The Budget - will it make any difference ?

He has actually decreased the state pension by 3.1% as today's inflation rate is 6.2%
Nothing to help people with energy costs beyond the piddly loan of £200 promised earlier and council tax rebate of £150 for some
A shocking lack of awareness of how little people have to live on.
And no VAT on green home improvements which only people with disposable income or savings can afford. No doubt to push business to his cronies
Utterly disgusting

It's austerity all over again. I kept telling you all that that was what was in store for us.

No extra money for public services; NHS still being devastated by covid, as are a good many schools, and where are they going to find the money to pay their increased energy costs?

why reduce income tax? That helps the better off much more and takes money out of public services.

There needs to be something done for those in work who are claiming UC. They still have fund childcare, transport, etc, and also buy work clothes and pay the other expenses associated with earning a living.

We (Mr Dog and I) will benefit a bit from the NI cut, but I would much rather forgo that in favour of those on low incomes who will lose out on employers' contributions to their pensions. Eventually (2024?) we will pay less tax, but not enough to notice, and again, I'd rather that money helped families or older people who can't afford heating. We do cover a few miles these days, as our children live over 100 miles away in different directions, and we tend to do the travelling because they have less free time than we do, so whilst the 5p off petrol is better than nothing, it won't cancel out the recent rises in fuel costs, which will continue to be an expense for us. We don't qualify for the CT rebate, which I assume means we don't get the loan either, but TBH I don't want a loan that will have to be repaid - as far as possible we PAYG rather than accrue debts. Overall then, we will be worse off than this time last year, but we are lucky to be able to absorb the costs, which many people aren't.

Jaxjacky

He did say ‘before the end of this Parliament’ DaisyAnne.

Thank you Jaxjacky.

Johnson’s face whilst Sunak was talking about Ukraine. I think that the truth has to be that Johnson wasn’t listening otherwise how else would you explain it?

Good grief!

I had (faintly) hoped there might be a pension rise. That, plus the slight increase in personal allowance, is all that would have helped me personally.

Like others, I'd have preferred to see something more to help the least well off, and I'm appalled at the idea of cutting income tax.

Whitewavemark2

Johnson’s face whilst Sunak was talking about Ukraine. I think that the truth has to be that Johnson wasn’t listening otherwise how else would you explain it?

Wind !
However I have been watching the playback and did not notice this at all The PM looked to be listening intently

Wind !

? If that's the case it would be every man for himself in the row behind!

Whitewavemark2

Johnson’s face whilst Sunak was talking about Ukraine. I think that the truth has to be that Johnson wasn’t listening otherwise how else would you explain it?

My own face must have looked a bit like that when Sunak started babbling about Russia/ Ukraine!

I was straining hard to try to make some sense out of it, to see how it was relevant to the rest of the sentence, but I didn't manage it.

I had been going to look back at the records afterwards to see if it made more sense in writing, but I haven't had time yet, and it's probably not worth the effort.

The really sneaky trick is his previous announcement of the freezing of personal tax allowances. As the minimum wage increases more and more part time employees will be paying tax, so in reality his much trumpeted 1p off income tax in 2024 will have little impact for many people.

Watching the News reports it doesn't seem as if he has anyone cheering this statement.

I can’t understand why this lack of supporting people through this period through high inflation, fuel and food poverty won’t in effect result in a slow down of the economy.

I have been watching Paul Johnson from the Institute of Fiscal Studies. He said that those hurt most by this budget are those on benefits and not earning (many of whom cannot earn). Also in the "most hurt" group are those for whom the State Pension is the majority of their income and those getting Pension Benefits.

Interestingly he added that he felt the tax burden would be higher at the end of this government than it is now.

It does seem a very contrary budget WWM.

Yes there is no doubt that it has hurt the poorest the most, but it hasn’t given help to those further up the earnings scale as they face 54% rise in fuel at the end of the month and further rise in October. Then of course there is going to be a huge rise in inflation with salaries taking a hit. The biggest since the 50s.

How is this not going to have a detrimental effect on the economy?

We are already doing badly compared to other economies, this will affect us very badly indeed, particularly as we have cobbled ourselves with the enormous expense and bureaucracy of Brexit, which other economies do not have to contend with.

Whitewavemark2

I can’t understand why this lack of supporting people through this period through high inflation, fuel and food poverty won’t in effect result in a slow down of the economy.

I think there will be a lot of unravelling overnight WWM. We should, hopefully, have some more insight into this tomorrow.

I can only assume the poor elderly and the poor who cannot work or cannot work more and are simply disposable. It wouldn't surprise me after the way they treated the Care Homes during Covid.

I don’t agree with the reduction in income tax.

GillT57

^but we will still have the 1.25% increase^. Just a quick correction; it is 1.25 points, but in excess of 10%. 12 to 13.25%. This is often said by people who do know better, and it is surprising ( until it appears in next month's payslips) how few people understand the difference. If Sunak talked about a 10% increase people would be justifiably concerned, but this has been promoted as a 1.25 levy, not the 10% tax increase it is in reality. Smoke, mirrors, and red boxes

It's actually a 100% increase for me, as I'm over state pension age but still working.

Casdon

I hope he does something for the poorest, raising universal credit and pension credit would be a start, even if it’s only enough to counteract the effects of food and utilities inflation.

Sorry you CANT raise the level of pension credit unless you also increase the state pension for those who don't qualify, its only about £2 less than the new full pension, its would be totally and utterly unfair if someone who didn't/couldn't pay into the system when they were working age gets more than someone who did, and don't forget under the new pension rules 1000s of people (and I am one) have had their pensions capped so don't even get a pension for all the years they paid into the system let alone any extra money for not paying in as much

Okay Chakotay. Unfortunately he didn’t do anything for any of the poorest though.

I saw this apt headline from the Daily Star that made me laugh this morning:
INSIDE TODAY: The usual load of
utter bull from a rich, insincere,
smiling politician with nice teeth

OBR

Exports and imports are 15% lower than if we had remained in the EU.

The National Pensioners’ Convention has published a statement.

But NPC General Secretary Jan Shortt said: “There is nothing whatsoever for pensioners in this Spring budget which is an absolute disgrace. The fact that the Chancellor has not responded to a number of requests to reinstate the Triple Lock to help pensioners survive the huge increases in energy and food shows no compassion for a generation who have paid (and still pay) for the pension they get - one that is the most inadequate in the industrial world.

“The majority of pensioners do not pay tax as their income is well below the threshold so there is no advantage there.

“All in all, the NPC does not accept that pensioners could not have been given the real rate of inflation to ease the pain. A £250 reduction in energy bills instead of a loan that we never asked for would show at least some thought for the least well off. We are extremely concerned that older people will have to make critical decisions on how they spend their meagre state pension and the potential increase in pensioner poverty. Meanwhile, no change for the millionaires and billionaires.”

National Pensioners’ Convention reply to Spring Statement

Tough times ahead for us all. Every other country is facing the same challenges with fuel and energy costs set to soar.

No Chancellor would ever do enough for everyone, so we just have to make the best of things.