I've read your comments about what you call the 'do-nothing' budget, but you haven't mentioned the increased personal tax allowances for over-65s, and for the increase in the married tax allowance.  My husband and I are very interested in these.  You could have at least clarified what the increases are and when they start, because GB whizzed through and didn't give much detail.  From my reading, it seems that tax allowances for 65-74 will go up from £7280 to £7550, and it seems to be from the next tax year, which is only a couple of weeks away.  This has got to be good news - hasn't it? 

In addition, for those of us claiming the married tax allowance, this seems to be going up at the same time, from £6065 to £6285.  We claim this and we split it between us, to set against our individual pensions income. 

There was also a mention of grants for pensioners to install 'green' heating and insulation in their homes - this, I think, is a useful measure (although it won't affect us - everything is done that could be done). 

So it's not accurate to say it's a 'do nothing Budget'. 

Margaret

Dear Margaret

Thanks for your comments, and I'm sorry you found our reporting negative. Our full press release did contain a mention of the increased personal tax allowance, but I'm sure you can appreciate that web pages need to be even shorter than printed news pieces, since people do not enjoy reading long screens of text. I therefore decided to cut the story to the salient points that backed up the headline. However, I have passed your comments to our Head of Public Affairs.

Kate Roberts

Editorial Assistant

Help the Aged

Hi Kate Elizabeth

   Thanks for your response, and I appreciate what you're saying.  I've also read numerous comments elsewhere, the BBC site for example, and it seems that a lot of people are not happy that nothing was done for their particular group, as they see it. No mention of help with council tax, with winter fuel etc. 

   I'm still looking into this, but it seems that we (that's my husband and I) are among the few winners from this Budget because our age-related tax allowances go up meaning that we pay less tax, and that has got to be good news.

   I have read elsewhere that only a minority of retired women receive full state retirement pension in their own right, and I'm in that minority. But obviously, I would prefer not to have to pay a lot of tax against pension income, and the Budget proposals do help.

   Margaret

Hi Margaret

I'm very glad that you and your husband are amongst the few winners from this Budget! Unfortunately the poorest older people are definitely not amongst the winners, though. Here is a further comment from our Policy team:

"The paramount need amongst our poorest pensioners is for help with the substantial increases in the cost of fuel and council tax, and for the social care services which local authorities are increasingly rationing. Across these issues, the Budget offered no help at all. The tax changes, by definition, will affect only those paying tax, and it is a measure of how slender the incomes of our pensioners are that after these tax changes, only 42 per cent of pensioners will be paying tax. For the record, a single pensioner with an income of 10,000 will be £58 better off next year as a result of the tax changes - a pound a week. That is not a lot to cheer about."

Kate