UK Budget 2015

[TheTaurenOrc]

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

[GennGreymane]

Looks alright, issue to me is how the education focused ones can lead to U.S styled issues

[Rend Blackhand]

So happy about sunday trading laws in England and Wales. Shit man, you ever ran out of milk on a Sunday? It's a full on crisis!

[Deleted]

I think it has been very surprising for a lot of people, we were really expecting some much more severe cuts with the goal of getting every "painful" change he intends in the next 5 years out immediately so he can increase spending to build popularity in 2018/2019. Instead he's extended his deficit reduction target from 2 years to 3 years so he can spread it out much more comfortably.

Ideologically I'm all for this budget - aiming to increase the earnings of the lowest paid while supporting the middle class "aspirational" class.

[Deleted]

TUC Research: Middle income hit hardest by new budget: https://www.tuc.org.uk/economic-issu...largest-losses

a) it's the TUC - hugely politically motivated and biased
b) that article is from THREE DAYS BEFORE THE BUDGET /facepalm. we found out almost no details about the budget until today so at the best it's guesswork, at the worst complete slander

[Deleted]

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.

A, I don't know how it is exactly in the UK, but here many people study shit that is useless, for no point other than to live on the student money for a few years, I'm NOT saying they are moochers, but many people are lead to study just 'because' - this can be problematic.
As for the other underlined, are those related? - because if you close loopholes, it is not unreasonable to to cut the taxes so as to keep the same revenue.

- - - Updated - - -

a) it's the TUC - hugely politically motivated and biased
b) that article is from THREE DAYS BEFORE THE BUDGET /facepalm we found out almost no details about the budget until today so it's at the best guesswork, at the worst complete slander

Yes, but you see, they are Clairvoyant that's why they could write that piece in negative three days.

[TheTaurenOrc]

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

Horrible.

Its a £6,000 cut at the worse, but look at the average earnings:



People, including those on the benefits, have been saying for years why go work a 40 hour a job (and probably incur additional travel expenses) when you earn barely more than you get on welfare?

I think this is a great move to get more people, who are capable of working, out of the system.

[Rend Blackhand]

This government will be succeeded by a socialist / labour government that will make sure all the cuts will be undone again.

A total collapse of Greece will cripple any credibility that socialist/anti-austerity parties will have in the future. It's looking more and more likely these days.

[TheTaurenOrc]

This is usually a sign wages should be increased... not that welfare should get cut.

Which is also being done, a 10% rise in the minimum wage by 2016 and 38% by 2020.

[Puremallace]

lol do you guys not see how bad it is over here in the US

" • Student grants for poor young people to be axed and replaced with loans""

^ How is that remotely a good idea?

[Deleted]

This government will be succeeded by a socialist / labour government that will make sure all the cuts will be undone again.

All 3 Labour candidates in the UK are centre-right, have already confirmed they support the government's deficit reduction plan and will not revert it.

There is no viable socialist candidate in the UK for 2020, 2020 Labour is going to be far further to the right than 2015 Labour. (fun fact the most popular liberal party in 2020 is likely to be UKIP and the most popular socialist party is likely to be Green)

[Rend Blackhand]

Why? The governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, recently explained that Greece was in this shit because of austerity and predicts the same will happen to other european governments that seek to hurt the purchasing power of the lower and middle class.

Refusing to make substantial cuts in order to pay off debt means soon your debt will be unaffordable and you will go bankrupt.

You wouldn't max out your credit card every month if you couldn't afford it and just cover it with borrowing. Countries are the same, it doesn't work.

[Deleted]

I'm not sure who is getting this magical 24k a year in the north east but I know a family of 3 in that area getting 15k a year inc housing benefits and they do not seem to be exactly living the high life... I think most people assume people on benefits are having a good time and that simply is not the case.

I would dare say most of them would very much like to be in work if our country was not devoid of opportunity in part due to the lack of infrastructure and investment in the North and in part due to migrant workers from the EU. (No I'm not anti-EU before anyone asks I'm very pro-EU I just am not blind to the problem's it creates at home when half the country is essentially economically ignored for 45 years).

[Stormdash]

lol do you guys not see how bad it is over here in the US

" • Student grants for poor young people to be axed and replaced with loans""

^ How is that remotely a good idea?

Unless there's an orchard round back of Parliament where you can go pick money, how is it a bad idea?

[Deleted]

lol do you guys not see how bad it is over here in the US

" • Student grants for poor young people to be axed and replaced with loans""

^ How is that remotely a good idea?

It's only the removal of government grants which make up a tiny proportion of total grants to students. Universities will still provide the majority of grants to the poor.

[BloodyAngel12]

Unless there's an orchard round back of Parliament where you can go pick money, how is it a bad idea?

The grant was money you never had to pay back, they now want you to use loans and be in even more student debt when you leave higher education.

[Deleted]

lol do you guys not see how bad it is over here in the US

" • Student grants for poor young people to be axed and replaced with loans""

^ How is that remotely a good idea?

It's only the removal of government grants which make up a tiny proportion of total grants to students. Universities will still provide the majority of grants to the poor.

It's also worth noting that the 2010-2015 government drastically reduced the rate at which you need to pay back on student loans and increased the earnings threshold you need to have before you even start to pay a penny.

[Ivanstone]

Refusing to make substantial cuts in order to pay off debt means soon your debt will be unaffordable and you will go bankrupt.

You wouldn't max out your credit card every month if you couldn't afford it and just cover it with borrowing. Countries are the same, it doesn't work.

What if you had numerous dependents? Do you starve them? Make them walk around naked in the snow and rain? Do you get rid of them?

David Cameron has ~60 million children to clothe and feed. His new children might get violent and start breaking things if he screws up.

The personal finance analogy is terrible. It has no comparison to government finances. The government is expected to invest in the people it governs so that in the future they may provide usefully to the country at large.

[Rend Blackhand]

What if you had numerous dependents? Do you starve them? Make them walk around naked in the snow and rain? Do you get rid of them?

David Cameron has ~60 million children to clothe and feed. His new children might get violent and start breaking things if he screws up.

The personal finance analogy is terrible. It has no comparison to government finances. The government is expected to invest in the people it governs so that in the future they may provide usefully to the country at large.

Racking up massive debts is irresponsible and sustainable. You have to trim expenditure, tax rises would be unpopular and won;t work just by itself

[Ivanstone]

Racking up massive debts is irresponsible and sustainable. You have to trim expenditure, tax rises would be unpopular and won;t work just by itself

Diminishing a nation's ability to generate money is arguably more irresponsible.

For example, consider road maintenance. The government has an interest in keeping communities connected because this allows them to generate money. The additional money created by inter-connectivity creates more tax money which is then used to eventually pay down debts incurred by road maintenance. This is important when you consider that road maintenance may involve heavy expenditures (enabled by taking on debt) like building bridges.

Consider what's happened in Greece. What Greece's debtors have demanded that all road maintenance to stop because they must stop spending money. It can't maintain structures that allow it make money which is why their economy has collapsed.