The Poolie Bunker

With news coming out about the possible cut to the ISA allowance and that anyone in Bands F, G and H could be hit with an increase in council tax, is there anything else you are dreading:

(1) Milk Shake Tax

Anything that is directed and targeted towards pension schemes and pensioners.

Make The State Pension tax free.

Fully agree.

Also replace council tax with a percentage of your income, the same as income tax.
Not on the value of your home.

An interesting vlog about the bond markets and how budgets affect it,
https://youtu.be/yQxHqtm8V60?si=Abif0gCIj_G1YyPP

and no doubt the UK will be downgraded for growth in 2026!

An increase in benefits is predicted….looks like he’s appeasing his rebellious idealists.

Remember…..

It's going to be a shocker, more increases in Minimum Wage and Living Wage - still can't understand how the State Pension can be less than the Living Wage mind. More businesses will be stopping recruitment and laying staff off.

The benefits of raising the Living and Minimum Wage is for more revenue for the government in N.I, contributions and Income Tax, theoretically it should stop people claiming benefits as they will be above the threshold for claiming benefits allegedly but some will keep their hours to a minimum so they don’t pass the threshold for claiming benefits.Increasing the wages could make employers reluctant to take on more staff as you say. It has been said pensioners don’t need as much money as working people need to pay for transport etc to get to work although we pay the same for food utilities etc.
When she says the State Pension is going to rise by over £500 a year she forgets to mention anyone on the old State Pension will not receive that much plus the rise is based on the Triple Lock not a budget give away. With the new rise it will push the State Pension alone for some above the Income Tax threshold plus a private pension will be taxed at the full 20%.

This joke ‘Governmen’s’ responses to most things are beyond the understanding of most as we know them.
Loony Tunes.

Some people are forgetting that before the 14 years of the Tory's gaining power and finding the infamous note at the Treasury "there is no money" we had 13 vears of Labour during which time they robbed private pension funds and sold off the National Gold Reserves leaving us close to broke as a nation.
The Tory's inherited an absolute financial disaster and rather than tax people more and more introduced austerity which meant severe cuts in spending, painful as it was this actually got the economy back on track, and despite COVID and one of the worlds most generous support schemes for businesses and employees, at the time of the GE we had the highest economic growth in Europe.
Now 16 months on the economy is crashing with almost zero growth, increasing unemployment on a month by month trend, businesses going bust, and the so called black hole growing again, with record levels of taxation, etc
They've done way more damage in a short time than any government in living memory.

And don’t forget Uncle Tony’s warlike adventures into the Middle East.

on the whole most of it will be like the ones before when you need to be a trained accountant or banker to understand most of it. most of us will be more interested and know what the 2p on fags, fuel duty and beer is all about. hope i,m correct saying that after all the doom and gloom talk for the last few weeks the budget will not hurt the average man in the street as bad as we thought.

How much growth was there, The UK economy in 2024 is marked by a period of very slow growth and wage stagnation since 2010, a significant shift from the pre-2010 era, with GDP per person growing slowly and productivity lagging behind. While there was a jobs boom in the 2010s, it didn't translate to real wage increases, and the period has been characterized by historically low interest rates followed by high debt and interest payments, and a decline in goods trade despite being a major services exporter. next to nowt, slow and stagnant growth: The period from 2010 to 2024 has seen the slowest real wage growth in over 200 years, with overall GDP growth at a modest average of \(1.5\%\) per year between 2010 and 2023.
TBH the U.K. has been in the doldrums for years since the decline in the engineering, ship building and mining industries etc. Blair tried to change it with his education education policy which all that did was produce losds of worthless degrees and debt for the students.
You forgot to mention Truss’s very short tenure which did more damage to the U.K. economy than Labour has done in 18 months PTID, you have a short memory.

