Budget Reaction with Tom and Demi

0:00What did you say to me before we hit record? Are we paying people to stay at home, I think, and come out with business ideas? But you have to apply. You're a cynic, Tom. Vote for Pete. No, absolutely not. I'm not standing.

0:11Pete Matthew: Wouldn't have it. Hi, and welcome back to Meaningful Money. This is session number 644, and it's a sort of a budget response. Now, we're recording this only, well, less than sort of two hours after the Chancellor has sat down, so it's quite a quick budget response. But I'm joined by Demi and Tom from Jackson's. Welcome, folks. Hello. Thank you. Yeah, different faces and voices on Meaningful Money. Not Roger, because we couldn't get him. He's too busy being retired. So great to have you guys with me. Demi and Tom are both charter financial planners and members of the senior leadership team at Jackson's.

0:43So let's start with pensions.

0:45Pete Matthew: There were a few things that always come up before every budget, and the government had headed a couple of them off in advance, and we also knew some stuff in advance. Do you want to start there, Tom? So no changes to tax-free cash, which I think is free budget what always comes up the most for as long as I've been doing my job always concerns about that but they announced early on that there was no changes there do you think that's because it's been so horrific the last couple of years I think so yeah there's been even providers have said if you take your tax free cash this isn't now we're not undoing it yeah we're not undoing it and I think yeah a lot of people just panic because they don't want to lose that understandable feels like part of the contract isn't it you're saving to a pension that's a big part of why you do it yeah if you're just coming up to retirement or you're just retired then you're a bit scared that's going to be taken away from you.

1:29I feel like they'll never do that. I mean, imagine what they'll take.

1:32Pete Matthew: It's going to be very unpopular. Very unpopular with sort of high percentage of, you know, more sort of folks at that time of life are voting, aren't they? Yeah. Yeah, that would seem daft. Yeah. So no change to tax recast, which is good. And we already knew about pensions coming into the inheritance tax regime. Yeah. So that was under Rachel Reeves. That had come already. She'd already announced that at a previous budget, but that comes in in April next year, 2027. Which we're all very excited about. Yeah, getting our heads around that. It's like the topic of conversation with clients, isn't it?

2:03It is, definitely, yeah. Mainly because, again, it's changes to the way people approach retirement, I guess, beforehand. People are using it as almost an inheritance tax tool and that's sort of been taken off the table now as an option. It has.

2:18Pete Matthew: Which, I mean, obviously for us it's very frustrating. For our clients it's very frustrating having, in many cases sort of spent down or been spending down their other money, leaving the pension funds intact because it was so inheritance tax efficient. For that to be taken away at a sweep is... I mean, we've got used to the idea now, but there's still a lot of people very, very cross about that. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I remember before pensions were in the... when they were not in the inheritance tax regime, when they were before that, and I think when they were not before that. So, you know... if you've seen it was before your time we should just tell you something about how long the tooth am but it's going to change the advice we're already working on that and have been working on that I don't know obviously there's a lot less defined benefit pensions kick you around these days where beforehand quite a few people had those now obviously most clients and most people have DC pots or defined contribution pots so it obviously makes a big impact on people's states yeah yeah so state pension dem came up today.

3:23Pete Matthew: We kind of knew this was going to be an issue. Always in the budget, or usually in the budget, the rise in the state pension gets kind of confirmed, although the maths of how that works is well known anyway. So it's kind of confirmed in the budget. But there's a weird kind of wrinkle with it this year, or from April 2027, isn't there? There is. So the state pension will rise above personal allowance? Above the income tax. Income tax, personal allowance for the first time. so they're introducing a pension tax allowance a new phasing thing yeah um where regardless of the income source even if you didn't have a full state pension um and you therefore had a dc pot defined contribution pot if you took from that and it went up to what the top of the state pension is you wouldn't be subject to tax yeah it's weird little quirk listening nothing like over complicating Nothing over-complicating.

