Budget puts more money in my pocket, but doesn’t change my vote… Sun readers respond
CHANCELLOR Jeremy Hunt gave more help to workers in yesterday’s Budget with a new 2p cut to National Insurance, following the cut announced in November.
Collectively, households will now benefit to the tune of £900, with a reduction from 12 to 8 per cent in less than four months.
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The only real losers from the budget are pensioners, who pay no NI, and smokers, as cigarettes will cost an average of £16 per pack.
Sun tax expert Jim Lee looked at the finances of six Sun readers from all walks of life – and found they would all be better off as a result of the measures.
Here, these readers explain how the budget will affect them and how they are likely to vote next one general election.
Couple – £597 per year better off
PHILLIP and Lindsey Lee, both 40, are feeling quite comfortable, but the cost of living crisis still prevents them from saving for the future. future.
Phillip earns £30,000 a year as an administrator for a surveying company, while nursery assistant Lindsey earns £25,000.
The mortgage on their home in Tamworth, Staffs, recently rose to 4.84 per cent, meaning they have to find an extra £230 a month. So they were happy to be almost £600 a year better off than the previous National Insurance cut.
Phillip says: “The cut to National Insurance was big again, almost £600, just like last time. We cannot complain. More money in your pocket is always welcome. It gives us some breathing room.
“I will still vote Tory, but I’m afraid it was a short-term budget.
“Now that inflation is coming down, I feel like things are better than before.
“And it seems like the Conservatives care about people like us going to work.”
Couple with children – £177 better off
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CARE home workers Dan Scarfe, 36, and wife Emma, 33, benefited from a pay rise of almost £2,500 thanks to the National Living Wage increase in the November autumn statement.
This time they are just under £200 better off thanks to the two per cent discount on the NI.
Dan works at night and earns £14,500 a year, while Emma works during the day for £19,500. This way the Ipswich couple can save on childcare for sons Oliver, six, and Luke, four.
They will receive £39.90 a week in child benefit, which will rise by 6.5 per cent in April.
Dan says: “It feels like we are better off now than we were before the last budget in November. We are cautiously optimistic about how things are going overall.”
The family welcomed the fuel duty freeze, for which the Chancellor thanked The Sun’s Keep It Down campaign.
Dan added: “I don’t think this budget will change anything in the way I vote. I had previously planned to vote for the Labor Party, but nothing has changed.”
Spring budget at a glance
Disabled worker – £517 better off
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OLANIYI ALABI earns £28,000 as a co-ordinator at London’s King’s College Hospital.
The father of one, who suffers from it poliodrives from his rented house in Westminster to work and spends £300 a month on petrol.
His wife, Jumoke, 39, earns £23,000 as a support worker. Together they were £517 a year better off thanks to the two per cent cut in national insurance announced in November.
Yesterday’s further cut to eight per cent means they will be a further £517 better off.
Olaniyi, who has a daughter Oyindamola, seven, said: “It will really make a difference. I’m glad they gave something back.”
He was relieved by the petrol tax freeze and said: “My car is like my legs, that’s what I need to get around. You don’t want to have to pay to go to work.”
But he doubts whether the effort to make public services more productive will work. He said: “They have pumped money into NHS IT for years and it has made no difference.” He still doesn’t know who he will vote for.
High earners – £1,508 better off
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BETWEEN them, banker Nigel Owen, 46, and wife Marianne, 48, who works in recruitment, earn £180,000 a year.
The couple live in East Molesey, Surrey, with Marianne’s 16-year-old son.
November’s cuts to National Insurance left them £1,508 better off.
They will gain the same again after yesterday’s identical measure, so they are up over £3,000 in total.
Nigel says: “It was a great budget, but will it change the election outcome? I doubt it.
“It helps us, but I think more could have been done for the young and less well-off.”
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However, Nigel supports the chancellor’s plan to make the NHS more efficient.
He says: We have great doctors and nurses, but it’s the people you see wandering around with clipboards. If the NHS were a corporate entity you could reduce waste.