I've generalised the last Labour government which almost bankrupted the country "there's no money", and the last 14 years of the Tory's being in power at the end of which the UK had the highest economical growth of all European nations. They're the facts regardless of your selected snapshots of almost 30 years.
Thatcher started the demise of British industry when she took on the unions with her sledgehammer tactics, this was then continued and accelerated by posh boy Blair who decided degrees in any mode up ology was preferable to manufacturing. In doing so Blair divorced New Labour from it's founding principles of being the workers party.
The most unpopular PM and Chancellor in history in 16 months following a landslide election victory says it all. Growth stagnant, taxes at historic highest levels, the usual and frequent strikes, benefits up, cost of living up, highest energy bills in the world, unemployment rising monthly, etc - none of it Labours fault of course.

Income tax thresholds frozen for extra three years beyond 2028!

A disgrace!

That will make it 10 years of frozen tax thresholds by 2031.

A freeze on tax rates for horse racing is welcome.

Online casinos, rate doubled.

Online sports betting rise from 15% to 25% in 2027

Those who play online casinos needs to be locked up.
Or even better, online casinos closed down.

Funding worth £13bn for seven regional mayors has been announced to invest in skills, business support and infrastructure.

I wonder how much of that will be wasted!!!

Two child benefit cap to be scrapped.

And £12,000 max each year for your ISA, unless 65 or over, £20,000 limit still.

Tax threshold hold staying the same till 2031 meaning more tax, to me a hidden tax !

Properties in England worth more than £2m to face a council tax surcharge of between £2,500-£7,500, following a revaluation of homes in bands F, G and H

Does that apply to any of us?
Highly unlikely I would have thought.
If not, how do you feel about that?

Those on just the state pension will now find a bit of their pension subject to tax over the coming years.

Property, savings and dividends: Increasing the tax rates on dividends, property and savings income by 2 percentage points

Impact on Jamie here with his dividends income?

Pretty much more of the same from her, nothing to boost jobs or encourage businesses. Where were the "those with the broadest shoulders contribute the most" measures?
I think there'll be more protests and more strikes along with higher unemployment and the consequent rise in crime.
Badenoch was very good in her response, looked like Rachel was ready to burst into tears again after being so bouyant at the despatch box.

I drew this as she talked…

She's dead keen to keep putting the minimum wage up, due to the fact that it doesn't cost her a penny but she gets 20p for every extra pound somebody else has to pay. Not bad business that.

Doesn't work if it results in more job losses and therefore less tax take.

What about the chaos caused by the budget being leaked 35 minutes before the Queen of Okey Cokey takes the stage.
Markets going up and down like a bride's nightie. When they can't get the presentation of the budget right, what can they be trusted with.

The media seemed to have overlooked (or don't understand) the changes announced to capital allowances - yet another disincentive/ hidden tax increase. Raises a billion next year - by increasing the corporation tax take.

I could not tire of slapping any of the Labour front bench.

Stock market up and bond market interest rates down.That keeps the economy steady. The minimum wage is a policy pushed by all Govts.

Didn't Rishi increase corporation tax rates from 19% to 25%? S much bigger impact ......

Nine below zero Mr Foot? Can we afford to go after this budget.......

Thankfully we bought the tickets before Rachel decided to go on her Back Bench Sponsored Spending Spree!

Please don't wear your Fabian Society T shirt. And I promise not to regurgitate everything that Geoff Buttle taught us in A Level Economics.

Looking forward to Nine Below Zero - mind, that could be a measure of Starmer's popularity rating......

been like that for me for a number of years now due to the extra add ons i receive. its all made worse by them not taking the tax off at source like it was all my working life. they send me a bill but i have not paid one yet. know they,ll catch ip with me in the end but will have to accept some weekly amount being paid straight out of my pension.

[quote="Stocksfield_Poolie"]Two child benefit cap to be scrapped.

there will be big celebrations amongst the workshy and our muslim mates because of that. mind you its a way to get votes from a couple of sections of the country.

Was thinking the same thing, large familes and all that. Some of them will now be set to rake it in!

its not going up that much and any job losses will be from either greedy firms or those who are really struggling to keep afloat which is usually in the hospitality sector. Firms who cannot or refuse to pay decent wages should not be in business and there would be no need for a government to decide the minimum they can pay that becomes the maximum in some areas.

