Anyone else actually looking forward to the budget thingy tomorrow?

[Blah11]

an extra £400 a month makes a difference. That would almost pay my mortgage...

I wouldn't have thought take home wage would be that different?

it's £415 before tax so it'd be about £335 take home. Say what you want but IMO that would make a BIG difference to our household.

 

[babyblog]

Perhaps contraversionally, i feel that if they are thinking of lowering the threshold for TC to 40k, they should actually reduce it a lot more anyway. There is little difference in someone earning a wage of 35k, or 40k, so why should the 35k worker get TC and the 40k worker not.

As someone who is set to lose TC's i don't see why the money should be taken away from my family and given to a family who earn lower.

Jump on me if you wish but it's how i feel right now.

In the same vain, why should a family like mine, who has about 8k a year coming in, lose out so that families who have more than 4 times that coming in can have a bit extra?

I didn't say anything about taking money away from lower income families to give more to higher income families. I just think either cut it from all, or from none.

I got the impression you were saying rather than keep the tax creds in place for low incomes, and taking it off high income families, that they should have kept giving it to everyone still, but reduce it for all familes. Which would basically be reducing tax creds for low incomes so taht they could afford to give it to higher income families still..

Oh i see, yeah im getting myself confused now. Well i suppose i am saying that then, jut my little old opinion, which won't make a blind bit of difference anyway

 

[Ju_bubbs]

i agree babyblog i think they could have done it a different way so we all lose something for example cut it by a percentage for eveyone or something

I know, i think it could have been fairer-it seems mad to me that have raised the child element part by £150 for some families-, whilst taking the whole lot away from other families completely

Regardless of my other post up there ^ I am in agreement about raising the child element.. I dont really get why they've felt the need to do that! Yes I struggle like hell with what I get, but I'm on benefits I dont expect it to be easy or luxurious, and have learnt to cope with it, just about! While the 600 extra i'll get purely from this child element raise will be a great help and make life a lot easier... its not really necesary when the government are meant to be saving money!

 

[babyblog]

i agree babyblog i think they could have done it a different way so we all lose something for example cut it by a percentage for eveyone or something

I know, i think it could have been fairer-it seems mad to me that have raised the child element part by £150 for some families-, whilst taking the whole lot away from other families completely

Regardless of my other post up there ^ I am in agreement about raising the child element.. I dont really get why they've felt the need to do that! Yes I struggle like hell with what I get, but I'm on benefits I dont expect it to be easy or luxurious, and have learnt to cope with it, just about! While the 600 extra i'll get purely from this child element raise will be a great help and make life a lot easier... its not really necesary when the government are meant to be saving money!

Yeah it's strange isn't it!
I guess i've just got a bee in my bonnet as i know things will get very tight for us.Before mat leave our combined income was 50k+, which was very good, i know, but our outgoings match it, high mortgage, expensive area etc.

When i go back my wages will be halved, despite our outgoings remaining the same-so for us that little bit extra is very much appreciated.

 

[// arcadia]

Working Tax Credit is different thought right?

Thats money for childcare - surely that will stay the same?

 

[Boony]

I know amelie will have free nursery space/money towards her fees but we're TTC now so we'll have another LO to put in nursery. We get £475 tax credits so it'd make a huge difference to us.

But thats your choice to have another child. Its not up to the government to pay for you to have another child.

If you know your not going to be able to pay nursery fees from 2012 then maybe you should be considering being a sahm or not ttc

 

[Blah11]

:\ like i said i would become a sahm but then wed be entitled to more and more benefits. surely the gov doesnt want thousands of mums like me to give up work and claim benefits cos they're better off.. thats stupid.

 

[Boony]

but how do you know you'd get more benefits? they are doing a overhaul of the welfare system next year to make it harder to claim when you are capable of working so that might not neccessarily work out any better for you.

 

[Blue_bumpkin]

but how do you know you'd get more benefits? they are doing a overhaul of the welfare system next year to make it harder to claim when you are capable of working so that might not neccessarily work out any better for you.

Exactly! If things will be changing next year (perhaps) how are we supposed to plan for the future and prepare if we dont know what will happen? - things may still change now also. i just seen on the news that Mr Osborne has announced plans for more welfare cuts - couldnt bring myself to watch!!