4:17And then that just goes through, they're staging that in till 2030. And then it'll all be aligned, my understanding. Well, we know the allowances are frozen until then. So I guess they're hoping the personal allowance might increase. Fingers crossed for everyone. The state pension's always been taxable, but obviously because it fell within most people's personal allowance. Everyone just sort of thought it was tax-free. This is the first time it's gone above that.

4:41Pete Matthew: Yeah. People often don't understand the kind of income is kind of stacked to determine the order in which it's taxed. And the state pension always comes first. And as you say, because it's always been below the personal allowance, it's been taxable, but at 0%. Yeah. And now not, just a little bit. I think it's 13 ,036 is going to be the new state pension figure. Personal allowance at 12 ,570, so about 93 quid, I think, in tax people are going to need to pay. but this weird sort of additional allowance and as you said, Dem, it doesn't matter the source of the income essentially for pensioners, there's going to be an additional little allowance on top of the personal allowance up to$1303 ,600 for next year.

5:21And don't spend that all at once.

5:24Pete Matthew: You'll be grateful. You'll enjoy that. Yeah, because I think if they did it for the state pension and said that wasn't taxable, then you'd have other people who would have potentially exactly the same income. Very niche situation, I appreciate. Yeah, but from another source and would be subject to tax so create that. It's nice they've been fair. Yeah, they've essentially been fair across the board. Yeah, so no matter the source of income, this extra little allowance, that sort of makes sense. And it's going to taper somehow, I guess, with the amount of income that you're getting. And we know the state pension will continue to rise.

5:54Pete Matthew: That's changing, though. What we currently have is a triple lock and it's from 2030, I believe. Yeah, next parliament. Weird two and a half lock. Two and a half lock, essentially, which is very, very confusing. Isn't it? Yeah. They need to do it, probably, though. Oh, absolutely. They were saying it's going to save, you know. Is it 15 billion? They want to funnel that then into, what's it called? The National Care Service. We'll see. We'll see what it gets spent on at the minute, service and debt. But, you know, we had obviously mass inflation, like 10.4 % state pension increase a couple of years ago, like 2023.

6:26So it's like that's how state pension has gone from like 10 odd grand or whatever it was to now it's 13. It has increased massively. so you can understand why, like as a will payer and I. But as a state burden, you know, financial burden, it is massive. It is unsustainable. So there'll be uproar still about a little bit of tax on state pension. But, you know, with the rises that people have had, actually it's to make that sustainable moving forward for anyone to receive a state pension. That's the idea, isn't it? It's supposed to iron out those huge increases. So hence why the 0.5 almost is basically so earnings, it won't increase with earnings, but it won't go below earnings increasing.

7:07It's weird. So you won't get the 10 % spikes essentially, but you're never going to be worse off. So it does make sense to be fair.

7:15Pete Matthew: So that's pensions. That will affect many of our clients, of course. But even those that it doesn't are going to be affected by changes to taxation and particularly on savings income and property income. Now, this will nearly caught us out, didn't it? Yes, this was sneakily... Thank God for technical Tom. Well, yeah, I'm quite encouraged that you nearly missed it as well as me. Well, yeah, in the budget, essentially Rachel Reeves had already said she was going to increase savings and property income. Taxation. Taxation. Yeah. By 2 % in April 2027. And he, I can't remember what he said word for word, but he basically said it's going to be a 2 % increase in April.

8:00So we sort of assumed, oh, he's just confirming he's not changing that.

8:04Pete Matthew: But actually it's a 2 % on the 2%. On top of that, yes. So it's actually a 4%. So for basic rate, it's going from 20 % to 24%. From April 2027. From April 2027, yeah. And then also up to 44 % and 49 % for higher and additional rate taxpayers. That's quite a big deal, that. It is, yeah. I mean, I know they need to raise money. Is there any element of that, do you think, which might be encouraging people to invest rather than save? I feel like you mentioned that once, but that was sort of in the cash ISA bit, which we'll come to in a minute. I just wonder if making it less tax efficient to save rather than invest, hold money in the bank rather than invest in shares and get dividend income is a bit of another nudge towards investing.

