Oh, I misread, I though they were raising the cap slightly but maintaining the payments to people. Cheers.
Spring Budget 2023
- Thread starter doodah
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Oh, I misread, I though they were raising the cap slightly but maintaining the payments to people. Cheers.
The pre-budget comments indicate that the funding for 1 and 2 year olds will only be available to those receiving UC, whereas the current funding is for all children aged 3 and above (unless as a family you earn too much).
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All the things they are doing is just tinkering around the edges, i mean getting the out of work in to work, so what if your reduce 4% unemployment to 3% by forcing sick and old people in to work, it is awful and hardly does anything, we need the massive % of EU workers back.
we need massive government investment. it is pure lies and incorrect ideology that you can cut government spending in a country like the uk and expect things to improve. china has massive government funding, so does the US and EU. You need private investment as well as public investment for success these days. cutting stuff doesn't work, 12 years of austerity as taken us backwards.
increased childcare help and corporation tax is good but why not increase minimum wage to like £13
we need massive government investment. it is pure lies and incorrect ideology that you can cut government spending in a country like the uk and expect things to improve. china has massive government funding, so does the US and EU. You need private investment as well as public investment for success these days. cutting stuff doesn't work, 12 years of austerity as taken us backwards.
increased childcare help and corporation tax is good but why not increase minimum wage to like £13
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Yes but that's nothing to do with a tax on the poor, more like a tax on the stupid. No-one needs to smoke at all.
There's VAT on top of the 45p too.
Smoking also increases your risk of dementia.
You might die at 70, after several expensive medical interventions, but if you survive you're more likely to get dementia. Either way there is no real benefit to smoking (except thinking you're cool as a teenager) with a lot of downsides.
On the point of targeting the poorest in society, the higher taxes make it so that the poorest can't afford to start smoking, basically to stop the next generation.
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The problem with jam tomorrow is tomorrow never seems to come.
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Selfishly the pension LTA I am in favour of as I'm basically ploughing as much as I can into my pension. I don't think I'll need the increase, in all honesty but if for whatever reason I end up earning more or able to put more into my pension I'm going to welcome it with open arms. I'd love to say I'll need it but let's be honest I doubt I'll keep up this effort at work. I'm already feeling burnt out and I'm only in my 40s.
That said is obviously aimed at getting the top 1% who can retire in their 50s back into work for a few years. Honestly it's not a bad idea to keep highly skilled people from emigrating to Oz or other parts of the world. Personally if I was one of those at retirement age with over 1m in my pension pot I'd be long gone from here anyway!
That said is obviously aimed at getting the top 1% who can retire in their 50s back into work for a few years. Honestly it's not a bad idea to keep highly skilled people from emigrating to Oz or other parts of the world. Personally if I was one of those at retirement age with over 1m in my pension pot I'd be long gone from here anyway!
I have always favoured time over money, and that becomes much more important as you get older. I can't see too many people rushing back into work if they have a big pot.
I have nothing like a million pound pot, literally hndreds of thousands less, and I have zero intention of going back to work.
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I get you - and honestly I'm not obsessed by money, I just want to provide the best possible life for my family without losing my way morally, or favouring materialism over family / life. I mean if I could retire tomorrow I would think about it, but in all honestly I do enjoy working and like what I do. I think I'd get bored - but that's why I'm pushing on the NED route so that I can ramp down later on in life and rely on a bit of NED work.
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Which is utterly pointless for the vast majority of people. People do not need the childcare on UC. It is the people who want to work that need it.
Nobody needs to drink but they do.
Not directly no, charging direct top ups is prohibited, hence why nurseries have had to get creative with "optional extras" (that aren't optional) to try and bring more money in.
One of the ways it is done is to charge an even higher hourly rate for the 1 & 2 y/os as that subsidised the shortfall with 3 & 4 y/os, so this has the potential to make that gap worse.
Yea, things like restricting the core hours and splitting funded sessions to charge a lunch hour are some of the creative things Nureries have had to do. It was all initially frowned upon by the LA's but they have had to let it go to allow Nurseries to try and remain solvent. There's also different rules for parents who only access the 15 hrs free childcare, where you are not supposed to be able to charge them anything compulsory, but I know a lot of Nurseries ignore this too.
The problem with having the funded rate too, is you are restricted by how much it goes up each year, that's done by the Govt, but you are at the mercy of expense rises with no control. So it's hard to increase the cost of your provision as necessary.
For example, this April, the current funding rate for 2 y/o's is going up by 5p an hour and NMW for the staff is going up 92p an hour. With a ratio of 1-4 for 2 y/os you can already see the funding increase doesn't even cover the wage increase, let alone the rising costs of everything else, utilities, food etc.
This is why Nurseries are closing at an alarming rate all across the country. A combination of a low pay sector (the workers can easily be paid more working in a supermarket, with a lot less stress and responsibility) so staff recruitment and retention is terrible, and increasing costs with decreasing revenues.
That's going to go down like a fart in a lift with working parents who aren't entitled to any UC lol
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For my own personal planning, if I retire at age 58 (minimum pension age by the time I get there) then I won't need the increased personal allowance. However if I work until 68, those final 10 years push me quite far over the existing LTA, so much so that I would question why I would continue to work. That's exactly what the Government are trying to avoid, there is a gluttony of high skilled / high value workers that are opting to take early retirement because it's more financially sensible than continuing to work. However we have a growing skills gaps and as a country we can't afford for the high skilled workforce to just disappear early because its financially the best option.
We are all living longer, my parents have just reached aged 60 and can actually retire now - but they don't want to because they actually want to keep working. They have no mental or physical impediments and whilst they continue to work they can afford massive holidays every year and travel the world.
Because it's designed to get parents back into work that otherwise couldn't afford to - it's not intended to help parents who are already in work.
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The growing skills gaps is the government's fault for not focussing on education, and for doing a referendum on the EU. They've well and truly shot themselves in the foot. Yes we're living longer, but as soon as I can afford to not work I certainly plan on ramping down the work I do. It's completely clear why they're doing it, but if I were a close-to-retirement or retired specialist, that had more than enough in my pot, I most certainly a) wouldn't be in the UK and b) unless I felt morally obligated I don't see why I'd go back to work if I didn't need to. That said I would possibly do a little bit of a week or so a month of advisory roles - but I don't think they'll get as many people back into work as they think they will.
However, what I would say, for those of you early in your careers, now is the time to plough what you can into your pension. I wish I had started earlier.
The UK's tobacco taxes are among the highest in Europe, already well past justifiable levels.
Promoting vaping makes much more sense.
Cigarette butts are one of the most common forms of litter. Biodegradable would help, but better enforcement of littering laws - probably with a better system of fines - would help all round. We are far, far too tolerant of people too filthy to deal with their own garbage.