Cameron makes savings tax pledge

casper_uk

emweaver wrote: »

Its not i havent chosen to, but after all our outgoings we have nothing left to save. Were

Is there not any outgoings you could cut back on? For instance your internet connection, could you go on a lower package or even phone them to have a moan about the price you are paying! Sometimes works in getting a reduction

There will always sadly be people that just can not save through no fault of their own but I kind of agree with nickmason. I think there are an awful lot of people that could save if they wanted to but have lived so long on credit and buy tat they don't really need they just don't want to change and save.* Am sure people now see mobiles, takeaway food, expensive clothes, makeup and plasma tv's etc as essential items that they couldn't live without

(*not directed at you emweaver or anyone else on this thread!)

louiser123

i can honestly say i have never yet seen one of my students dressed in expensive clothes, wearing expensive jewelery, or sporting tack, as it has been put. maybe i am biased as i see these people everyday, decent hard working people who are just trying to make the best of what they have, and to make ends meet. maybe i would view things the same if i didnt work in the job i haveand see it first hand, it is very unfair to presume that every one who is living on the breadline is doing so because they are up to the eyes in debt through buying rubbish they can do without.
i would actually say take a walk in those peoples shoes/or walk amongst them for a while and i bet your views would dramatically change.

i supose it has to be seen sometimes to be believed.

PasturesNew

The main problem as a low earner is that through your life there are so many changes that happen that it's impossible to actually do much for your future.

That's one of the reasons I've got to my age with no pension, because of things that have changed along the way. The way the system has worked. There's never been any reason to save for a pension for me because at first there wasn't any push to get your own pension, then I started one and got laid off a few times in the later 80s so had to stop it and wasn't allowed to just start it again - you had to pay every missed payment and within a strict deadline or they just closed it off, which happened. Which is de-motivational. And then there's the fact you're just trying to get by all the time so there's not much spare cash. And you're taxed on your savings if you do save. And then in came pension credit and it seemed that even if I were to save anything it would never be worth more than pension credit would be paying me as a top up anyway. And then I got a house, then the market dipped and I had a tough X years, and now here I am with an STR pot and quite old, unemployed and jobhunting.

I never really understood ISAs, didn't know they would accumulate over the years, but I spent mine anyway when I bought the house. Once I had the house, I was in/out of work, with wages getting less and less each year and a few months each year I wasn't working, so no way I had any spare cash at all. I think in 2004/2005 I earnt about £8k, with a mortgage the size of a small planet.

Life changes and if you spend it clinging on it's difficult to try to plan any future.

PasturesNew

nickmason wrote: »

how many bloody oxford grads are there on this forum?:eek:

I've counted about 7, I reckon. This is worse than being in the union bar (and for my part - blindfold :cool: )

Not me. I left school with 2 O levels.

PasturesNew

nickmason wrote: »

I really don't want to cause offence, because there might be all sorts of genuine instances of bad luck to explain why you don't have savings. But for most people who don't, the phrase "i'm not lucky enough" isn't appropriate. It's more that they haven't chosen to save.

I don't mean to pick on you - but if you were pick 100 random people to express such an opinion, I reckon the majority would have themselves to blame.

That's what needs to be changed.

The problem with savings is, they get eaten up with emergencies. Like losing your job, or your old car breaking down again, or the boiler packing up.

I went 6 months one winter unable to have hot water or heating because I was quoted £200 for a fix. I only got it fixed 6 months later when something else went wrong in my house and the different man I got in for that offered to have a look and fixed it for £30.

You have to accept that some people just don't have spare cash at all. Mostly from trying to do what is considered to be "the best thing".

Council tax used to be 10% of my take home salary. The rest of my household bills were another 25%.

I ended up having to only look for jobs in my own town to save the cost of travelling 25 miles to the next nearest place there were jobs - because I was thinking if the car broke down I'd be completely unable to get it fixed or get into that job any more.

