Today’s Budget – how positive was it really?

The Chancellor was caught between a rock and a hard place. There are no easy solutions and he did just about as well as could be expected. However, as a 76 year-old pensioner I do have a couple of grumbles.

1. Why do increases like petrol duty, cigarettes etc., come in immediately, yet most benefits are withheld until the next financial year in April 2012?

2. Why does the proposed OAP target apply only to new pensioners and not existing ones? It doesn’t seem quite fair.

The consultation about merging National Insurance and Income Tax must focus particularly on pensioners who up to now have not had to pay any more national insurance. If the two “taxes” merge, then pensioners must be given an allowance equivalent to the amount of national insurance which non-pensioners with equivalent incomes would have to pay. This is a thorny issue and it is surprising that the Chancellor did not indicate first thoughts on how some kind of allowance for pensioners would be structured. The whole idea of National Insurance was that those of working age would support the rest so that benefits, medical provision and pensions would be funded. Clearly however the sums might not be adding up as more of the population are living longer.

The increase in personal allowance this year is ignoring the previous law (known I beleive as the Booker/Wise amendment), which said that the allowance should be increased each year in line with the cost of living index.
Then the £1000 increase should be applied.
Are we being fooled ?

Every one agrees that measures to control the spiralling debt were required, but as soon as it affects them, they squeal, aided by the media. Are we able to “have help” across the board? I think not, it should be saved for the hardest up. I believe that in spite of his smug appearance and the fact there’s a lot more pain down the road, G. Osborne has got it largely right – except in encouraging students to run up massive debts for jobs that aren’t there. We have to get away from Credit Culture and become more self-sufficient, particularly in food and energy, even if it means a drop in living standards.

Inflation is out of control and the treasury know it which is why the inflation proof National savings were withdrawn. Time to stop printing money. The carbon tax is idiotic and will just contribute to increasing inflation and driving unemployment up by making us less competitive. We will import goods from countries that aren’t buying into this idiocy so our carbon footprint won’t change.
The spending cuts are going much too slowly.

I will need some convincing that 10% of ones estate, balances a 10% reduction of inheritance tax – to 36%? – of taxable estate? Some clarification required, I think.

I was interested in the chancellors comments about simplifying the tax system. As pensioners my husband and I found this to be the humorous part of the budget, especially as we are among the many that for one reason and another will be expected to pay, so called underpayment of taxes for four years ago. Surely it is not only we the public who need to understand the current tax but it may help staff at H M R C get it right first time, thus saving on administration costs to them and anguish and despair to working class pensioners.

wow, a 1p reduction in fuel duty. I can really see my £1.50 saving a month boosting the economy. Personally, I’d have kept it as it was to force those who drive more to change the way they drive instead of moaning about high fuel prices!

How about an EU-wide tax and duty on airline fuel?

On £97 a week – I will not benefit from the minimum tax hike – so no £600 increase – but I suffer all the price rises. In fact as expected I will suffer under the New Tories as I did under the old Tories.

The winter fuel allowance is to be reduced – so my chances of death by hypothermia will be increased. Still second hand blankets are cheap.

The proposed rise to £140 for pensioners will not apply to me – somehow I’m being blamed for the crisis – so will have to suffer the gradual reduction of my state pension – just as I had to for the last 15 years..

I do hope the coalition is disbanded very soon – they are useless.

Not sure how it will affect me.

I currently own a house but am renting it out. My impression is that I would be better off to use the equity in it to buy a house here, so I would get better rates if I was remortgaging.

Or with this new scheme from the government, would I be better off selling my house outright and then buying a new one as a first time buyer?

Based on the bigger picture, generally refered to the “age of austerity” and the nationwide economic implications of this due to previous decisions by other governments, for all of the sufferings presently (and yes, I’ll be one who will also be paying the price for our current economic chaos) I think Osbourne has done very well.

Am I better off?
No, not really.

However, having been fortunate enough to have an hour of explanations from a top-notch economic expert some months ago, I feel that in the face of the enormity of financial crisis this country faces, we’ve been let off lightly.

Just got it

The governments shared equity scheme is basically what Northern Rock did a few years ago to help people get a 100% or more mortgage.

The mortgage is within the LTV amount, the rest is given in an unsecured loan, which you pay off when you house supposedly goes up in value and you move.

^ the fact that the taxpayer must be squeezed to create more jobs in the public sector outside of london due to the economic imbalances in this country.

These jobs are now going and so they have to redress the national economic imbalance, step forward HS2!!!

I am retired and live off of pensions and investment income, on which I pay tax. What worries me is that the proposed merge of NIC and income tax will cost people like me who are not employed, a great deal of money. I am resigned to baling out the banks and the profligate through artificially depressed interest rates, but having seen my income drop by a third in the past year because of that, I do not wish to also recommence paying NIC.

£100m to help with potholes? So what are councils likely to do with their slice of the handout? Only pay the same companies who have let the roads get into the mess their in now. Seems a waste of a perfectly good £100m to me. Maybe the chancellor should spend the money on implementing a simple system so people can keep an eye on the cowboy road maintenance companies, cos councils aren’t.

Thank you Ian Robinson for your helpful comment above. Feel a bit better than I did.

The Government want to reduce bureaucracy in pension calculation but propose to make the change for future pensioners but not existing. At the same time they are planning to increase the age at which the State pension is drawn.

Are they complete idiots or is it just spin and will be quietly dropped?

There are far more currently receiving a pension than those who will receive it in the foreseeable future so this will increase bureaucracy. Especially as the dreaded “died in service” will return reducing the number of future pensioners.

Once again the pensioners are left in the lurch, everything rises except their pensions. We pay out more to legal & illegal immigrants. We should pull out of the EU the money we would save would pay off out debts in no time.

As a “pensioner” on £70.00 per week state pension who earned at the most £15000 per annum by working six days a week including evenings and weekends, I have to empathise with Richard above, only of course I have to continue working for a minimum wage. I feel very angry about pensioners who complain that they only have £22000 a year to live on. On that amount I’d have had a charmed life.

A Budget without a ballanced pain distribution would be foolish. My enduring worry is “what would Labour have done to fund the exchequer without weakening the spirit of their electorate?” After all, on who’se watch did the Financial Metdown happen. Who advised all the Labour Councils to place their Funds in the Icelandic Banks – to dissappear into the Ether a few years later?
The massive Debt must be closed as soon as practibly possible, but the wealthiest must also contribute.
And it must not happen again!! I love my Pension and want to be able to enjoy it as well as the next Family. I hope my sore comments do not offend the innocent, or the less so. But draw COMMENT.