General election July 4th

[ChrisJ]

 

[exeterjeep]

If the pictures move - reminds me of the pics in Harry Potter

[pete]

Once upon a time, there was a king who decided to go fishing. Before setting off, he called the royal weather forecaster and asked for the weather prediction for the next few hours. The forecaster confidently assured the king that there was no chance of rain in the coming days.

Trusting the weatherman's expertise, the king and his wife, the queen, set out for their fishing trip. On their way, they encountered a farmer riding a donkey. The farmer, noticing the royal couple, respectfully warned, "Your Majesty, you should head back to the palace immediately. I predict that a heavy downpour is about to fall in this area."

The king, though polite, dismissed the farmer's warning with a smile. "I hold my palace meteorologist in high regard," he said. "He is highly educated and experienced, and I pay him handsomely for his services. He assured me that there would be no rain, so I trust his forecast and will continue on my way."

Ignoring the farmer's advice, the king and queen continued on their journey. But soon, the skies opened up, and a torrential rain began to pour. The king and queen were drenched, and their entourage couldn't help but chuckle at the sight of them, soaked and humiliated.

Furious, the king returned to the palace and immediately fired the royal meteorologist. He then summoned the farmer and offered him the prestigious and well-paying position of royal forecaster.

The farmer, surprised, replied, "Your Majesty, I don't know anything about weather forecasting. I simply observe my donkey. When his ears droop, it’s a sure sign that rain is on the way."

Amused by the farmer’s simplicity, the king decided to hire the donkey instead.

And so began the practice of appointing "dumb asses" to hold important positions in the government—an unfortunate tradition that, it seems, continues to this day.

[Chillidoggy]

£100 million to settle the with the train drivers. Fares will have to increase.

[exeterjeep]

52 minutes ago, Chillidoggy said:

£100 million to settle the with the train drivers. Fares will have to increase.

Just as well us pensioners gave up our winter fuel payment to help the train drivers get their increase and the agreement does not seem to have any improved working practices. I still suggest that train drivers should not be paid more than bus drivers.

[pete]

No strings offer takes average train drivers salary to £65,000 from £60,000

[Kimbers]

It's always been the way that those who have no representation or aren't allowed to strike get worse deals than those who do. Look at Nurses. My wife lost nearly 20% of her Salary over 10 years, against Inflation. One pay deal was 3% over 5 years and another offered was 1% over 3 years. Frankly, it shows how bad it had got that they eventually went on strike as it was unheard of before!

However those who seem to strike "more regularly" such as Railway workers, Teachers etc always get the better payouts.

Sadly Pensioners can't strike. The only thing I hope they do is vote against them at the next elections.

[Chillidoggy]

And, as expected, the small boat crossings continue unabated. Unsurprisingly, the traffickers are sticking two fingers up to Starner’s wagging finger. The costs must be astronomical.

[C8RKH]

On 12/08/2024 at 12:37, Kimbers said:

Rumours are they are going to tax Private pensions. One of my friends has already started drawing his down.

Anyone know if they can do that? tax the money you have in your pension already?

From what I have seen, my understanding is that they are looking at removing the higher rate tax contribution that the Government makes. In effect, when a higher rate tax payer puts into their pension, not only can it be salary sacrifice (so taken out before tax, reducing your tax liability on your salary), but the Government also "adds" in an additional 40%. So to putting £100 into your pension only costs a higher rate tax payer £60. It is this I believe they will go after as the impact will ONLY be on higher tax payers so will be palatable for the mass voters. I may be wrong, but we need to wait till October.

When you do take your pension, it is treated as income, so you pay tax on anything over the £12750 odd personal allowance, but NOT National Insurance (as long as you're over the state retirement age).

One of the worse things you can do, financially, is to take out your 25% lump sum  upfront. It's like a PCP deal, it might seem like a good idea but it ends up costing you a lot in the long run.

[C8RKH]

No doubt Labour will be taking the credit...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq82y55jg35o

[Chillidoggy]

1 hour ago, C8RKH said:

One of the worse things you can do, financially, is to take out your 25% lump sum  upfront. It's like a PCP deal, it might seem like a good idea but it ends up costing you a lot in the long run.

Really? Not what my accountant told me. Have things changed? Please expand!

[C8RKH]

15 minutes ago, Chillidoggy said:

Really? Not what my accountant told me. Have things changed? Please expand!

My Financial Adviser "advised" me not to.

You can "drawdown" from your pension pot and take 25% of each drawdown (to the £250k ish limit) tax free, which means the rest is still invested in a tax friendly wrapper and you will benefit from the growth.

Imagine drawing down £250K tax free, and putting into "savings", or buying a car with it etc.  You could have gotten a 5-10% investment return on that, so another £12,500 - £25,000 per annum, tax free into your pension, each year. In savings, you'd probably get 1-4%, so £2,500 to £10,000  a year but you'd be stung for interest tax on that.

You could put £40k of it every year into ISA's to give you the fiuture tax free benefits again (£20k each for you and your partner).

