Who is going to Blog the Budget for us?

Generali

StevieJ wrote: »

One thing confused, earlier he said that benefits and pensions would be linked to CPI at the time I assumed this meant State pension? what pension was he talking about.

I assumed that at the time. Perhaps, with hindsight, he meant public sector pensions or maybe the minimum income thingy?

He seemed to be pretty clear about benefits rising with CPI not RPI. That kinda makes sense as CPI doesn't include housing costs and housing costs are treated separately for most benefits I think.

It'll become clear as time goes on.

tomterm8

Can you even move area's with housing benefit? I always thought the rules were you had to stay in the same local authority area as you paid your council tax?



OK, it was amazing how quickly he got past some details... like he is changing indexing on pretty much all benefits to CPI, so pretty much all benefit claimants will be hit quite a lot. Sneaky. Also he is cutting departmental spending by 25% in real terms, while keeping NHS spending growing in real terms. Mental.

And if you are on DLA, don't expect it for much longer if you can do any job at all.

Did you notice how he also didn't talk about personal allowances? I think they may have been frozen though for most people.

Generali

pelirocco wrote: »

What about those who have taper relief at the moment?

I think he said that taper relief for business assets would remain much the same although be tapered so that you had to hold assets a little longer for maximum relief.

Given the nature of the interweb, if you find a specialist forum/blog/newsfeed you'll find a much better analysis than my facile, amateur reportage without too much bother.

amcluesent

>Housing benefit restricted to maximum £400 a week<

No more Chelsea mansions for chavs and their menagerie !

StevieJ

Generali wrote: »

Like I said at the time it's tough if you live in an expensive area.

I have a story about wife beating and stuff that really isn't suitable for this forum. Suffice to say that the council involved broke the ceiling for housing benefit in order to rehouse in a suitable manner. The rule was that they could only reclaim from Government the max HB and paid the rest from local taxes. I sincerely hope that provision remains available to councils as I wouldn't wish on anyone what happened to her. If she'd had to leave the area because it was expensive she would have lost her support network of friends along with everything else.

We could be aping the US yet again, trailer parks here we come :eek:

Generali

tomterm8 wrote: »

Did you notice how he also didn't talk about personal allowances? I think they may have been frozen though for most people.

Wasn't it £1,000 increase in personal allowances with the aim that they'll rise to £10,000 eventually?

StevieJ

tomterm8 wrote: »

idn't talk about personal allowances? I think they may have been frozen though for most people.

Don't think so everyone receives a 15% increase on p.a, don't they?

carolt

Generali wrote: »

Wasn't it £1,000 increase in personal allowances with the aim that they'll rise to £10,000 eventually?

That's from next April. Nothing about this year.

Generali

SingleSue wrote: »

Goodness knows how you are going to keep up with the tax credit thing! So many different things there....

Simple, I didn't!

SingleSue

tomterm8 wrote: »

And if you are on DLA, don't expect it for much longer if you can do any job at all.

You can be working and claim DLA. DLA is not dependent on not being able to work unlike ESA.