Lack of money affects your choices and options. It often forces you to make a super-low-risk choice "in case". Also, if you're always going for the cheapest option (because you have to), then those items are often the least reliable. If you have £100 to your name and the boiler breaks, do you spend £100 fixing it for now because that's what you have? Or do you borrow £3000 to get a new one? Tricky .... don't want to get in debt, you fix it and HOPE it'll keep going for X more years. But what if the next year it breaks again at £100 ... just as you had managed to save that £100?

There are sometimes, for some people, no chance of savings.

Fact.

PasturesNew

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

Someone calling himself "Nick Mason" on a board isn't exactly outed if someone else says he is really "Nick Mason" (-:

Who is Nick Mason then?
Never heard of him before this thread.
Is he somebody? Or is that a joke, like somebody being called Fred Flintstone or something?

lokiman

PasturesNew wrote: »

Who is Nick Mason then?
Never heard of him before this thread.
Is he somebody? Or is that a joke, like somebody being called Fred Flintstone or something?

The drummer in Pink Floyd. Somehow, I doubt that it's the same 'Nick Mason'.:rotfl:

Airwolf1

nickmason wrote: »

I really don't want to cause offence, because there might be all sorts of genuine instances of bad luck to explain why you don't have savings. But for most people who don't, the phrase "i'm not lucky enough" isn't appropriate. It's more that they haven't chosen to save.

I don't mean to pick on you - but if you were pick 100 random people to express such an opinion, I reckon the majority would have themselves to blame.

That's what needs to be changed.

I think your statements need re-thinking about here. I left school and got on a YTS scheme - £38pw. If I remember correctly £10 of this was board. Instead of continuing in the career I was in, I changed jobs, as I was offered £100pw by the company next door to where I worked. I then became a self employed roofer, quite a bit of money in this, but had to pack this in due to back trouble. I then got a temp job which led to being permanent in the civil service - £150pw. In all of my early years, I didn't have the opportunity to save.

I had cars that were old, and needed replacing due to this and that going wrong with them. Even now, I can't save, I'm back in the civil service on a relatively low wage, and have another job which supplements the income. The wife is on maternity. I'm on a variable rate mortgage as I don't earn enough (and my self employment can't be included as yet) so paying a bit over the odds on that.

I worked it out that I need to try to put so much away from this April for tax etc, and misc bills, and we're going to have a go at this purely so that if something goes wrong (as Pastures said) we have the money there to get it fixed, rather than borrow or rely on family.

I have an account for my child which won't be touched and hopefully this will build up and help him when he needs it.

Sir_Humphrey

Nick. In order to out someone, it is necessary to hide your identity in the first place. You chose not to do so. Perhaps if Sir John Major posted here under his own name, and someone pointed out that he was the former PM, that would mean he was "outed". As for savers: well I am on about average earnings, and by being fairly frugal stash away the ISA limit per year (for a house deposit). So this would not benefit me. Savers have also had it pretty good for a year or so, so we cannot complain now. What is the moral justification for making a large return for zero risk anyway?

Sapphire

chewmylegoff wrote: »

this is a bit of a hollow offering because most people who are BR tax payers already have significant protection from tax on their savings as they can put £3,600 per year into a cash ISA and pay no tax on their savings anyway.

realistically how many people are going to be saving substantially more than £3,600 per year who are BR tax payers? (and even if they could use up the rest of their ISA allowance by investing in shares or bonds).

good for pensioners living off investments though.

and i agree that it's better than the nonsense VAT cut.

I think it is a good idea for basic rate taxpayers who already have savings – not just those who put £3,600 into an ISA each year. Also, not everyone wants to invest in shares or bonds to use up their ISA allowance – I certainly don't.

It's about the best idea that's come up so far to help 'ordinary' people, and it could certainly be funded by cutting down on wasteful state spending of taxpayers' money on, e.g. very highly paid management consultants, bogus benefits claimants and the like.