budget on Wednesday

So he's going to let pensioners who are already receiving their pension take the lump sum pot that is paying for their pension and leave them with no income if they spend it.

What a brilliant idea . Cash in your pension, spend it and then get benefits

The insurance companies are going to love him

 

For those of us that have been getting our pensions for years it will be interesting to see what our pension providers are going to say to us. Will they be wooing us with new products for us to move our pension into? What about the State pension?

Then there's the 'After I Kick The Bucket' tax. They've been talking about it for years (in their pre-election manifestos last time) but not doing anything.

Also, the price of houses in the south (particularly London) needs something done about it. All the parties have been waffling on about the 'Mansion Tax' but 60% of properties in London would come within the range that they've been talking about.

The trouble is that it's been left much too late to be able to pull the price of houses down to an affordable level for most people. In most of London the price for a two bedroom house ranges from £350k (for a property in the least popular areas and in need of work) to a more normal price of half a million or more and right up to six million as you move further into the centre.

The 'Mansion Tax' (as the politicians have been talking about it) would hit a large proportion of retired people in London and the south who have been in their houses since they were young. It seems to me that the quick way to tackle the situation of too many outsiders buying up property as an investment (which is happening quite a lot) and forcing the prices even higher, is to bring in a 'Mansion Tax' for only purchases from the date of the start of the tax. Not for existing owners who are actually living in their houses. For existing owners that have houses that are empty or not the main home, they should also come within the range of the tax but with certain criteria for exemption.

People that have well kept gardens should have a discount on their Council Tax and a further discount if they grow their own produce . Vote For Shiney