Thread: The Budget....

Now i'm not normally one to even consider politics, voting etc etc but i was a good girl and just sat thorugh the budget and i gotta say i think most of it is called for tbh....i'm a bit gutted the HIP is goin and surestart Mat grant etc but this country is up the provverbial creek so to say....

anyhoo i'm surelots of you have more views on this

I will come back to this as I only caught snippets of it, although the only thing I didn't like the sound of was, like you, the HIP grant. I had already spent my next one in my head .

I totally agree with the rest of what I heard, love the tax changes, not sure what is happening with Child Tax Credit (would someone like to tell me) and hope that the country's financial situation improves because of these changes.

HIP and SSMG doesn't bother me. Both were pretty much something for nothing, although I do think they need to do something for those who do not qualify for mat pay/mat allowance (this is what SSMG was originally for). CB freeze isn't really going to effect anyone anyway.
As for tax credits - The child element of child tax credit will rise by £150 above inflation next year, New baby element will be scrapped and I missed the bit about £40k income

I work in the public sector so am a little concerned about pay freezes and my pension, also about the increase to VAT as I'm sure the pledge to keep food at an affordable level is a hollow one. The HIP grant doesn't bother me much, but I do feel that maternity payments should be scaled based on need. Chances are that a surestart grant won't only be needed for the first baby and they are now only available for that. I'd love an increase in my child benefit too, although that's not going to now happen for another few years.

It upsets me that (true to form) there doesn't seem to be any squeezing of the richest, rather those that earn in that middle-income bracket seem to be taking the full brunt of cuts and increases.

I'd like to research it further but my gut instinct is that it's not good for us at all.

Originally Posted by Kirsten

I will come back to this as I only caught snippets of it, although the only thing I didn't like the sound of was, like you, the HIP grant. I had already spent my next one in my head .

Me too! It was all going to go on nappies
With the child benefit freeze, does that mean payments are the same? What about new children?
Are Surestart centres safe?
Man...I really need to apply for tax credits already...!

The 40K thing was tax credits to be cut for those families earning over 40K from next year

So unless you earn over 40k you won't loose out on tax credits? And you will get £150 more next year??
And child benifit freeze - what does that mean? You still get your £20 per week or whatever it is, but that figure won't go up or down?
Sorry, I am so uneducated! CoNfUsEd Brain meltdown

Its thats the case things don't seem too bad..?
Anyone know if they've done anything to affect the NHS?

Yep, if your family earns over 40K a year then you won;t get any child tax credits. The child benefit you currently get will be what you get for the next 3 years, if you go on to have another child you'll get todays rate for that child (about £13 a week I think)

Here's a breakdown of some of the announcements from the bbc website.

• The chancellor is planning to cut the cost of a variety of welfare benefits.
• Tax credits will be cut for families earning more than £40,000 next year.
• However, the child element of the Child Tax Credit will rise by £150 above inflation.
• Elsewhere, Mr Osborne said he would abolish the "health in pregnancy" grant from April 2011, and restrict the Sure Start maternity grant to the first child only.
• Lone parents will now be expected to look for work when their youngest child goes to school.
• Child benefit will be frozen for the next three years.
• The government will also introduce a medical assessment for Disability Living Allowance from 2013 for new and existing claimants.
• Housing Benefit will be restricted to a maximum limit of £400 a week, in a package aimed at saving £1.8bn a year by the end of the parliament.

Oh, and no spending cuts in the NHS, although I'm a little worried about the non-enforcement of the 18 weeks wait target in healthcare (announced yesterday I think).

Having IL's who have just gone through breast cancer and heart trouble, having quick appointments made a massive difference to their treatment outcomes.

Well we missed the HIP for Jack, can't remember why, and I think I was earning too much to qualify for the SSMG, so missing out on those for the next baby doesn't bother me too much.

The freeze on various things means that the amounts won't change, where there would normally be an increase at least in line with inflation.

All in all, I think it's fair, and I'll be watching to see how hard we get hit by the VAT rise.

Also need to figure out what the Tax Credit/Child Benefit changes will mean for us. I know we don't qualify for much because I'm on a decent wage, and Hol is a SaHM, so I don't think it'll affect us much.

As always, we'll probably be worse off as a result of this budget, but it could have been worse, and I think under the circumstances, it's what's needed.

Nice to know that under the current plans, we'll have the debt caused by Labour's borrowing during the recession cancelled out though.