What do you hope for in the budget?

I would like to see a properly regulated care industry. Keeping people at home with compassionate support, community nurses and remote monitoring so hospital beds are freed up for those who need them.
The return of health visitors to help with child rearing, so teaching staff don’t end up doing it and can focus on education.
Stricter enforcement of child support by errant, predominantly, fathers.
The end of loopholes allowing some companies to wriggle out of paying tax.

Doodledog
Re education. Short story - I had the greatest misfortune to be on a bus with my small grandson who had a headache. It was school time. It was a nightmare. The children would not stop talking very loudly and requesting quiet was the wrong approach. Couldn’t easily get off the bus- deliberately obstructed and then hoards of children tried to enter on the exit door. So my point is why would anyone want to be a teacher? Seems to me that something is going badly amiss.

When I’m on my phone I can’t always use the quote facility but in reply to Mt61 above, I also would like to see everyone have to contribute to society in the form of work and taxation. I have also said on this thread that it is wrong that employers get subsidies from working taxpayers that allow them to keep staff on low hours so they don’t have to pay NI or a living wage. It is also wrong that some have to work 40 hours to earn what others get in subsidies when working half of that. It creates divisions and resentments that allow governments and the media to play one group against another.

keepingquiet

I have a long 'wish-list' for the country but mainly for me it is about:

Housing, particularly social housing
Education, particularly recruiting and retaining more teachers'
Health, including investment in primary care and prevention
Social care, increasing wages as in the LIb Dem policy

What can RR do to make those things happen, do you think?

ronib

I don’t get it Doodlebug working people need to save money for a decent retirement. No two ways about it. The State Pension alone is insufficient to cover high energy costs and high food prices. So hoarding money otherwise known as saving what you can is going to become more important and not less. There’s no government support for the just managing group of pensioners btw.

I am not defending the government. I am asking what would make people happy, not what will make them complain.

And I have said on this very thread that I support saving and working. I loathe means-testing when it penalises those who work and save. I do, however, support measures that stop people from shielding money from taxation and those that aim to reward workers instead of those who can afford not to work.

What would you like to see in the budget ronib? What would make you happy if it became policy?

I have a long 'wish-list' for the country but mainly for me it is about:

Housing, particularly social housing
Education, particularly recruiting and retaining more teachers'
Health, including investment in primary care and prevention
Social care, increasing wages as in the LIb Dem policy

Allsorts

Keir and Angela giving up politics, otherwise as Smileless has said. Before that I would like a detailed account of how a person on state pension can eat, keep warm and pay bills including clothes and spectacles because we have to buy ours.

Yep. Me too

biglouis

In a time when there is plenty of full time work available in retail, hospitality and other areas I would like to see a stop to people being allowed to work part time and getting propped up by the tax payer via universal credit. If you can afford to work part time, fine but, not on my taxes.

As someone who had depression/anxiety attacks intermittently all my life but still managed to have 2 successful careers, run a business and breeze through the academic system I am extremely dubious about all these young people with "mental health issues" who cannot work. Another group who need to be encouraged to get up off their asses and work.

Totally agree. I did mention this in one of my previous posts.

So many good things suggested here. I know this is not a budget item, but I would love it if it were made mandatory for all MPs to live for two weeks on the state pension through the coldest two weeks of the year.

I don’t get it Doodlebug working people need to save money for a decent retirement. No two ways about it. The State Pension alone is insufficient to cover high energy costs and high food prices. So hoarding money otherwise known as saving what you can is going to become more important and not less. There’s no government support for the just managing group of pensioners btw.

I would like to see a reintroduction of the dog licence.

We used to have an annual licence to keep our dogs but there was no enforcement and so it was scrapped. There are so many dogs now whose owners seem to have little idea of how to care for or train them. A licence with the money raised going towards running obedience and care classes would be welcome.

And then of course a positive step towards sorting out all the social injustices mentioned upthread wouldn’t go amiss either. Above all I’d like a clear plan that didn’t result in yet more petty backbiting - and I really do not care one iota what Rachel Reeves is wearing that day.

Thanks for the opportunity to say so Doodledog.

Maggiemaybe

I’d like to see a massive focus on public transport. Working towards making it ubiquitous, reliable and affordable to get rid of our reliance on cars would bring benefits, and savings, in so many areas. Free dental care for all children at the very least. School meals brought up to the standard of the Scandinavian countries’. The reinstatement of Sure Start as it was intended to be rather than the watered down version we have now. Yes, all costing money, but for future public health and societal gains.

Also, getting Amazon and other massive multinationals paying their fair share of tax. And a higher rate of tax for the super rich. And much tighter regulation of public works - every single facility repair or “upgrade” round here now seems to call for a year of “consultation” at massive cost followed by at least a year of closure.

We can dream, can’t we?

