britain’s leading experts on tax and spending also said the pickup in living standards hailed by the chancellor in his budget was the slowest in modern history and “no cause for celebration”.

Paul Johnson, the IFS director, said Osborne’s defence against claims that cuts in Whitehall departmental spending will be even bigger after the election than in the current parliament was that he would raise £12bn from welfare savings and £5bn from a fresh crackdown on tax avoidance.

www.theguardian.com/business/2015/mar/19/ifs-challenges-george-osborne-12bn-welfare-spending-cut-plan

as it said the poor had lost most from the coalition’s benefit changes of the past five years.

Talk about stating the bleeding obvious.
It's only the poor who use benefits!

Talk about stating the bleeding obvious. It's only the poor who use benefits!

Well, that includes the majority of the population.

Unfortunately, since we live in low-pay Britain, with the government subsidising corporations who pay low wages, claiming some sort of benefit - whether it is tax breaks, housing, income benefit, or some kind of benefit is claimed by a large percentage of the population:

What percentage of the UK's adult population is dependent on the welfare state?

The welfare state is a big part of British family life, with 20.3 million families receiving some kind of benefit (64% of all families), about 8.7 million of them pensioners. For 9.6 million families, benefits make up more than half of their income (30% of all families), around 5.3 million of them pensioners. The number of families receiving benefits will be between 1 and 2 million fewer now because of changes to child tax credits that mean some working families who previously got a small amount now get nothing.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/apr/06/welfare-britain-facts-myths

IFS challenges George Osborne over £12bn welfare spending cut plan

Has anyone ever felt that law abiding citizens get hit hardest by the State or private sector, as they play by the rules?

Well the IFS are asking the Conservatives to give precise detail right now, because they gave a precise figures, on precise areas where THEY are looking to cut, when they have a RECORD of delivering - whereas the Labour Party TALK about being tough since 2010, but we have YET to see even general figures, on general areas, 5-years after they left the mess.

March 2010; ”Alistair Darling: we will cut deeper than Margaret Thatcher”
www.theguardian.com/politics/2010/mar/25/alistair-darling-cut-deeper-margaret-thatcher

“Labour to substantially cut benefits bill if it wins power in 2015”
www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/aug/21/labour-to-cut-benefits-bill-2015
Labour will cut the benefits bill "quite substantially" and more effectively than the Tories if it wins power in 2015, the shadow work and pensions secretary said on Tuesday.

“Liam Byrne, a Labour frontbencher, said the coalition's welfare reforms were failing to cut costs enough, and called for cross-party talks to "save" some of the government's key schemes.”

“Labour will be tougher than Tories on benefits, promises new welfare chief”
“Rachel Reeves vows to cut welfare bill and force long-term jobless to take up work offers or lose state support”
www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/oct/12/labour-benefits-tories-labour-rachel-reeves-welfare

And why is it dangerous when you don't see Labour detail, as the record they have, is that when they come into office, they look to fuel excessive spending with tax rises etc THEY NEVER MENTIONED rather than even think of how to contain the cost/waste of the State

In 1997 when the Conservative handed over an economy that had grown slowly over 20 odd conseq quarters and due to pay off the budget deficit from the 1991 recession, the Brown/Balls chancellor/advisor dream team STILL sold nearly half this nations gold reserves at a 20-year low price, plundered Private Pensions to near Final Salary destruction - and raised Home Stamp Tax from a flat 1% raising the costs for families over the years as rising prices dragged them into higher tax bands.

Those were tax rises in the GOOD times, so if the IFS should be trying to pin ANY PARTY down on their spending, cuts and new taxes plans after 2015, it should be Labour Party.

And Welfare increased so much under Labour, due to their policies i.e. immigration and low home builds raising rents etc, and THAT is where they want the voters, welfare dependent - rather than aspiring from to school to the workplace to provide for them and theirs to the best of their ability - otherwise why would our bill rise more than other European nations in the GOOD/BOOM times?

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/10574376/Graphic-Britain-outstrips-Europe-on-welfare-spending.html
Welfare spending in Britain has increased faster than almost any other country in Europe since 2000, new figures show.

"The cost of unemployment benefits, housing support and pensions as share of the economy has increased by more than a quarter over the past thirteen years – growing at a faster rate than in most of the developed world."

"In the developed world, only the United States and the stricken eurozone states of Ireland, Portugal and Spain - which are blighted by high unemployment - have increased spending quicker than Britain."

"And in Britain since 2010, when the Coalition came to power, spending on welfare as share of GDP has barely moved – falling by just a quarter of one per cent over three years, according to OECD data."

"By contrast, more than a third of developed nations have cut their welfare bills steeply in that period. Germany has cut social security spending as a share of GDP by 3.4 per cent, Canada by 3 per cent, Iceland by 4.2 per cent, Switzerland by 7 per cent and Estonia by 11 per cent."

"Despite Mr Osborne’s promise to get welfare under control, the benefits bill is due to increase rapidly in cash terms, from £180bn this year to £203bn in 2018-19.”