“I don’t see things getting better under Labor. I still plan to vote Tory.”
White van man – £228 better off
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STEPHEN JACKSON set up a removals company after being left out of work when the steelworks in Redcar, North Yorks, closed.
He earns around £2,000 a month but pays up to £300 a week in fuel for his Ford van.
The 59-year-old from Middlesbrough was £294 a year better off because of the National Insurance cut for the self-employed in November, and the new cut will save him £228.
Stephen said: “The fuel duty freeze is really good news for me. I spend about $1,200 a month filling my van.
“Any increase would have really affected me, so I’m glad the chancellor is giving motorists a break. It’s making a change.”
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If the 5p fuel duty freeze had not been extended, it would have cost him £480 a year.
He added: “The NI cut is good news.
“It’s not much, but anything left over at the end of the month isn’t a bad thing. In the past I have always voted PvdA, this time I am undecided.
“I would consider voting for the Tories, but they still have to do something to convince me.”
Smoker – £93 better off
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HAIR stylist Rebecca Suter smokes 16 packs of cigarettes a month, which costs £2,304 a year.
The one-off price increase of 40p per pack means the 46-year-old from Loughborough, Leics, will be £77 worse off a year.
As a self-employed person, single Rebecca will benefit from the National Insurance discount, giving her an extra £170.
She says: “I’ll have to try to cut back. I’ve started vaping a little. However, it is not the same.
“I remember saying years ago that if cigarettes ever cost more than £10 a pack I would give it up. But here I am and it costs £16 a pack and I’m still smoking.
“I have no idea yet how I’m going to vote. I don’t think you can change things overnight.
“Rishi hasn’t had that long to prove himself and a lot has happened in the world, so he hasn’t had a chance.
“I will not vote for the PvdA anyway. I can’t stand Keir Starmer. It’s either I vote Tory or I don’t vote at all, and not voting is a waste of the vote.”
Analysis by Harry Cole, political editor of The Sun
So Jeremy Hunt has kicked off the election campaign with a very political budget.
There was a lot of shouting, but with the cupboard bare there weren’t as many giveaways as a Chancellor would have wanted on the eve of battle.
As he presented what is likely to be the last budget before Britain goes to the polls this autumn, the somber faces behind him might suggest that Tory MPs thought it would not be enough to turn around the Conservatives’ dismal figures.
Even with some tax cuts, the government’s problem is that the tax burden is still at its highest level since 1947.
And no one really thinks this will fall rather than rise under Labor.
Plus, the cold, hard numbers are hard to run.
The budget’s fine print shows an additional £186.6 billion in stealth taxes over the next five years: more than double the combined £105.4 billion savings from the combined tax cuts last November and today.
Also painful is the OBR’s prediction that net migration will remain around 300,000 indefinitely and that Tory tax changes have actually worsened Britain’s problems.
As more people move into higher tax brackets, it appears that fewer people are bothering to work harder.
But the shape of the Tory manifesto is coming into view, with the abolition of National Insurance clearly set to become a key election issue.
The double taxation of wages through the NICS and income tax is a long-standing quirk of our complex tax system, but abolishing it completely would be eye-wateringly expensive.
That said, Hunt has cut earnings by 4p to 8p in the pound in just six months, hence abandoning the prospect of phasing it out completely over the next five years.
But given the enormous national security bills coming our way, huge compensation payments and sustained government spending, is that loss of state revenue really credible?
I suspect we will be discussing this for much of the election campaign.
Hunt peppered his hour-long speech with attacks on the opposition parties and numerous name checks – and real checks – on key marginal seats that the government hopes to save at the election.
Given how often he mentioned his own seat in Surrey and the vicious puppet among the Liberal Democrats who could oust him, it’s clear the Chancellor is as concerned about his own seat as anyone else’s.
It was the most testy Budget I can remember, with numerous interventions from the Deputy Leader required after Labor had fought its way through the measures.
If this is the shape of the coming election campaign, it will be a very long year…