8:49Yeah, potentially, because the dividend rates haven't been affected.

8:53Pete Matthew: John Healy hasn't shared his motivation with me, so that's just speculation. Although, when we were talking about it pre-filming, like Tom said, that should be already accounted for from April 27 within investment bonds, potentially return. Investment bonds are a big deal. Yeah, it's a weird one. Investment income. I mean, that's not all been spelt out yet, but will be. A lot of it hasn't been, I think. Also, like income, interest generated within GAA or OIC accounts. Yeah. So, you know, that does happen. so there's a higher taxation in there across all tax bands. So yes to invest, but you've still only got a 20 grand ISO allowance.

9:32Yeah. So they are coming at you from any angle, really. Always.

9:37Pete Matthew: The investment bond thing is a weird quirk. You raised that before we hit record, Tom, because onshore investment bonds, for those who don't know, there's essentially a kind of, it's not quite a credit. It's almost like because the insurance companies that issue investment bonds pay corporation tax, investors get almost like a basic rate credit. It's like you've, it's assumed that you've already paid basic rate. And, you know, the thing is basic rate is currently 20%. The government have gone, have gone to put it up to 24%. But, if it's just a kind of credit, they've, they've sort of given up that 4 % on investment bond, onshore investment bond gains, haven't they?

10:17Pete Matthew: Which is a bit odd. And so you only really pay, uh, income tax on income, on investment bonds when you surrender them, on the difference between the higher rate and the basic rate, your additional rate and the basic rate. So that difference is still only 20 % because it's 24 and 44 now from April. But with offshore bonds, potentially, if you're a basic rate taxpayer and you surrender an offshore bond where no tax is deemed to have been paid, then potentially you're going to be paying more tax on that, aren't you? Yeah, that would be the new rates. Weird, isn't it? It's pretty niche, that, but still.

10:51Yeah, it is very niche. And I think we'll have to wait to confirm, you know, they could keep it that it's only deemed to pay 20 % maybe still, and it could be that 4%, but that's just me. They need to clarify what a statement income is. I need to do some research into that. But yeah, it would infect.

11:06Pete Matthew: I couldn't see anything in the documents about that. No, but I'm sure. Yeah, it'll be worked out. Yeah, because Rachel Reeves already announced the 2%, that must have been thought through already. It must have been. Yeah, just have to be aware of, really. Interesting to see. We have quite a few clients with investment bonds. You know, they've not been very popular in them. last 10 or 15 years. But prior to that, they were. Lots of people got them inside trusts, which I guess will be a factor as well. So we'll see. And with pensions coming into estates for inheritance tax, you might see them becoming more of an option.

11:36More popular. Yeah, more popular.

11:38Pete Matthew: So this is a factor in that. We knew ahead of time that there was going to be no change to capital gains tax. That was also kind of a fear that people have, but they kind of put that to bed pretty quick. But they have made some changes, particularly to bad relief, business asset disposal relief. The bad relief. Yes, they have slashed it to half. So it was a million pounds relief for business asset disposal. And they're cutting that to 500 ,000. Particularly painful. Particularly painful. What was the calculation, Pete? Well, so if it's, again, should probably explain business asset disposal relief, you basically pay a lower rate of income tax.

12:21Pete Matthew: I'm sorry. you pay a lower rate of capital gains tax on qualifying assets up to currently a million pounds. So the easiest way is for me to put this in personal terms, as painful as it is. So if I was to sell my shares in Jackson's, the first million pounds of gains would be taxed at the lower rate, 18%. Only a couple of years ago, it was 10%. So they've already ramped up the rate by 80 % from 10 to 18. But now instead of it being a million taxed at that lower amount, it's only half a million. So for me, that's 90 grand. Yeah. I'm not selling, so don't worry. Not yet, anyway. And given the intention to sell to an EOT, that is another factor which mitigates that a little bit, but that's not the reason for doing it.

