Budget

[rov1200]

Help for the lower paid???

A £1000 increase in their tax allowance...so far so good

Vat going up by 2.5% to 20%
Child benefit frozen for 3 years

As most of the lower paid earnings are spent on consumables won't they be worse off?

[jake-the-peg]

Yes Baz If we stopped giving foreign aid to the poorest people in the world we could get rid of our defecit in Ooh about 100 years

Providing nobody charged us interest

That money is very useful in buying us influence in areas of the world of strategic importance.

It educates people who would otherwise find schooling with millitants.

[modeller]

Trapped Darling was going to cut by 20% and Osborne has said 25% what would you do that's different .

[jake-the-peg]

Darling was going to postpone these cuts until the economy had recovered enough to take it.

These cuts now will force job losses in the public sector AND in the private sector as public sector contracts get cancelled.

There are few jobs right now for those people to go into so Osbourne will end up paying them dole.

Comapnies scraping by on government contracts or supplying goods and services to those larger ones will go under

You can't suddenly yank a huge chunk of money out of the economy and think there won't be consequences.

Geoffrey Howe did it and the result was the '81 recession

Seems Osbourne's History degree isn't helping him much

[Gromit]

I predict a riot!

Howe's March '81 austerity budget was followed soon after by riots in Brixton, Leeds, Leeds, Moss Side and Toxteth.

Better not cut Police jobs just yet...

[sandyRoe]

Has the price of drink and cigarettes gone up?

[boxtops]

Not from what I've seen on the TV sandyroe, said cigs fuel and drink are not affected. Could be wrong!

[sandyRoe]

Then it's not an austerity budget as far as I'm concerned. :-)

[ABerrant]

"Seems Osbourne's History degree isn't helping him much"

...and Brown's History degree left us in this mess.

[sandyRoe]

I have a history degree too. Was never much use but it was fun getting it, as I remember

[trapped]

modeller , Jake has answered your question

[modeller]

No he hasn't #trapped #. He has said what he wouldn't do not what he would.
We have a debt of 228 billion and every week you leave it that debt increases by a few more million . Its a bit like having a morgage and not paying the interest the debt doubles every few shares . So if you wait for growth in the economy you will never pay off the morgage .
Don't take my word for it , that is what the IMF says and also France and Germany . So if you know better you are obviously in the wrong job .
I don't know the answer but saying as # jake# does what he would not do is no help at all.
So# trapped # would you not make any cuts at all ? What would you do instead ?

[modeller]

# doubles every few years #

[modeller]

Well # trapped # where's your answer . It's no good waiting for jake he doesn't know either.
Let me help you our debt is over 200 billion and the interest next year will be 40 billion and the year after that another 48 billion and the next year a further 58 billion and so on.
So if you wait 3 years for the economy to pick up we owe about 350 billion.

http://www.thisislond...ments-debt-doubles.do

[Thunderchild]

well the extra £200 I will get paid each year equates to 1.3% and VAT is going up by 2.5% poorest not being hit hard ? yes food will go up regardless, petrol and a million other VAT related excuses (yes most will be excuses) will make sure anything goes up by at least 5%. If they had upped the non taxable income by £3'000 I'd be as well off as i was before

[trapped]

modeller cutting jobs now is going to put more people on the dole, more people will then be claiming benefits. They will have less money to spend.
You think that is right ?

[trapped]

This is happening up and down the country

http://www.dailymail....ejected-200-jobs.html

[modeller]

I agree with you trapped and I don't like it anymore than you do , but that is my
whole point what can a government do.? It's no good saying we don't like it and this enormous debt problem should be solved in a different way , but unless we have a better idea we have got make the best of a bad situation.
Ireland has already done much of what Osborne has announced today and Greece has been told they have to follow suit . Most of Europe is in the same mess but our debt is the highest as a proportion of GDP but unlike Greece we have the
infrastructure and culture to solve the crisis.
I am not political so I'm not apportioning blame, however I was in business and I know you don't solve a problem by hoping things will get better before doing anything about it.

[New Judge]

Just considering Income Tax and VAT, someone earning £12,000 pa currently has a net income after tax and NI of about £10,895. This will rise by £200 when the tax threshold goes up.

If they spend £8,000 of their disposable income on items subject to VAT (a generous figure because food is zero rated) their VAT bill will increase by about £170.

The break-even figure (where additional spend on VAT exceeds the £200 income tax gain) is on a spend of about £9,500.