The Autumn Statement 2012 – tax, pensions and fuel duty

A small, but important point, folks. Your survey question is ambiguous. Does it mean ‘positive’ in the sense that it will make things better, or does it mean that it will actually impact on personal finances? A better question might be: ‘Do you think the Autumn Statement 2012 will have a positive (good) impact on your finances?’ I suspect the answers will be very different.

We have had profligate over-spending by previous governments, excessive personal borrowing, silly mortgage lending fuelling house price increases, complex disastrous trading by the banks that they did not understand any more than us, and much of the rest of the world facing slowdown in growth.
How do we expect to see a sudden revival in our economy (“shocking” economic growth 0.7%? Try Spain, Greece for shocking. Let’s hope it is 0.7% – at least it is positive). We can’t borrow our way out – that’s how we got in – so must accept a reduced standard of living until we recover.
Most of the Chancellor’s measure seem sensible; £40 000 pa pension contribution with tax concession still seems excessively generous – that’s a big contribution from the rest of society. I’d favour it limited to basic rate tax. But I’d also like to see more fairness generally – not that it would raise much cash, but we would be less irritated by inequity: high payoffs for people who lose jobs through incompetence or inadequacy (redundancy for the rest is very modest – why does the public service treat it differently) and better equality of public v private pensions.
Will I suffer – by cutting back on non-essentials, I suppose that might be suffering but I can cope. Those with small incomes or genuinely in need of benefits may need help – and this is where some redistribution is needed – a problem for a universal benefits system which does not discriminate well between the needy and those less responsible.

Is the personal allowance for the over 65’s to be increased or if not it will be just another hidden backdoor method of hitting pensioners just like there has been in the last few budgets.

I sometimes struggle to continue reading when writers misspell a word. I know that it is a little pedantic of me but “the Chancellor has kicked that to the curb” is meaningless. Surely, as the subject is to do with motoring it should read ‘the Chancellor has kicked that to the kerb’.

Argonaut – as I understand it, the personal tax allowance for 65-74 year olds in 2012-13 is £10 500 up to an income limit of £25 400. Then for every £2 extra income, £1 is deducted from the allowance until it reaches the basic £8105. This basic allowance will increase in the next year or two, but the age related one will not, until they are equal.