So George unveiled the new budget today; what are your first impressions?
Personally I think it has a lot of good reforms; higher minimum wage, tax cuts for the working class and lower middle classes, closing tax loopholes and moderate cut backs on welfare. I am not happy about the cut to student grants and corporation tax cuts.
Some of the key points of the budget:
• A new National Living Wage will force employers to pay £7.20-an-hour to over-25s from April 2016, rising to £9 by 2020
• Britain will not be back in surplus until 2019-20, a year later than planned
• Another £37billion needed to balance the books, including £5billion from tax avoidance, £17billion from spending cuts and £12billion from welfare reforms
• Amount workers can earn before paying income tax to rise to £11,000 next year, before reaching £12,500 by 2020
• 40p tax rate to rise to £43,000 in 2016, taking 130,000 people out of higher rate
• Top rate of tax for those on £150,000 will not be cut from 45p
• Pension tax relief for people on more than £150,000 to be reduced
• Working age benefits frozen for four years from 2016-17
• Amount families can claim in benefits to be cut from £26,000 to to £23,000 in London and the South East, and £20,000 a year in the rest of the country
• Child tax credits limited to the first two children in any family
• 18-21-year-olds to lose jobless benefits under 'earn or learn' scheme
• Public sector pay to increase by only 1 per cent for four years from 2016-17
• Rents for social housing cut by 1 per cent every year for four years
• Corporation tax cut to 18 per cent by 2020
• Tax relief for wealthy buy-to-let landlords to be cut
• BBC to fund £650million bill for free TV licences for the over-75s
• Inheritance tax allowance to rise to £1million for family homes, paid for by a tax raid on the pensions of the rich
• A major clampdown on tax avoidance, including scrapping temporary 'non-dom' status
• Student grants for poor young people to be axed and replaced with loans
• Shops to be able to open for longer on Sundays to boost trade
• Road tax overhaul creates £140 flat fee, while fuel duty is frozen
• £30million to speed up adoption of children in council care
• Defence budget to rise 0.5 per cent above inflation every year, to meet Nato target to spend 2 per cent of GDP
• £10,000 annual payment to holders of the George and Victoria Cross