Lets give him 30K for him and his misses and a couple of kiddies to live on and see how far they get. Dont think they realise how much the cost of living actually is nowadays - well for your average joe anyway..

 

[Ju_bubbs]

but how do you know you'd get more benefits? they are doing a overhaul of the welfare system next year to make it harder to claim when you are capable of working so that might not neccessarily work out any better for you.

Exactly! If things will be changing next year (perhaps) how are we supposed to plan for the future and prepare if we dont know what will happen? - things may still change now also. i just seen on the news that Mr Osborne has announced plans for more welfare cuts - couldnt bring myself to watch!!

Lets give him 30K for him and his misses and a couple of kiddies to live on and see how far they get. Dont think they realise how much the cost of living actually is nowadays - well for your average joe anyway..

30k? thats a bit generous! Give him my 8k, take his wife away and chuck in 4 kids.. THEN see if he changes his mind

 

[coccyx]

Why don't you ladies go and be an MP if its so easy

 

[Blue_bumpkin]

but how do you know you'd get more benefits? they are doing a overhaul of the welfare system next year to make it harder to claim when you are capable of working so that might not neccessarily work out any better for you.

Exactly! If things will be changing next year (perhaps) how are we supposed to plan for the future and prepare if we dont know what will happen? - things may still change now also. i just seen on the news that Mr Osborne has announced plans for more welfare cuts - couldnt bring myself to watch!!

Lets give him 30K for him and his misses and a couple of kiddies to live on and see how far they get. Dont think they realise how much the cost of living actually is nowadays - well for your average joe anyway..

30k? thats a bit generous! Give him my 8k, take his wife away and chuck in 4 kids.. THEN see if he changes his mind

You're right! Can you imagine! He'd age about 20 years in a day and be begging for his credit cards back before the week was out! lol

 

[Blue_bumpkin]

Why don't you ladies go and be an MP if its so easy

Noone said being an MP was easy , just that they are not as 'intouch' with reality as much as they could be. 30K is not a lot of money and doesnt stretch far IMO

 

[Blah11]

but how do you know you'd get more benefits? they are doing a overhaul of the welfare system next year to make it harder to claim when you are capable of working so that might not neccessarily work out any better for you.

they wont be able to cut back so much so children are living in poverty. If I dont work we'd be waaay under the average wage of 22k.

 

[Blah11]

Why don't you ladies go and be an MP if its so easy

meh, they get paid to do their job and they get paid well so i aint gonna be feeling sorry for them.

 

[poppy]

Sorry to sound a bit stupid, but is tax credits the same thing as childcare vouchers?

My husband's company is part of a childcare voucher scheme - what happens is that you can buy up to £265 (I think??!!) vouchers to go towards your nursery fees - you don't actually get that money free, it gets taken off your wages (sent directly to the nursery) before tax - so in essence, you save the tax (approx £70). Is this the same thing that you are talking about?

 

[Hayley90]

Sorry to sound a bit stupid, but is tax credits the same thing as childcare vouchers?

My husband's company is part of a childcare voucher scheme - what happens is that you can buy up to £265 (I think??!!) vouchers to go towards your nursery fees - you don't actually get that money free, it gets taken off your wages (sent directly to the nursery) before tax - so in essence, you save the tax (approx £70). Is this the same thing that you are talking about?

No, they are separate

TCs are paid into your bank account, and are banded depending on your income , age of children, cost of childcare etc etc.

Childcare vouchers are salary sacrfice, and you could apply for TCs aswell, but still have to declare the sacrificed bit of your salary. Hope that makes sense?! x

 

[poppy]

I am a secondary school teacher in the public sector in Scotland - as yet, we don't know about the Scottish Government's decision regarding the wage freeze (as education is under the Scottish Parliament's mandate in Scotland) but I expect it will fall into line with the national policy.

I, for one, do not mind about having a wage freeze for two years if it means that it helps get the country out of difficulties.

What I do mind, is a bit of negativity I have picked up from some people regarding public workers and what people view their entitlements are.

