Pre-budget report need not be all bad news, say Christian finance experts

|PIC1|As the nation chews over Alistair Darling’s pre-budget report, Christian finance experts say it need not be all doom and gloom.

The pre-budget report comes down hardest on the middle class and high earners with rises in national insurance contributions and the end of higher-rate tax relief on money saved in a pension for people earning between £130,000 and £180,000.

Critics are warning that higher national insurance contributions would threaten job creation, investment and trade, while the CBI said that the 50 per cent one-off tax on bankers’ bonuses may put the UK at a disadvantage on the international level.

The Chancellor faced accusations today of putting populist appeal before the country’s economic recovery by attempting to steer the UK out of its financial woes with tax hikes rather than tackling the excessive spending blamed for the crisis.

Chris Tapp, head of financial charity Credit Action, said painful measures like rises in VAT and national insurance were necessary to help the economy get back on its feet.

“It was always going to be a PBR that in the long term left us all slightly worse off but given the situation the country is in and the level of national debt, that is necessary and people need to prepare themselves,” he said.

He said the levee on bank bonuses reflected the public’s sense of injustice over huge bonuses being awarded to bankers who had not performed as well as they could have in the last few years.

“Banks have generally benefitted massively from the action of the Government and the fact that the tax payer is going to be paying for the economic crisis for years and years in tax rises and reduced spending,” he said.

“While economically the tax (on bankers’ bonuses) is insignificant, I think broadly we would agree with the sentiment.”

He welcomed provisions to protect pensioners and recipients of child or disability benefits but admitted that the report was a fairly gloomy reflection of reality as the UK faces the prospect of a national debt of £1.5 trillion.

“In pure financial terms it isn’t particularly good news for anybody but that needn’t be particularly bad news for anybody,” he said.

“If you are still working and there is still income coming in and if you are able to manage that money well, then it is still possible to have a very, very happy Christmas and for the value and level of that happiness not to be measured by a pound sign.

“The recession has woken people up slightly to the fact that things that are of real value are not measured financially.

“If people can think a little bit more in that way and continue to do so, that it’s not that we all forget when the economy recovers and we get back to the situation where it’s all about ‘oh I need to buy a new house, I need a better car or a new job’, and that’s what we equate with happiness, then that would be no bad thing.”

Mark Crofts, Chair of the Association of Christian Financial Advisers, said that some aspects of the pre-budget report were just about winning votes, like the reduction in bingo tax, but said there were also good points, like the continued care of the vulnerable with the increase in pensions and benefits.

He encouraged people to view the state of their own and the nation’s finances with a long-term perspective.

“One budget doesn’t make a whole economy and God’s perspective is very different from our perspective about how the economy runs,” he said. “It’s accepting that we are where we are now and we are looking for God to put his hand back on a righteous market.

"Taking this long-term perspective on our finances will help us all to see that it’s not simply doom and gloom."