2006 Budget - Am i better off?

benedictadams

I'm £55 a year better off which should cancel out the council tax increase

pault123

I'm £21,000 a year worse off

Gordon's budget has just cost me my job.

By scrapping HCI (Home Computing Initiative - https://www.dti.gov.uk/hci) without warning or consultation, he has just wrecked the businesses and jobs of hundreds of those working in this area. The hundreds of thousands of those who took advantage of HCI to obtain low cost computer equipment - which was targeted at the low paid and until today was tax free - have now been betrayed and will have to pay the tax they previously did not.

Is it any wonder people don't trust politicians?

Apart from staff saving National insurance, tax and VAT through buying a pc through their gross salary; companies saved up to £192 over 3 years in National Insurance through a reduced gross salary bill.

Gordon in his many ways of making ends meet has decided £64 a year companies would have saved by offering their staff a fantastic benefit, improving IT skills, staff morale, motivation etc. is outweighed by the fact he could have...

up to £64 per year x number of PAYE staff in UK that take part in a HCI scheme in his back pocket...

...doesn't really seem like a surefire way to increase his budget kitty does it?

Education and schools is so important in this budget Brown has decided pc's play no part in education, homework and a computer literate nation. No £64 is too much for a company to be saving in National Insurance.

Over 30 Staff at my company lost their jobs today

Alleycat

Oh, I am so sorry to hear your news. I don't really know what to say, just that I hope you and your colleagues are able to find new jobs quickly and move on from the sorry mess.

oops_a_daisy

OMG PaulT sorry to hear that news - did you know it was coming ?

Im £100.00 better off per year due to tax and fuel changes

pault123

Hey thanks for support.

No idea it was on the agenda. The DTI and Office of fair trade who play a part in it didn't even know. Revenue and Customs give the tax allowance for staff and Brown has stopped it there.

Just told earlier tonight its been scrapped, take a look at all the companies here who may fold >>

http://www.ukhomecomputing.co.uk/providerPartners.asp

and here>>>

http://www.ukhomecomputing.co.uk/partners.asp

A lot of the companies are purely HCI providers and that is there core and only line of business

Alleycat

Have they given a deadline as to when you will be laid off? Is there much opportunity to find alternative work in your field? I do really hope everything works out okay for you.

D&DD

Oh Paul I'm so sorry to hear your news do you know when it'll happen? Are there many openings around where you're based? Best of luck finding something

Ali-OK

Really sorry to hear your news Paul, makes my £46.06 a year worse off seem very trivial.

Slippery lot have upped NI AGAIN! I gain £3 a month on the tax front, lose £5 on NI, lose £5 on car tax and then the petrol in Sept.

Child tax credit goes up £2 a month, but am I right in saying Child Benefit remains as is?

pault123

The date when this comes into affect as far as i'm aware in April 6th this year! But there will be no point carrying on for the next 2 weeks as we can't take on any new companies.

I was very happy in the job and don't have a clue what to do now.

I'll keep you updated I get the official word on it tomorrow, as in the DTI, OFT and even Ge-cat arn't aware of it. But The Revenue always tend to have the final say :-/

K9cuddles

Wohoo!! You will be £33.19 better off in the next year as a result of the Budget.