The Budget

100% agree, there is too narrow a margin between claiming benefits and not claiming benefits.

I totally agree. I have said that in the comments previously, the personal tax allowance freeze has made things 100 times worse than it should be. They are giving us triple lock pensions and taking everything away when we pay tax and all the other increases in our daily lives.

You’re right, sorry I wasn’t minimising what it means if you do have to live on just a state pension. It must be very galling to be surviving just above that level and be told you now have to pay tax though, the personal allowance should be raised now.

All the same, must be hard to be one of the 1 in 11 cohort. Imagine sitting a group of and roughly 10% of us are really struggling.

There are a lot less retirees whose only source of income is the the state pension than you would think though. Of 11m total retirees, ‘only 1.2 million retired households are “mainly reliant” on the State Pension, defined by the ONS as a household that has at least three quarters of its total income provided by the
State Pension or other similar pension-related state benefits’
.4 Dec 2023
todayswillsandprobate.co.uk › ...
So it is likely that a lot of additional people will have to pay tax on top of the majority who already do.

Jam108

Barely any mention of tax thresholds. The Tory’s proudly make ‘capital’ of continuing the’triple lock’ but neglect to mention to the ‘wider world’ that virtually all pensioners will now be paying tax as the basic state pension is over the threshold. !

Pensioners with just the full basic state pension won't be paying income tax.

Barely any mention of tax thresholds. The Tory’s proudly make ‘capital’ of continuing the’triple lock’ but neglect to mention to the ‘wider world’ that virtually all pensioners will now be paying tax as the basic state pension is over the threshold. !

Amalegra

Cossy, this is an excellent and well judged reply. I too wish for a more equitable and sustainable system for all where work is fairly rewarded and the vulnerable properly cared for.

Thank you. The sad thing is this is perfectly possible, but not done due a broken system, lack of care from our leaders and pure greed. So so many very hard working, normal, decent people end up struggling in later life. Too many disabled people struggle. Too many tax “cheats”.

The game is up Hunt.
Any gains will be eaten up in increased Council tax.

please tell me that I'm wrong but my understanding is that the NS&I helps raise money for the treasury . so if the premium bond limited was raised and the prize fund also increased then it would help provide money . I ready somewhere that £80miillion was taken from the NS&I as people want better interest rates .

Freya5

MaizieD

Freya5

Cossy

AlwaysSmiling

All I want is for the tax threshold to raise. Keeping it at it's present level is making pensioners and everyone else pay more tax. It states it will not rise until 2028. Yes we will get a great triple lock pension rise in April but I will now pay tax.
The mobile phone payments, council tax, Internet Service, TV Licence, home insurance, water rates, energy bills etc. have all risen so it is a case of they give it to us with one hand and take it back with the other.

If my late husband and I hadn't saved for a rainy day and had a small private pension, I would have got my full state pension and been able to claim benefits. I pay for Glasses and Dental treatment and they have started making some prescription items that were prescribed by hospital specialists into over the counter medication so now I have to pay for them as well. I have worked it all out and I am just a few pounds above the threshold for benefits so after paying for medication, glasses and dental treatment I am worse off than the people who claim benefits and get everything going.

If I have my time over again I would spend, spend, spend.

Totally agree and there’s always been that awful gap between being eligible to claim financial help and earning just too much but actually ending up worse off than those on lower salaries, which is utter madness!

This is absolutely correct. My granddaughter cannot get help with childcare, because her partner earns just over the threshold, "too much "in the words of the official.
Full time Law student.

Quite ironic that tory supporters, who presumably believe in self reliance and minimal state input, as those are tory dogma, should be annoyed about ineligibility for a state benefit...

How do you know my grandkids vote Tory. Disgusting. So only Labour voters and benefit takers are allowed help with childcare. Sick.

I was talking about folk like you, Freya, not your granddaughter.

I'm not going to hold my breathe when/if Labour win the next election both parties have completely forgotten who they are supposed to be working for. It seems all they are interested in is themselves and environmental issues without the infrastructure to support it. The ordinary everyday people end up paying for it all.

MaizieD

Freya5

Cossy

AlwaysSmiling

All I want is for the tax threshold to raise. Keeping it at it's present level is making pensioners and everyone else pay more tax. It states it will not rise until 2028. Yes we will get a great triple lock pension rise in April but I will now pay tax.
The mobile phone payments, council tax, Internet Service, TV Licence, home insurance, water rates, energy bills etc. have all risen so it is a case of they give it to us with one hand and take it back with the other.

