UK Parliament Budget Forum Q&A

UKParliament

Hi Archi Bald,

Apologies! All papers can be found here

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/summer-budget-2015

sunshine81

One budget announcement was:
'Income threshold for tax credits to be reduced from £6,420 to £3,850'
So does that mean more people qualify for tax credits? And does it mean you'd be entitled to more tax credits?


Also
'Rents in social housing sector will be reduced by 1% a year for the next four years'
So will this reduce the amount to Government pays in housing benefit, or the amount that the tenants have to pay?


Not entirely convinced this a working people's budget. My partner and I work full time in the public sector, close to minimum wage level, we have one child and another due in October and struggle to meet private rent (which will no doubt be going up)

mgdavid

sunshine81 wrote: »

........

Not entirely convinced this a working people's budget. My partner and I work full time in the public sector, close to minimum wage level, we have one child and another due in October and struggle to meet private rent (which will no doubt be going up)

Family planning is not (yet) fully within the ambit of government.

sunshine81

What's family planning got to do with anything? Tax credits are only changing if you have more than two children, which I don't nor will have.


Additionally, without my children I'd still have the same bills, and we would still work full time, so your comment is irrelevant nor answers my question. The point is if I didn't work and took social housing and got the government to pay it my costs would be going down (1% per year apparently).

Archi_Bald

sunshine81 wrote: »

One budget announcement was:
'Income threshold for tax credits to be reduced from £6,420 to £3,850'
So does that mean more people qualify for tax credits? And does it mean you'd be entitled to more tax credits?

It means quite the opposite.

1.144 From April 2016, the government will reduce the level of earnings at which a household’s tax credits and Universal Credit award starts to be withdrawn for every extra pound earned. In tax credits, this point (known as the income threshold) will be reduced from £6,420 to £3,850.

sunshine81

Archi_Bald wrote: »

It means quite the opposite.

Thank you, the quote you provided means it makes much more sense.

peachynat2110

Why do NHS workers not even get a cost of living pay rise? Pressures on NHS staff are increasing, front line staff very often get hit, punched, spat at, kicked and abused so does this not deserve a pay increase?
More and more staff will now work for agencies to then earn much more per hour, a pay rist could have minimised this

sunshine81

peachynat2110 wrote: »

Why do NHS workers not even get a cost of living pay rise? Pressures on NHS staff are increasing, front line staff very often get hit, punched, spat at, kicked and abused so does this not deserve a pay increase?
More and more staff will now work for agencies to then earn much more per hour, a pay rist could have minimised this

Totally agree! I work for the NHS in a mental health unit and am subject to violence and aggression daily. Not always able to take breaks, expected to stay hours later and even into the night for nothing. Many staff have left here to join agencies who are paid much more.


I am a Band 3 on AFC and don't think my wage, or Band 2, will meet the living wage in 2020, so they'll have to increase the pay anyway...

jamesd

peachynat2110 wrote: »

Why do NHS workers not even get a cost of living pay rise? Pressures on NHS staff are increasing, front line staff very often get hit, punched, spat at, kicked and abused so does this not deserve a pay increase?

No. It deserves an appropriate pay rate for the job, which increases as appropriate for that job in the market.

peachynat2110 wrote: »

More and more staff will now work for agencies to then earn much more per hour, a pay rist could have minimised this

They probably don't get the high value NHS pension so have to make up for that with pension contributions out of their pay, while also dealing with the uncertainty of not being guaranteed work, whether there's work to be done or not. Employees get that certainty. But there's usually a cost for certainty and it shows up in part in the pay difference.

The way that wages work depends on competition so if the pay is not sufficient you should take your labour elsewhere to provide the required market pressure to increase the pay. In your case you might evaluate the alternative of being a prison employee, which appears to carry lower levels of physical abuse than those you experience each day. You would also get a lot of opportunity to deal with those who have mental health problems in that environment and your existing experience may help you to do well there.

Former_MSE_Andrea

Great points raised here. How about everyone else? How do you think the Summer Budget will affect you?