Also for inheritance tax purposes, your pension "pot" does not count, iirc.

I am sure everyone's situation is different, base on what you have, how it is constructed etc, but my advice was to keep it in if I could. A lot of people have taken the 25% and splurged it on cars, holidays etc. That's their choice of course.

[Kimbers]

Ref Pensions, I only have an income of £1100 a month even if I keep paying in at my current rate (£450 a month) AND don't retire till I am 67.

 I could get better savings using it to pay off my £150k mortgage (£1600 a month) that way instead of an income of £1000 a month I save £1600 a month.

Which makes sense to me?

 

[red vtec]

At present we are heading more to a Huxley future then an Orwellian one. 

@C8RKH regards ISA it remains to be seen if Labour will cut the amount you can put in. 

[C8RKH]

6 minutes ago, red vtec said:

@C8RKH regards ISA it remains to be seen if Labour will cut the amount you can put in. 

Agreed.

Labour, the party for the working person, but not if that working person wants to invest in their own financial security for the future.

Labour has always seemed to have an issue with hard working people, building up savings for their future. They have consistently battered the aspirational working class person to pay for the profligacy of the scroungers and scrotes who won't work, don't want to work, and expect everyone else to subsidise and pay for their life choices and their lifestyles. Calling Labour the party for the working class has been bullshit for decades now.

[exeterjeep]

2 hours ago, C8RKH said:

When you do take your pension, it is treated as income, so you pay tax on anything over the £12750 odd personal allowance, but NOT National Insurance (as long as you're over the state retirement age).

When I took my personal pension at age 52.5, it was 'just' income tax to pay as I was not working - there was no NI. 

[C8RKH]

57 minutes ago, exeterjeep said:

When I took my personal pension at age 52.5, it was 'just' income tax to pay as I was not working - there was no NI. 

Ah, I need to check that, I was under the impression (maybe wrongly) that NI only stopped when you retired (i.e. state retirement age).

From Government websote:

Stop paying National Insurance

Even if you’re still working, when you reach State Pension age you usually stop paying National Insurance contributions.

You can claim back National Insurance if you’ve overpaid.

If you’re self-employed

Your Class 2 National Insurance contributions will no longer be treated as paid. You stop paying Class 4 National Insurance from 6 April (start of the tax year) after you reach State Pension age.

For example, you reach State Pension age on 6 September 2024. You’ll stop making Class 4 contributions from 6 April 2025 and pay your final Class 4 bill by 31 January 2026, together with your Income Tax.

[exeterjeep]

yep but I was not working...... Also when I retired the rules said that to get a full state pension you needed 30 years full NI contributions, I had 31, but when I came to claim my miserable state pension they had changed the rules to require 35 years full NI, (and of course the actual retirement age changed as well) so I topped up a couple of years so I actually get  34/35 of the full state pension. To do this one has to have a chat with HMRC pension to check the benefits of which / how many extra years are worth topping up. 

[Kevin Wheeler]

Pension income is not subject to NIC

[Barrykearley]

Emergency budget

[PaulCP]

9 hours ago, C8RKH said:

My Financial Adviser "advised" me not to.

You can "drawdown" from your pension pot and take 25% of each drawdown (to the £250k ish limit) tax free, which means the rest is still invested in a tax friendly wrapper and you will benefit from the growth.

Imagine drawing down £250K tax free, and putting into "savings", or buying a car with it etc.  You could have gotten a 5-10% investment return on that, so another £12,500 - £25,000 per annum, tax free into your pension, each year. In savings, you'd probably get 1-4%, so £2,500 to £10,000  a year but you'd be stung for interest tax on that.

You could put £40k of it every year into ISA's to give you the fiuture tax free benefits again (£20k each for you and your partner).

Also for inheritance tax purposes, your pension "pot" does not count, iirc.

I am sure everyone's situation is different, base on what you have, how it is constructed etc, but my advice was to keep it in if I could. A lot of people have taken the 25% and splurged it on cars, holidays etc. That's their choice of course.

Andy, I think the advice is different if your pension is of the “defined benefit” type.

Whilst the calculation is basically the same, much depends on guaranteed benefits of individual schemes.

[C8RKH]

7 hours ago, exeterjeep said:

To do this one has to have a chat with HMRC pension to check the benefits of which / how many extra years are worth topping up. 

You can do it online now through the Government Website.

[exeterjeep]

[Chillidoggy]

Talking of which, where IS the Messiah these days? I’ve seen virtually no media interviews, reports or the like, except maybe for a few quotes. Instead, he appears to be keeping a very low profile.

[C8RKH]

Probably hiding in a bunker with Reeve's as the news continues to get better re the economy, and working out how they are going to spin the tax hikes AND the expected huge increase in GP pay and allowances. You just cannot make up what Labour are doing - piling the pressure on the working person and upping the pay of the public sector and the workers in their big union donors like train drivers. No idea how a train driver can earn a base of £65k when a bus driver earns £25k. Seems the Tories didn't leave the economy in as big a mess as we all thought, which, in itself, is a surprising achievement given how dysfunctional they were.