The Emergency Budget 2010: 3 Minute Guide

Hi all,

Just to answer some of your questions:

The government have now provided some clarification on their plans to increase the state pension age to 66. It won't happen immediately, but could be brought in for men as soon as 2016 and a couple of years later for women (potentially 2020). See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/politics/10398918.stm for more info.

VAT on gas and electricity will remain at its reduced rate of 5%.

The £1,000 increase in personal allowance is just for those under 65. As of yet there has been no mention of an increase for those aged 65+ but an announcement is rumoured for Autumn.

Hope this helps!

Hannah

I feel the extra stress of being forced to take a medical test if you are on DLA is a very strange one. I can understand it for incapacity benefit which is useally for short-term illness, but people on dla have in the main progressive long-term conditions that may vary day to day but do not get better!

The thing that I see is that they have robbed the poor again to give to the rich. Also why put up the pension age to make the older generation work more years when the younger generation has a lot of them on Benefits and some of them do not want to work!! The banks were given more money to pay off their debts but are still hounding those of us,who also got into difficulties, for the money we borrowed from them!! I lost out on the insurance, not remembering to claim it, when I became ill with cancer, and I never smoked in my life, before you think that was the reason. My husband left me, just before that, with 3 kids to bring up on my own, so some single parents do not choose to be single, so why should they all be made to work. I had 3 jobs before I got ill but still had to fight now for the new ESA Benefit. While those who are already on incapacity are not re-assessed.

I AM NOT SURE WHERE I STAND WITH THIS BUDGET?I KNOW I AM GOING TO BE WORST OFF WITH THE INCREASE IN VAT FOR A STRART OFF.AS I AM REGISTERED DISABLED, I GET DISABILITY LIVING ALLOW.CARE ALLOWANCE, MOTABILITY ALLOW WHICH PAYS FOR THE CAR I NEED TO GET AROUND IN? HOUSING BEIFIT AND COUNCIL BENIFIT + PENSION CREDIT. WILL THESE'S BE IN CREASED IF SO YIPPEE AND AS I AM 63YRS OLD WILL I HAVE TO WAIT TILL I'M 66 TO GET MY OLD AGE PENSION? CAN SOMBODY GIVE ME THE ANSWER'S IN PLAIN ENGLISH,I HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO WORK FOR THE LAST TEN YEARS DUE TO A SPINIAL INJURY.SO DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE BIT ABOUT IT BEING RELATED TO BEING LINKED TO WHAT I HAVE EARNED.

I am pleased that out of work parents are being made to look for work, although its hard to work whilst looking after a family it can be done, I work nights and my husband works days so we can split child care as its to expensive therefore not an option for us.It is hard but can be done and am glad that it won't feel like i'm worse of for working! which at the moment is does!!

people have only themselves to blame for voting conservative as i know i've been infinitely worse off in my life with a conservative goverment versus labour goverment. i expected and got a budget to favour rich and upper class as they always have done through my lifetime.

a 79 year old pensioner

Living in a high property value / low income area of the country I cannot see how the cap on housing benefit will work. Perhaps the budget should have limited the amount Landlords can charge in rent by increasing tax over a certain level.

Did anyone really expect to be better off after this budget? I think its time everyone stopped moaning, put a smile on their faces, stopped thinking the world owes them a favour and got on with life, with or without a new widescreen TV/car/holiday/dvd player/pack of cigarettes etc. If you can walk, talk, sing, dance, laugh - who needs much money? And Banjoax I think you'll find the only reason the tories and their 'henchmen' have had to introduce these 'atrocities' is because of the previous government.

Allowance thresholds for over 65 and 80 year old not mentioned specifically.

As we are led to believe that alcohol and tobacco not only harm health but result in public service costs, i.e policing, A&E, hospitalisation etc, surely a hefty tax should have been imposed.

Armed Forces, while tax has been meddled with, should surely benefit those brave people who put their lives at risk in war torn zones, why not tax exemption on all earnings when performing tours of duty in such areas.

Not enough action taken on the super rich, ok let the savers who have bought a second home alone but what about the people who have 3/4/5/6 etc, they should be caned.

Nothing done about the risky reckers (Bankers) but lets hope that legislation will come shortly to place banking back to where it used to be, there for customer service in respect of money deposits, saving, loans etc and still make money and divorce all other risk elements, prime mortgages, hedge funds to a seperate entity. Good article.

Just want to say that i have been single parent for years and have work full time since she was 12 weeks old, who also has diabetes since the age of 3 years old, on average wages, and back in my day had to pay for child minder, because there was no help so far as I am concern single parents should be made to work if only part time,now my daughter aged 19 she knows that if she wants anything she has to work for it.

Well what can I say, you voted them in now you have to put up with them..

A concise and easily understadable summary....well done !

The LOW Paid are getting hit AGAIN,with the increase in V.A.T.!Do away with tax credits,and put different circumstances on your tax code,the way it used to be.Common sense.But we can't exspect common sense from any Goverment!!?

did anyone really expect to be better off after this budget? This country is in the worst mess since the war and at least they have had the nerve to make come cuts which is more than the previous government did. We should all stop moaning and get on with it, with or without a new DVD/tv/car/holiday/cigarette. If you can walk, talk, sing, dance, laugh you don't need too much money. And Banjoax and I think you'll find the only reason the tories and 'henchmen' have had to introduce these 'atrocities' is down to the last government.

Does exactly what is says on the tin!

