I agree compared to many i am pretty well off BUT i literally do not have two brass farthings to rub together. If i have no spare money to spend then there is no way many others can spen so there will be no increase in consumer spending which is what the Government needs to get the economy moving

He's getting a kick in the balls. Whether that's as severe as someone else's kick in the balls isn't really the heart of the debate, though I'm sure the government would prefer it to be framed so in order that nobody discusses who is doing the kicking and whose balls are going unkicked.

Wasn't meant as a dig or ing contest. I am accutely aware of the cuts in LA as my wife is employed by one and she is in the same boat. I see from his budget he is going to shaft them even more by scrapping annual increments, which should provoke a reaction as the 100% rate IS the rate for the job, but most start on 85% and work up, which is a clever way of cutting pay in the long term by up to 15%.

If you're in a public sector defined benefit pension scheme, you'll also be paying more in NI to cover it

Seeing Danny Alexander trying to defend it was pathetic.
Those in the studio had him for breakfast. The look on their faces was 'You haven't really got a clue have you matey boy'

Sorry. I've just become so used to the line about "we may be shafting you really quite hard, and with sand in the lube, but private sector employees have take their shafting, so you see it's the only choice we had" which is clearly designed to turn the shafted on each other rather than against the shaftee.

Makes a change from sending poor Chloe Smith out to face Paxo though.

As soon as Alexander appeared I tweeted thiscodhead99 ‏@codhead99

Hope they've got the tissues handy, Danny Alexander looks like he'll burst into tears[/i

Looks like his clamp down on LLPs could be about to unravel anytime soon

Omnishambles II anyone?

Lucky you, my last pay rise was in 2006 - in 2008 I took a 30% DECREASE in my salary.

And I havent made a pension contribution for at least eight years - AND the pension fundholder has been helping himself to a portion of it during that time.

Moan almost over.

Personal allowance to increase to £10,000 next year.

So £650 a year better off, or thereabouts?

No, you'll be 20% of £650 a year better off, or £130. But how much better off anyone will be depends on what you earn. He intends to lower the higher rate threshold to £41,865 so 40% taxpayers will only be £83 a year better off.

He's also tapering off the personal allowance for those on £100k at a rate of £1 for every £2 above £100k, so at £120k there'll be no personal allowance at all.

We've yet to see if he's dragging anything back in increased NI contributions

I got a C at GCSE maths and have never given it any serious thought since. My trail of thought is as follows:

Tax is roughly 20%. So the tax they would have taken on that £3000 is about £600.

By not taking tax on that £3000 the average tax payer is thus £600 better off, no?

If you disagree please explain why and show working (as they would say in exams) .