Pretty naff budget for most workers then unless you’re under the age of 21, claiming some form of benefits or you’re a pensioner.

Loads of tax rises for workers even if they are less obvious. I know I said it earlier, but the salary sacrifice removal on pensions is such a dumb thing to do. I’m not sure that will make it to 2029.

Some good things in the budget (mansion tax, encouraging savers into S&S, train fare freeze, two child benefit cap gone) but very 'eh' on the whole and emblematic of the tinkering around the edges that has come to define Starmer's Labour.

The salary sacrifice into pensions is by some distance the worst one, in that it affects normal workers but is quite clearly messing with their plans to save for retirement (for which the argument for encouraging private pensions in the first place was to save money on the state pension), by literally taking from them in order to fund the struggling state pension itself. Very short-term and I can't imagine anyone's going to be happy with it for very long because it will mess directly with in-place business pension schemes, I'd also predict it's the big loser policy from this budget that will get complained about most long term, like the "jobs tax" was last year. In a very similar area too.

Does feel like a reaction to not do anything that would scare off any markets or businesses while keeping the tax rises going as are required. I'm on board with some of the philosophy and it was a difficult budget to construct with so many competing opinions but it does very little to address the underlying problems with why the government bill keeps rising, nor does it help out normal people's finances to stimulate the economy very much.

Prescription charges frozen at £9.90.

In a snap poll done by Sky News 75% say it's a negative budget.

2 minutes ago, CRAZY CHRIS said:

Prescription charges frozen at £9.90.

In a snap poll done by Sky News 75% say it's a negative budget.

Well it’s a terrible budget for everyone but to be fair, unless you slash state spending then it’s going to be negative for everyone. We certainly have a major spending problem which needs to be addressed either through tax rises or cutting spending (of which we’ve not really done either).

Don’t really know how anyone over 65 and under 21 can have too many gripes.. but for the rest of us, we’re all paying more for less.

3 minutes ago, Rooney said:

Well it’s a terrible budget for everyone but to be fair, unless you slash state spending then it’s going to be negative for everyone. We certainly have a major spending problem which needs to be addressed either through tax rises or cutting spending (of which we’ve not really done either).

Well they can't cut NHS spending and have increased it. Can't cut education and Labour MP's won't let them cut benefits.

18 minutes ago, CRAZY CHRIS said:

Well they can't cut NHS spending and have increased it. Can't cut education and Labour MP's won't let them cut benefits.

There needs to be serious questions about the triple lock and reducing the overall size of the welfare state unless mass tax rises across the board. The OBR has forecasted a rise of over £73bn! That is not sustainable.

39 minutes ago, Rooney said:

There needs to be serious questions about the triple lock and reducing the overall size of the welfare state unless mass tax rises across the board. The OBR has forecasted a rise of over £73bn! That is not sustainable.

Farage says it's not right that some go off work at 20 with an illness or injury and are still on sickness benefits at 60. He's spot on but how can they disprove bad backs and depression? You can't. My parents had 3 dancing couples as friends and all 3 were off with bad backs yet were sequence dancing at the weekend. Another was supposedly deaf from pit work and at every re-assessment he kept saying "pardon Dr, can't hear you."

I come off benefits in Jan, on to old age pension. No more assessments thank goodness and more money.

Edited Wednesday at 18:232 days by CRAZY CHRIS

I don’t think encouraging savers to move to S&S is a good thing to come from the budget. Especially when new ISA limits are only applicable to under 65s and FSCS protection limits are increasing in under a week. They’re more or less ensuring they have a tax grab on majority savings of an entire generation from the moment they start saving (and let’s be real, is any government going to prioritise increasing limits again down the line?) versus over 65s who already have accumulated wealth and come out of this laughing and untouched.

We need to rejoin the EU to get the economy going again, ans then have the government invest again

Honestly pretty horrid budget for the average working person (myself). Some positives but none of the positives have much if any application to me (rail fare freezes, child benefit cap removed, minimum wage & pension increases etc).

I think this is the first time I feel like I'm being screwed over. The salary sacrifice being capped for private pensions has particularly annoyed me. Taxing money beyond £2k that goes in only for it to then be taxed again when you claim your pension...Yet there's been a big focus on trying to get people to save for their retirement Hopefully that's something that will get scrapped.

Labour will certainly go down in the polls after this. They will need a miracle to get a 2nd term in government it looks like! Hopefully it'll translate into the Lib Dems/Greens gaining and a coalition government that doesn't involve reform or the conservatives at the next election.

Edited Wednesday at 19:302 days by Envoirment

3 hours ago, CRAZY CHRIS said:

Prescription charges frozen at £9.90.

In a snap poll done by Sky News 75% say it's a negative budget.

I mean, of course they would, the news has been doom and gloom about it for weeks and the median voter is now primed against it, plus there's a few things in there which hit everyone and people always hate budgets which make their taxes rise, it's kinda natural even though taxes do need to rise sometimes.

I think the best reaction to this is... 'eh'. The negative aspects like salary sacrifice (which to be clear, are a mistake) are going to financially hit an individual not that much in real terms, the tax rises are not that much in real terms. The S&S move would be far better with a carrot rather than a stick but is actually going to be a good thing financially for people who move what was going to be deposited into their cash ISA into a S&S ETF as long as they treat it sensibly and do the bare minimum of investing education.