Great to summarise the budget for people who didn't have the time to sit through it, and definitely didn't want to wade through it this evening. well done!

It was great to get a short overview with all the talking cut out and it made for easy reading that was also understandable

Concise, speedy: well done.

As you can see by the name, I have 4 children and have always worked,mostly minimum wage jobs, I have no family or friends who could help with childcare and only a few months ago had 3 different jobs, so I agree with the point that single mums should be encouraged to go to work. I did and yes it can sometimes be hard, but the days your off work you appreciate the time with your children more and vice versa. I still make meals from scratch and bake with the kids, the house isn't as spotless as I would like but every saturday morning we all muck in together and the kids have a room each to clean for their pocket money. Its not easy but it is worth it and when you have children their are 2 things you should always do- Love them and provide for them, benefits should be there for those who truly need them, not for those who just want them, maybe those on benefits should do voluntary work until a job is found!?!

Re Income tax rates for pensioners over 65yrs. What will be the position for these rates from 2011. Will we be getting any increase over and above what we already get i.e. £9460 ?????

I am worried about the cap in rent. Im looking for a 3Bedrm house now and the rent is £573 per month. What does this mean for me. Apart from this i'm happy with the budget .

For people already struggling the rise in vat when it kicks in, will affect almost everything bought whether services or goods and could be the last straw. We may all be in this together but those that have money will still be comfortable and individual top bankers will still be laughing all the way to the bank!

public sector pensions will rise in line with the Consumer Price Index as opposed to the Retail Price Index.

Does this mean the public sector will be better off with their gold plated pensions that everyone else pays for?

Not feeling the housing benefit being capped like that. Most rent is above that and if there no work around to pay the diff with other house hold bills the budget will cause a depression/credit crunch all over again

Again they pick on the low income familys and the sick and disabled. It's hard for able body people to fined work how difficult do they think it will be for disabled people that have been ill for a long time and have little or no experance to walk in to work places? What r they doin about the in flux of imigrants taking the jobs that the British people need. I feel completly let down by Lib dems I think they sold every one that voted for the down the river just to get some power. Mark my words: they will desert a sinking ship as soon as the conservatives make a muck of things and will hope that people will vote for them. Well I for one will never again.

I think u should get rid of all wasting goverment bodies and their wages for non-working people forced to do community services for so called job seekers allowance, cancel vat and taxes reduced. This so called goverment is a joke; they charge working class over and over on the same products. They charge working class more money the harder they work whereas unemployed people that have no interest in working get free prescriptions, free dental cheaper rates on everything gyms etc whereas all the working class pay for those unable to get a job while other members of this planet travel hundreds of miles to come to this country and get a job. This goverment is looking after the wasters and themselves and the worst of all is working people do nothing so everybody has a choice shut up and pay up or sit in the house and let somebody else pay for them. That's the goverment we have allowed there should be better rates for the working community and punishment for scumbags that refuse to work.

This doesn't sound as bad as we had all feared and it is because of the Labour government's incompetency that we all now have to pay. I was pleased to see that the Queen has not had a further increase, she, like the rest of us will have to bear these cutbacks, although she is rather better placed than most of us financially.

Very pleased that low paid families will be better off. My partner works very hard for a low paid job and is exhausted when he gets home.

Why pick on long term sick? We already have regulare medicals. Try having pain every day with the words sorry you are to old or you are to young nothing we can do. No but if it was cameron or family members there would be something we can do. They just make me angry.

Thank you for this summary of the budget. I am still trying to get my head round it. Oone thing for sure, I will have to tighten my belt.

as per usual, noone is really any better off, they all promise the earth and deliver bugger all!!!

Will the Tax Free Allowance for over 65's and 80 year olds also increase by £1,000 next April?

All day I have heard that the income tax allowance is to go up £1000 from April. No mention of any similar increase for those over 65. Any body know??

what happens to age related tax threshold?

What will be the VAT on power, does anyone know?

Thanks very much for the information, very informative and easy to understand. Keep up the brill work, and thanks again.

I am 59 years and 10 months old. I am wondering how this will effect my retirement at 65 years. I would hope that I will still be OK at 65 to get my state pension. My company pension kicks in at 60 years if I want to claim it. They (Government) were not clear about the eccellerated pension details. I will be very annoyed if I am effected by this.

I am just coming up to 64, so what does accelerating the pension age to 66 mean - when will this take place?

For goodness sake, stop the complaints now about the VAT rise, it amounts to 25p on a £10 purchase, £2.50 on £100 and £25 on £1,000. I bet many of the complainers are the ones who happily pay HUGE interest paymnents on their Credit Card! Try shopping around too, to reduce spending.

A budget from a man with £40 million in the bank, I still can't hear him feeling the pain that most of us other mere mortals are going through.

The good news to come out of this scenario is that it may well ring the graveyard chimes for both the Tories and their henchmen, the Lib Dems who were not voted in to carry out this sort of atrocity.

Welcome to the new depression, thanks to the old school tie brigade, may they be put in front of the Eton Rifles and not offered a final cigarette.

Well done! Thanks

Typical Tory trick to catch the low paid trick / Fuel payments will still rise onthe two and half per cent vat . that is not to what they not telling us . Dicusting

A GOOD SUMMARY; HOWEVER, I DIDN'T SEE ANYTHING MORE ABOUT HELP FOR PENSIONERS, OR ABOLITION/ INCREASE IN WINTER FUEL ALLOWANCE, WAS THERE ANYTHING?