Autumn 2012 Statement

[Wolfshade]

Well now, the chancellor has delievered this new statement outlining plans and the what not.

I think the worrying thing is that the structual deficiet still stands at around 4% with some estimates pushing it up to 4.9% which is greater than the 4.8% we had when he started and this is on the top of billions saved/slashed.

I think there are two things which will have some effect on all of us, firstly the planned 3p rise in fuel duty is being held, which let's face it we pay incredible amounts on fuel duty anyway.
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/64588000/gif/_64588098_petrol_breakdown304x400.gif
Secondly the non-taxable threshold will increase to £9,440, which won't really make that much of a difference but still it is better than nothing.

Most benefits will rise by 1%, which although is an increase is in real terms a slight decrease as inflation is at 2.2% (depending on which measure you actually use). The ISA allowance again sees a modest rise 2.1%.

So the question is, is this method working?
The opponets will look at the figures and say, well all this scrimping and savings has shown very little return if any at addressing teh issues of structual deficiet.
The proponents will see the figures and say, things haven't got any worse, there are positive signs with many areas comming in under budget and savings being address, unemployment figures better than expected, just keep on doing what we are only maybe be even more harsher with it.

[alshrive]

as the Office Manager for a Financial Advisers i watched this with quite some interest. and this is the one that i think is huge;
"From 2014-15 lifetime pension relief allowance to fall from £1.5m to £1.25m - annual allowance cut from £50,000 to £40,000"

while this may not seem to matter hugely they have actually cut the allowance by near enough 20%, when you factor in the difference this could make on retirement that is potentially huge!

[Mr Mystery]

To be honest, he's a got a bloody cheek slashing benefits by pleading poverty when they remain soft on tax evasion.

Get the loopholes tied up and see national income rise. They want to pull out? Cool. See you later. Puts the high street back to the smaller companies, companies with a lesser record of tax avoidance.

[Wolfshade]

I like your optimism! Retiring indeed, are you aware of the number of times that the retirement age has increased since we've been working? If you continue that trend we'll be 100+ before retirement :)

[Psychosplodge]

Retirement age goes up two years every other year...

Surely you're never going to reach the £1.25million cap anyway so what difference does that make to the average person?

As an unmarried, non-cohabiting (single by their standards), childless individual, I'm better off again. Certainly not something I used to be able to say...

[alshrive]

Retirement age goes up two years every other year...

Surely you're never going to reach the £1.25million cap anyway so what difference does that make to the average person?

As a technically single (by their standards), childless individual, I'm better off again. Certainly not something I used to be able to say...

i agree that the lifetime allowance is absolutely fine being lowered however we have several clients who this will affect diretly on a year to year basis. Middle Age (when theoretically you are earning most) is the time to invest in your pension and we have numerous people who put the annual limit in to maximise it- while they can.... this reduces the amount that they can save for retirement by reducing the amount they can put in when it is available...

[Psychosplodge]

I suppose that makes sense, if there's an overall cap the yearly one is kind of redundant.

[Denzark]

Pull out of EU = 13bn per annum. Stop giving away international aid = up to 0.7% of GDP. Bring back the Death Penalty - it costs something like £60k + per annum to keep a scrotebag in for life. A £3.99 bit of rope from B&Q can be used again and again...

The maximum 1% rise to benefits is fair seeing as this is what the military will be getting after 2 years of pay freezes - I see no reason why our standard of living should be going down when benefit claimants has been preserved so it really is a step in the right direction.

[Wolfshade]

IIRC there was a radio 4 programme that discussed the cost of prisoners and I am sure that they said that the most expensive unit in the UK, a northern irish prison and that cost £25k/annum. But I do agree with the principle after all the false conviction rate for life imprisonment is very low here.
I do not see why benefits are going up when so many people are seeing salary freezes. It has been said many times before and I think most people on the forum would agree that benefits should be there to help people not be a way of life.