If my late husband and I hadn't saved for a rainy day and had a small private pension, I would have got my full state pension and been able to claim benefits. I pay for Glasses and Dental treatment and they have started making some prescription items that were prescribed by hospital specialists into over the counter medication so now I have to pay for them as well. I have worked it all out and I am just a few pounds above the threshold for benefits so after paying for medication, glasses and dental treatment I am worse off than the people who claim benefits and get everything going.

If I have my time over again I would spend, spend, spend.

Totally agree and there’s always been that awful gap between being eligible to claim financial help and earning just too much but actually ending up worse off than those on lower salaries, which is utter madness!

This is absolutely correct. My granddaughter cannot get help with childcare, because her partner earns just over the threshold, "too much "in the words of the official.
Full time Law student.

Quite ironic that tory supporters, who presumably believe in self reliance and minimal state input, as those are tory dogma, should be annoyed about ineligibility for a state benefit...

How do you know my grandkids vote Tory. Disgusting. So only Labour voters and benefit takers are allowed help with childcare. Sick.

The key issue for most people is the cost of living and the appalling state of public services including the NHS and local authority services. Hunt might tinker with tax but what most of us want is a competent, consistent approach to improving services rather than shiny short term patches and posturing about Gaza, Ukraine, 'mob rule', etc. It will take time for Labour to clear up the Tory mess and we need to give them ten years to do it.

Last night's Newsnight from Doncaster East had some very cogent input by members of the public in the audience and some pretty poor responses by the politicians present. Too much hymn sheet/boilerplate from Labour and Tory MPs and a ludicrous input from Reform claiming they could fix the NHS waiting list in two years.

The audience viewed levelling up as non-existent (thanks BoJo) and one audience member rightly called it out as rhetoric.

Cossy, this is an excellent and well judged reply. I too wish for a more equitable and sustainable system for all where work is fairly rewarded and the vulnerable properly cared for.

Still smiling I'm in the same boat as you
Never paid tax for the last ten yes due to low pay , now I get state pension and small local authority pension which if that goes up I will just be over the threshold and end up paying a very small amount it tax
Totally wrong,

Please, please, don't derail this thread with a a state v private school debate. We've been over and over it in the past year or two.

Cath9

Unfortunately. there is no decent leader .
One wants to do away with the A level examination that are needed for most careers. While the opposition intend to put up tax for those who pay for their children’s’ education.
Don’t they realise paying for eduction is actually saving the government having to put money to educate the pupil.

The amount of children educated privately, particularly at secondary level is a drop in the ocean. Starmer wishes to stop their charitable status, they are not charities! They give away a couple of bursaries a year in order to maintain this fallacy!

I agree. the quality of our current leaders is abysmal, mainly because, currently, the quality of our politicians, in all parties couldn't be worse - and that is where the leaders are chosen from. come from.

Cossy

We do not need tax cuts as such, we need the freeze removed on the personal allowances and this needs to rise.

We simply cannot afford the cuts we’ve already had to public services, let alone more!

I cannot see anything Hunt does is going to make a tangible difference to any “normal” people.

Whatever happens at both the budget and the GE we need to baton down the hatches and be prepared for some (further) lean years. Tories simply cannot accuse Labour of mismanaging the public purse after this govt!

This!

Cath9

Unfortunately. there is no decent leader .
One wants to do away with the A level examination that are needed for most careers. While the opposition intend to put up tax for those who pay for their children’s’ education.
Don’t they realise paying for eduction is actually saving the government having to put money to educate the pupil.

That is only 7% of the population though.

So if money is raised from VAT on the services by the private sector, it can be put towards the crumbling schools and woeful lack of facilities provided to the 93%.

If parents can afford school fees they can afford to pay VAT on the services they receive.

While the opposition intend to put up tax for those who pay for their children’s’ education.

I hardly think that's an issue which is going to lose Labour many votes. There really aren't that many privately educated children.

It might even gain them some votes, though..

Unfortunately. there is no decent leader .
One wants to do away with the A level examination that are needed for most careers. While the opposition intend to put up tax for those who pay for their children’s’ education.
Don’t they realise paying for eduction is actually saving the government having to put money to educate the pupil.

MaizieD

Not all tories voted for Brexit, Ug. There are still some decent ones left...

I’m pretty sure there are lots of decent Tories around. I just don’t count our current cabinet as “decent” people I’m afraid.

Not all tories voted for Brexit, Ug. There are still some decent ones left...