The Summer Budget

Is it reasonable that the poorest students are to be denied a £3,000+ maintenance grant?

Is it reasonable that there is to be a £4.5 billion cut in tax credits which top up the wages of low paid workers?

Is it reasonable that nothing has been done to address the massive cuts in the social care budget which has reportedly left a million elderly, frail and disabled people to fend for themselves without even their basic needs being met, or the equally massive cuts in children's and mental health services?

Is it reasonable that public sector workers, whose earnings have been held down for several years already and who continue to bear the brunt of reductions in staff numbers, will be limited to a 1% pay increase over the next four years?

At the same time as making cuts to vital support services and making poor people even more impoverished, it was deemed reasonable to increase the inheritance tax threshold for couples to £1 million. (Something that will benefit only a very small percentage of people in this country - in fact only approximately 5% of estates are liable for inheritance tax).

I don't think there's much about this budget that is reasonable.

Why do you say it's a reasonable budget when at the same time you say it will hit families hard?

This is a very reasonable budget. It's about time all companies paid a legally enforceable decent wage rather than being subsidised by the tax payer.

I'm saddened by the tax credits as some families will find it hard.

I believe I'm not the only one, Jane10. Do you really expect socialists to go along with Osborne's manoeuvres? A "one nation" budget that penalises the poorest?

However, I agree with this as well, which is an attack on Labour.

www.politics.co.uk/blogs/2015/07/08/miliband-s-meekness-allows-osborne-to-savage-the-working-poo

I do not imagine you will read it, though.

I can hardly believe my eyes Durhamjen finding something to complain about in the budget! Who'd a thought it! ! (I'd have added an irony emoticon if there had been one)

www.politics.co.uk/blogs/2015/07/08/george-osborne-s-living-wage-is-not-enough-to-actually-live

Good point, they are really public sector workers. however the body that sets the salaries for MP's told them that they should be earning more. A lot of MP's did not agree to that in the present economic climate.I know that people knock MP's all the time now, but if they didn't earn a reasonable salary they would leave and go into the business sector where they could all earn a fortune . this would leave only the really wealthy ones to stay in politics, like it used to be a long time ago, when it became a sort of hobby.So we need the ones that are not wealthy( inherited wealth) to stay in politics.It would be nice for all MP's however not to take the salary increase this time.That goes for MP's from all the parties.

Yes, I'd certainly agree with that!

I agree with that, Lucky. Are they going to have a 1% pay rise like the rest of the public workers? Are they .......

Maybe MPs should also be regarded as public sector workers.

Easy to say anything, in opposition.

Jeremy Corbyn can say whatever he wants, can't he? Andy Burnham will probably say he wants £12 an hour any minute now...

Osborne said it's a national living wage, making no distinction between London and the rest of the UK.

See my earlier post, Ana, where I said it was £7.85.
So how does making it £7.20 next April make it a living wage? Of course some people will be taken in by his rhetoric, but they always are.

By the way, Jeremy Corbyn wants £10 an hour. He could be the next Labour leader.

' country as a whole' I am going to throw this iPad out of the window.

The money has to be found GG, I doubt there are better ways to find it. the NHS is going to do well, amongst others.There will always be some people who grumble , public sector workers will I expect with only 1% a year pay rise .If the country as a who,e does well in the next few years then salaries will start to go up as well.

The UK Living Wage for outside of London is currently £7.85 per hour.

Obviously costs in London are higher, but you can't expect any government to apply London criteria to the rest of the UK.

A real living wage?

An official living wage?

A calculated living wage?

I think you'll find there are a lot more people than those on here who agree that it's not a living wage.

www.livingwage.org.uk/calculation

As I say I shall wait to see the analysis. This is nothing to do with it being a Conservative budget rosesarered, I would say the same whichever party had produced a budget as the devil is always in the detail. I don't think it is a question of picking holes but of proper analysis. As for nothing to alarm anyone - as the tax and spending savings amount to £17bn tax someone is going to notice .

I suppose they will have to find a new name for what has been estimated to really be a living wage Jen.

It's actually £7.85 at the moment and more than £9 in London, so how he thinks £7.20 is going to be a living wage next April is beyond a joke.

www.theguardian.com/society/reality-check/2015/jul/08/george-osborne-budget-national-living-wage

And not just Labour voters. There are those who are anti-Conservative seemingly just for the sake of it.

GG, ah, if only I was easily pleased with things! I am guessing that Labour voters will pick holes in the budget, whatever it was, but I saw nothing in it to alarm anyone and a lot of good sense ideas.

Agree with you, GracesGran. Just because he has called it a living wage doesn't mean it is one. At the moment I think the living wage is £7.65 as paid by all those companies that pay it. All he will be doing is increasing the minimum wage.

It may be Ana but neither Labour or the Conservatives actually pay it so neither party "offer" it they just make business pay for it. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing but it is a bit like the Conservatives saying - and they do - that they have created x number of jobs - inaccurate.

It will be tomorrow when you start to get real reaction grannyonce. That will be when the papers show examples of the winners and losers. At this point it is too complicated to work out. I am glad that you and rosesarered are so easily pleased. I shall wait for the unravelling. Some changes sound, in my view of sensible, sensible but I will want to know if and who, if anyone, will be really affected by the changes.