Yes, there are a lot of benefits to working in the public sector (as mentioned by some before), but there are a lot of drawbacks as well - just like in the private sector. But there has been a lot of, 'why should public sector workers get pay rises...they get lots of money...'etc etc. Imagine if someone in the public sector commented on whether or not you should get a pay rise or not. You would probably tell them where to go.

Ok, people may argue that they have not got a payrise for how many years etc in the private sector...but they certainly haven't had their company come out and tell them that they will definately not get a pay rise for 2 years. The government has come out today and actually admitted that given VAT rises and incrememental price rises, a pay freeze for the public sector is essentially a pay cut.

I work in Aberdeen, home of the oil industry in Britain - I have seen people get crazy pay rises of £20,000 a year in the private sector! People moan about the public sector getting pay rises only because they are so publicised - you hear about us teachers campaigning, you hear about firefighters requesting pay rises in the news etc but you don't hear about individual people in individual firms going for their annual pay reviews and what happens there. Because we are in the public eye, it does give the public a negative impression of public workers going all out for pay rises - we don't have the luxury of arguing our case of worth with a boss, we follow a strict pay structure and for those at the top of the scale (I am talking normal main grade teacher not head of department, head teacher etc), there is no pay rise but the incremental pay rise (which is now going to be frozen). When a teacher gets an incremental pay rise, you are looking at maybe £20 more a month - not thousands like the perception seems to be.

Also, people at the upper end of the pay scale in the public sector (i.e. doctors, nurses, teachers etc) have usually had to do a lot of further education to get into that job - so lots of hard studying and probably student debt that we have had to pay back - we are certainly not having money thrown at us.

Having said all this, I am happy to take a pay freeze if it helps the country - I would just prefer to see people see things from the public sector's point of view as well.

 

[babyblog]

I am a secondary school teacher in the public sector in Scotland - as yet, we don't know about the Scottish Government's decision regarding the wage freeze (as education is under the Scottish Parliament's mandate in Scotland) but I expect it will fall into line with the national policy.

I, for one, do not mind about having a wage freeze for two years if it means that it helps get the country out of difficulties.

What I do mind, is a bit of negativity I have picked up from some people regarding public workers and what people view their entitlements are.

Yes, there are a lot of benefits to working in the public sector (as mentioned by some before), but there are a lot of drawbacks as well - just like in the private sector. But there has been a lot of, 'why should public sector workers get pay rises...they get lots of money...'etc etc. Imagine if someone in the public sector commented on whether or not you should get a pay rise or not. You would probably tell them where to go.

Ok, people may argue that they have not got a payrise for how many years etc in the private sector...but they certainly haven't had their company come out and tell them that they will definately not get a pay rise for 2 years. The government has come out today and actually admitted that given VAT rises and incrememental price rises, a pay freeze for the public sector is essentially a pay cut.

I work in Aberdeen, home of the oil industry in Britain - I have seen people get crazy pay rises of £20,000 a year in the private sector! People moan about the public sector getting pay rises only because they are so publicised - you hear about us teachers campaigning, you hear about firefighters requesting pay rises in the news etc but you don't hear about individual people in individual firms going for their annual pay reviews and what happens there. Because we are in the public eye, it does give the public a negative impression of public workers going all out for pay rises - we don't have the luxury of arguing our case of worth with a boss, we follow a strict pay structure and for those at the top of the scale (I am talking normal main grade teacher not head of department, head teacher etc), there is no pay rise but the incremental pay rise (which is now going to be frozen). When a teacher gets an incremental pay rise, you are looking at maybe £20 more a month - not thousands like the perception seems to be.

Also, people at the upper end of the pay scale in the public sector (i.e. doctors, nurses, teachers etc) have usually had to do a lot of further education to get into that job - so lots of hard studying and probably student debt that we have had to pay back - we are certainly not having money thrown at us.

Having said all this, I am happy to take a pay freeze if it helps the country - I would just prefer to see people see things from the public sector's point of view as well.

yes i agree-although i would being a probation officer! Do you know if the pay is completely frozen as in are the increments frozen along with the inflation payrise that normally comes in April as well?

 

[poppy]

Hi Babyblog!

I am not quite sure - I just assumed we would be on what we are on now for two years.