13:04But if you're a business owner, half a million quid's not a lot of money, is it? Yeah, I don't think it is in this day and age. No. There's a lot of extra tax. Like, you know, we work with a lot of business owners, people still running businesses at the point of sale and post-sale. So it's a large extra tax really to be paying from April. As you say, when rates have been hiked considerably in recent years already.

13:29Pete Matthew: It's not a business backing thing, that, is it? No. It's like pushing more businesses out. You know, it's not encouraging people greatly, I would say. Although it goes kind of against some of the other things they've put in. Like they've done young entrepreneurs. well they're not much detail yet but young entrepreneurs allowance um it was a weird thing yeah you can see this is very focused that like young people there's a big focus on like young people people at work that that young generation increased to national wage absolutely it's encouraging people to think outside the box in terms of what what they want to do career-wise and founding companies like increasing the trading allowance you have your own business and 1 ,000 to 3 ,000.

14:13So I do think that's where this kind of focus is. But in terms of long-term, actually building a business, selling your business for 500 grand, that's not a lot of money today. It's a lot of money. It is. It's not a lot of for a trading business. It's not a lot of money. So I think a lot of people are going to be, a lot more people are going to be caught by that than the one in four.

14:33Pete Matthew: Yeah, that's what they quoted. The young entrepreneurs thing is weird, isn't it? What did they say? The living allowance. so money towards your living costs while you essentially set up a business what did you say to me before we hit record are we paying people to stay at home I think and come up with business ideas but you have to apply you're a cynic Tom but yeah I don't know how you'll be a successful applicant but yeah again I think it's trying to encourage people to start businesses but it sounds more I don't know this is my personal opinion it sounds more like side hustle rather than setting up big businesses but I could be wrong.

15:11Pete Matthew: Who knows? But they've also announced something called founder's relief. No details on that at all, really. No. There's a lot of detail missing. Lacking lots of details, yeah. So the business asset deposit relief has been cut and they've set up a founder's relief, which is 10 % CGT, I believe, capital gains tax, on a lifetime limit of 10 million. Yeah, so now we have to define founder. Yeah, well, that's where the key is in the details. So I imagine the criteria for a founder is going to be a lot stricter than it was for business asset relief, essentially. Yeah, I imagine so. I was minus one when Jackson's was founded.

15:49So I was founded the year before I was born, so I definitely don't qualify for that.

15:54Pete Matthew: But yeah, you kind of see what they're trying to do, but it just seems to be adding layer upon layer of complication. Who's tracking it all? Who's being paid to track it all? That's where the tax is raised. Well, yeah, that's where it's going. so it all seems a bit disjointed to me that and certainly not encouraging business but hey just our opinion um yeah yeah your mileage may vary so isis is a big deal um quite a u-turn on that yes so i mean i've had clients in literally this week worrying a little bit about the cash isa allowance being changed um and again they advertised that very like this is what's happening but they've U-turned on that so they were going to cap how much you could put into cash ISA from 2028 to 8 into cash and then the remaining 12 had to go into stocks and shares other way around so under 65 12 went into cash if you want to use the full 20 you've got to put the other 8 into stocks and shares but they're U-turning that so you can still use your full 20 ,000 allowance which has again not been increased so no no change to how much you can put into cash isa which i think again is interesting again with like the drive for investment i could see why they were doing that actually uh i actually disagree no i agree the that was their motive behind it but i disagree that it's the right way about getting people to invest and actually when they started to say so this is before the two percent increase so you're going to start paying 22 on the interest in stocks and shares if it's in cash I think people just go, this is too complicated.

17:32I'm just not going to get involved. Obviously, this is our bread and butter. We look at it day in, day out. But, you know, someone on the, just, and I know our audience is well-educated, but some people struggle with this stuff. Of course they do. When you start saying, oh, the interest in your ISA is going to get taxed at 22 % and it's on this percentage of this. If in this stock, I think people just go, this is really complicated. I'm just going to stick it in the bank.

