Actually they are in that top 10% of the population. It is just that their pay is well above the minimum needed to get into this group. £49 700 is needed to be in the top 10%, which means that the burden will fall on the majority. That is before the benefit cuts that will be announced in the autumn.

made me laugh.

I agree with you Oli. As I've said before, I know I wouldn't have gotten thus far without my parents getting help, but I also know they didn't take advantage and sit on their arses smoking 60 a day and knocking back a case of larger...

As long as it can't be taken advantage of, I think child benefit is really beneficial. The benefit could come in the form of food/clothes/school vouchers if needs be.



The flat I'm moving out of is having it's rent put up to £720 per month (all bills included) which is split between two people. The flat I'm moving into is costing Faye and I £310 per month ( ) with water included (electric on the meter and internet/phone for me to sort out).
Fair enough, the two properties are four room flats (two bedrooms/one bed one living, kitchen, bathroom).

£400/week would be a luxury, to think of the property we could have rented (I looked at a lovely cottage that has a wood burner just shy of £200/week!)

To get unemployment benefit, I have to provide proof each month, that I have applied for at least 5 jobs. They have said, that that is an average; if in the middle of the summer, when most companies close down or the decision makers all go on holiday, then it is acceptable to not reach that quota.

I think this is a good thing. Even the average is good, as you said, it may be very difficult to apply to five different jobs...

What, like job seekers allowance?

Still no mention of being able to get most of the billions from reclaiming unpaid tax, employing more to do so rather than cutting jobs at the HMRC, and closing tax loopholes?

Instead it appears they'd rather take, what many commentators suggest, is a big gamble with the economy. When Japan upped their equivalent of VAT it sent them back into recession.

So, gamble with the economy or get most of the money needed at the present time by other, less "tough" means.

I give up. Labour were sh1te, I don't trust the Tories and it looks like the LibDems are being sent out to explain all the tough decisions so that by the time the coalition falls apart the Tories will hope to gain votes from LibDemers shooting the messenger and get a majority in the next vote.

With the VAT issue, I'm personally taking the view that as the 2.5% decrease made absolutely no difference at all, that a 2.5% increase is going to pretty much go unnoticed.

It could go either way.

Let's put it this way I can see it actually stimulating sales around Christmas, if you have to bring it in at any time then 1st January is the obvious choice.

+1
Though having said that, I'm glad the building work I'm getting done will be finished before the VAT rise.

Yeah, the obvious consequence may be that a lot of high cost purchases - like major house items or cars or the like - get bought just before the increase rather than after. 2.5% extra on the cost of a pint of milk doesn't really matter. 2.5% on a 20 grand car, that's actually enough to care about.

Jon

I think it will hit retail sales next year. As Jon said, it will hit higher value purchases more. People may decide to buy that high def TV this year rather than next, for example. Changing the car may be a better option now than next January.

It may be that there will be a phasing in - some retailers absorbed the VAT rise for a while when it went back up from 15% to 17.5%. Whether they will do this again remains to be seen, but I reckon many will to keep the footfall high in January and February.

I wonder how much it will cost for shops to reprice everything - they will need new price labels, software updates for their terminals etc.. They had to do it twice in fairly short succession for the last changes, but at least this time it’s more permanent.

Just used the BBC's BUDGET CALCULATOR and my wife and I are going to be £311 worse off. That's not too bad really. I actually consider it a small price to pay if the deficit does indeed reach zero by 2016 as planned.

Differences in £.

Income tax £277.50
National insurance £-43.90
Child benefits £0.00
Tax credits £-545.00
State pension £0.00

IIRC quite a few places didn't last time. The price labels on existing goods got left, with a sign at each checkout saying the VAT rise would be added to the final bill. As new stock was added the labels had the 'correct' price on them. In the end, the label has no relevance to the process of buying, that's all done with the bar code. Since the back end system will know the correct price, the final bill will actually be accurate. So they just told people 'assume the price will be 2.5% higher than is marked' until they had all the stock at the new price.

I can think of a number of people who are looking for TV's this year. It will probably mean the end of price cuts this year, though they will cut next year as people will have rushed purchases through to this year.