The more vulnerable do get a decent amount out of the budget but not much is being done for the average person to ease their finances nor improve their earning potential so the feeling of malaise will continue to dog Labour.

2 hours ago, CRAZY CHRIS said:

Farage says it's not right that some go off work at 20 with an illness or injury and are still on sickness benefits at 60. He's spot on but how can they disprove bad backs and depression? You can't. My parents had 3 dancing couples as friends and all 3 were off with bad backs yet were sequence dancing at the weekend. Another was supposedly deaf from pit work and at every re-assessment he kept saying "pardon Dr, can't hear you."

I come off benefits in Jan, on to old age pension. No more assessments thank goodness and more money.

Well he's not wrong, but he's not right. People look at disability too ideologically. We need to do more to encourage people to work and support those who are mentally or physically unable to work. Yes there is a system to be gamed, but you can say that about people who are self employed and maybe don't declare all their income. But our welfare state is absolutely not sustainable (and I include the State Pension in this).

1 hour ago, Calum said:

I don’t think encouraging savers to move to S&S is a good thing to come from the budget. Especially when new ISA limits are only applicable to under 65s and FSCS protection limits are increasing in under a week. They’re more or less ensuring they have a tax grab on majority savings of an entire generation from the moment they start saving (and let’s be real, is any government going to prioritise increasing limits again down the line?) versus over 65s who already have accumulated wealth and come out of this laughing and untouched.

Cash ISAs are largely rubbish. If you are saving for 5+ years you're way better putting money in a S&S ISA. The problem is we don't have any education about investing and if people put money in a bad investment and as a nation we are largely risk adverse. The idea is right, but like Iz says, there needs to be work on the execution. If anyone has £12k a year to save, it is imo a silly thing to do to stick it all in a cash ISA.

1 hour ago, Envoirment said:

Honestly pretty horrid budget for the average working person (myself). Some positives but none of the positives have much if any application to me (rail fare freezes, child benefit cap removed, minimum wage & pension increases etc).

I think this is the first time I feel like I'm being screwed over. The salary sacrifice being capped for private pensions has particularly annoyed me. Taxing money beyond £2k that goes in only for it to then be taxed again when you claim your pension...Yet there's been a big focus on trying to get people to save for their retirement Hopefully that's something that will get scrapped.

Labour will certainly go down in the polls after this. They will need a miracle to get a 2nd term in government it looks like! Hopefully it'll translate into the Lib Dems/Greens gaining and a coalition government that doesn't involve reform or the conservatives at the next election.

Your living in cloud cuckoo land if you think there will be a Green-Lib Dem coalition. Why all of a sudden are the Lib Dem’s so progressive?? You do know their current leader was in the coalition government in 2010?

6 minutes ago, Steve201 said:

Your living in cloud cuckoo land if you think there will be a Green-Lib Dem coalition. Why all of a sudden are the Lib Dem’s so progressive?? You do know their current leader was in the coalition government in 2010?

I should've clarified - I don't see a Green-Lib coalition at all. Hoping for a Green-Lib Dems-Labour coalition. That would hopefully offer some balance and also help set the stage for re-joining the EU single market in the future (hoping that will eventually happen in the 2030s).

2 hours ago, Calum said:

I don’t think encouraging savers to move to S&S is a good thing to come from the budget. Especially when new ISA limits are only applicable to under 65s and FSCS protection limits are increasing in under a week. They’re more or less ensuring they have a tax grab on majority savings of an entire generation from the moment they start saving (and let’s be real, is any government going to prioritise increasing limits again down the line?) versus over 65s who already have accumulated wealth and come out of this laughing and untouched.

Under current rules, anyone can invest £20,000 per year in a cash ISA. That immediately restricts it to people who are pretty well off. After that, the first £1,000 of interest from other investments is tax-free. Assuming an interest rate of 3%, that's another £30,000. That's a total of £50,000 invested per year in a interest-bearing product without paying tax on the interest. That figure will now be £42,000. I'm not going to waste time worrying about people who can invest that sort of money every year.

Stocks and shares ISAs are supposed to be a long-term investment. In the long-term, they will deliver better returns than a interest-bearing account. That's why those of us who are 65+ can still enjoy the higher limit.

Just to add a hopefully positive thing is they are looking to change the LISA to become soley focused on buying a first home with changes being outlined in early 2026 (as opposed to being this weird hybrid thing that can be used for a first home + retirement). A big hope is the scrapping of the house price limit as well which has been a flat £450,000 since its inception.

5 hours ago, Rooney said:

Well it’s a terrible budget for everyone but to be fair, unless you slash state spending then it’s going to be negative for everyone. We certainly have a major spending problem which needs to be addressed either through tax rises or cutting spending (of which we’ve not really done either).

Don’t really know how anyone over 65 and under 21 can have too many gripes.. but for the rest of us, we’re all paying more for less.

Income tax and national insurance are frozen ubtil 2031, two chikd benefit cap lifted which I will help ALOT of families with more than one child, fuel duty frozen ubtil next Sept! All good for everyone!

Cringy watching Daisy Cooper argue against the mansion tax due to the constituency she represents!

9 hours ago, Steve201 said:

Cringy watching Daisy Cooper argue against the mansion tax due to the constituency she represents!

The Lib Dems proposed a mansion tax before Labour stole the idea. I can understand Cooper's stance in her role as a constituency MP, but she is also the party's Treasury spokesperson. She should be supporting it.

She seems to need told that as she refused to support it on politics live after the budget!