You don't get more people into work by increasing costs for businesses and hiking benefits.
I'm sure there'll be plenty who lose their jobs in the coming months ruing the increase in NMW and LW. Better to be low paid than unpaid surely?
Fewer businesses, less jobs, higher wages for those in work, higher taxes for those in work - yep the futures rosy.

take benefits out of it surely we do not want a country living on poverty wages just to keep the profits rolling in for many businesses who could easily pay more. [t riles me when firms say they made losses on previous years but still come out with millions of quid profits. we have no option but reign in our spending so why should a business be any different. as the unions have less power today many firms would take advantage by paying workers as little as possible without government interferance especially in areas of large unemployment.

HMRC don’t send me a bill, they calculate my tax, i now pay tax on my SP, they then contact Legal and General and tell them what amount is left over from my allowance which is zero, Land General deduct 20% from my private pension.

This 3p per mile for EV's is a proper swindle. 10,000 miles incurs an extra £300 per year, so an effective rise in road fund tax. If she had said she was putting up car tax by £300 there would be hell on. As Reps do extraordinary mileage it is another hit on company costs if they have an EV. Bound to make people pause before choosing to go electric.
Also the threshold freeze increase by three years will mean the ordinary working person will pay more tax due to fiscal drag. The manifesto pledge of not putting up tax rates has been maintained but only by a play on words when a person looks at his or her tax payment and see that their tax burden HAS gone up.
She said after the last budget she would not be coming for more. £26 BILLION is obviously not more in her book. Does anybody believe a word she says.
Hit the taxpayer who is contributing to the coffers and increase the welfare burden, giving more money to those who won't contribute. I don't begrudge the people who genuinely need the benefit but I'm sure we all know a scrounger or two, not to mention illegal invaders. Notice no mention of that burden on society. Maybe that the rising of their numbers is where this government sees the growth they harp on about, cos there is no growth anywhere else.
Obviously not a budget for job creation and a job cutting economy is a stagnant economy with little or no growth.

A 2% increase in tax to 22% for normal tax payers from interest on savings and income from property, as well as dividends.

So those who have saved, bought a rental property, invested in shares etc with their already taxed money are now being extra hit!
And of course as derwent mentions, the freeze on the tax thresholds is another tax rise by the back door.

And of course, the question is where is all our taxes going, what are they being spent on?
Oh I know, illegal immigrants and scroungers who will now be rewarded by having 3 kids or more, to name just a couple!

Do you remember the days when Chancellors used to announce the raising of tax thresholds and the taking of millions of people out of taxation all together to loud cheers all around? This Government wants everyone to submit a tax return and pay tax. Very progressive socialism. I don't see Starmer and Reeves surviving after the May elections.

The state pension should be tax free but that is never going to happen! And I mean giving it as a tax free income, so if you have a private pension, that will only be taxed above the threshold amount.

Those on low wages have been hit hard, the raising of the tax thresholds should rise by at least inflation, anything less and the government are robbing the people who pay their wages!

Shocking!

It would be less than ninr

If more businesses stop hiring or go out of business, wheres the money going to come from to pay their increasing benefits? Oh I know just tax those businesses and individuals who are earning and so the downward spiral continues.
Spending money you don't have on benefits may be popular as a political move but it's economical madness.
When did Starmer's number 1 priority change from Growth to raising children out of poverty btw? And as the increased taxes affect everyone, many just above the poverty line will of course be dragged into it.
This is the guy who insisted he was going to clean out the swamp of Westminster and restore trust in politics, the guy is as big a liar as Boris.

Watching PMQs then the budget statement was great theatre far better than anything else you see on TV.

The highlight for me was when some bloated MP went ballistic when he realised that the Mansion tax that he is now going to have to pay will in part go to the funding of taking some children out of poverty.

But the whole thing is now yesterdays chip paper just like all the ones in the past.

Of course it was Jamie…funny how that period was when the Tory’s were in charge…your red underpants are showing, pull em up.