I like your list. Mine would be the same with the added: much more social housing, not just housing with half a dozen social terrace houses thrown in, re-instatement of WFA for those not on benefits but on low pensions and no rushed green measures which hit ordinary people too hard and too soon.

Why is anyone surprised at me?

I’m nothing if not consistent and have said everything I’ve said on this thread many times before. It’s not about me though. Instead of griping (and goodness knows there are plenty of threads on which to exercise that entitlement) I’d be interested to hear what would make people happy for a change. What’s wrong with that?

eggplant

I would like to see less scrabbling about, grasping and greed. Less pitting people against each other. More community and kindness.

Sorry, off topic I suppose.

No! That is very much on topic. After months of listening to moaning and criticism I am keen to hear more about what the population wants to see happen, rather than complaints about what they don’t.

Smileless2012

I'm surprised at you Doodledog. People are entitled to respond without being accused of nastiness and ignorance and perhaps you should take into account the sheer frustration and disappointment that many are feeling right now.

This!

M0nica

I hope for nothing in this budget, other than survival.

Do you think it’s as bad as that, M0nica? I don’t. I think there has to be a reassessment of what it means to live in the UK, and if we want that to mean that we have a fair society in which everyone can flourish then those who are used to being subsidised will have to start paying. At one end that means stopping things like credits for not working, so that people can’t get the same amount for a 16 hour week as for a 40 hour one, while their neighbours get up every morning to do a full day at work. At the other it means making employers pay decent wages instead of relying on taxpayers to fund their profits.

It means finding ways to stop a few people from hoarding money whilst others haven’t got enough to live on.

Personally I’d like to see that achieved without squeezing the ‘squeezed middle’ more than usual - partly for selfish reasons as I am one of them, but mainly because I don’t want to belong to a society where it is impossible to make a better life by working and saving. Means-testing removes any incentive and I really don’t want to see more of it in the budget.

I realise however that I have asked for this thread to be about hopes, not fears or negativity , so I will stop there.

I’d like to see a massive focus on public transport. Working towards making it ubiquitous, reliable and affordable to get rid of our reliance on cars would bring benefits, and savings, in so many areas. Free dental care for all children at the very least. School meals brought up to the standard of the Scandinavian countries’. The reinstatement of Sure Start as it was intended to be rather than the watered down version we have now. Yes, all costing money, but for future public health and societal gains.

Also, getting Amazon and other massive multinationals paying their fair share of tax. And a higher rate of tax for the super rich. And much tighter regulation of public works - every single facility repair or “upgrade” round here now seems to call for a year of “consultation” at massive cost followed by at least a year of closure.

We can dream, can’t we?

Who would pay for those who can’t though?

No idea, but I don’t see why it should be me if I am already paying for my own care at the full whack.

And if that makes me sound uncaring, well, so be it.

I would like to see less scrabbling about, grasping and greed. Less pitting people against each other. More community and kindness.

Sorry, off topic I suppose.

Whiff I am not suggesting that the disabled should be penalised. I am saying that if people are capable of work they should contribute (financially) to society. That way, those who are not able to do so can be subsidised, eg with decent sick pay and an education system and NHS that caters for us all.

Too many people opt out of contributing and IMO that should be stopped. That doesn’t mean that those who genuinely can’t work should be forced to. The welfare state should provide for anyone who needs it, but for that to happen everyone who can has to contribute to it.

Babs03

I would like to see energy companies and water companies taxed heavily if they put up prices again. Won’t happen I know but hey ho in an ideal world.

Absolutely. And penalties for polluting, too. I’m in favour of the nationalised energy company that is being worked towards, too.

escaped

I'm hoping that protection of the environment won't get ignored, and that funds will be allocated for greener projects to benefit everyone. It all seems to have been forgotten recently.

Yes, that’s a good point. Maybe every application for state funding should have to include a statement of environmental impact (with benchmarks for evaluation and penalties for not meeting targets) before it can be considered?

I would like to see energy companies and water companies taxed heavily if they put up prices again. Won’t happen I know but hey ho in an ideal world.

Calendargirl

Speaking as someone who will end up using savings to fund nursing home care if that ever becomes necessary, (I hope not), I would like to think that I wouldn’t be paying extra to subsidise those who get the same care for nothing.

Why should self funders pay more?

Agreed. 100%.

Who would pay for those who can’t though? A budget has to think that through, and I just don’t know. Short of bringing back workhouses what do we do to make social care fairer?

BigBopper

I hope that on the day of the budget, Dr Who would gather up all the Labour party in the Tardis and dump them all on the moon.

I’d like a free dose of hallucinogenics too - just so I can say I’ve tried them 😂. In my anti-democratic fantasy it would be an entirely different group of people who would find themselves Moon-bound, but we can all dream. Is this a matter for the budget though?