17:54Pete Matthew: Yeah, yeah, because I know I am. 24 % on the bank. Yeah, and switch off from it. So I think my personal opinion is it isn't, I know what they're trying to do is get people invested and I think that's the right thing to do, but I don't think this is the right mechanism to do it. And this actually got released this morning that they were scrapping it. And a big part of it is like, thank God. Can you imagine? But we've had so many people phone up or say, oh, what do I do? Because people have got over that amount and they think it, because obviously it's on the amount you can contribute, contribute into your ISO.

18:22It's not the amount in your ISO. We've had Lance phone and say, oh, I've got 200 grand in a cash ISO or whatever. I'm really panicking. and it's like no don't worry it has caused a lot of worry because ICAs are like sacred yeah they are they do feel quite sacred especially like for clients cash ICAs yeah so it's like to be mucking around with the one allowance we get that grows tax free just keep it simple and is tax free withdrawable and then adding layers of complexity to that I think that's why clients were bulking yeah I also wonder if this was maybe from this is again cynical just my personal opinion but I wonder if all the providers were like this is going to be such a admin burden yeah for sure to do all this because they were trying to define what was cash.

18:59And if you go into gilts, then that's fine. Yeah, exactly. Money market funds. Money market funds. Up to 99%.

19:04Pete Matthew: And what happens if you just put in, say you're going to fund the 12 grand into your cash ISO, but it sits in there for a week before it gets invested and you get interest on that. Is that then taxable? Yeah, it's ridiculous. I reckon people will have just stopped paying interest on cash ISOs and stuff. Yeah, probably. Just to save the hassle. Yeah. I think it's going to be a burden. Talking of encouraging people to invest, there was talk of a new starter, ISA. I'm not 100 % sure whether that's the right name for it because it sort of changed a little bit between the speech and the documents. But basically an incentive for those who have not invested in stocks and shares, ISA, before.

19:42Pete Matthew: That's all we know. That's all we know. ISA incentive. More to come on that one. Stay tuned. Yeah. I mean, that's got to be a good thing. That makes sense. A lot to be said. we know the benefits of investing versus keeping money in cash but uh you know it needs to be uh it needs to be accessible for young people it needs to be kind of low cost and uh just low friction yeah it'll be really interesting to see what that is yeah um i don't know we're going to touch on it in a minute but the lifetime iso what that was originally intended for is completely different to what it's turned out to be yes you know if if there's maybe setting up uh stocks and shares ISA for like young people maybe even kids and there's like one or two funds to select from which are globally diversified low cost that would be amazing it would like VZI I can't see it happening but you know maybe they contribute to that or put a bonus in and then people can't touch it for you know 10-15 years that would be amazing it'll get people used to it was that that wasn't just for young people though that new ISA incentive I don't know is that just new to stocks and shares as ISA that's how I read it yeah yeah I think it is I was just saying it'd be amazing if they did also sort of like a child trust what are they called child trust yeah before the junior ISAs and something like that would be really good but yeah I remember interviewing the guy that came up with the idea for Lifetime ISA and it was yeah completely the product what we ended up with yeah it was totally different it's meant to be a sort of cradle to grave yeah accessible at different points in life different sort of life and financial transitions and stuff you could access and what we got was essentially the lifetime ISA that we know of, which is, well, I mean, there have been some changes to that as well, so we might as well cover that while we're talking about it.

21:28Pete Matthew: So part of the issue is that house prices have risen significantly and a lot of people with lifetime ISAs end up buying houses worth more than the 450 ,000 limit. So what's happening there, Tom? So, bear with me. Check the notes. It's complex. No, it's for the maths that I won't be able to do live. So a lifetime ISA, you put money in and you get a 25 % bonus after I think once it's been set up for a year. So if you put£1 ,000 in, you end up with£1 ,250. And you can either use it towards retirement or buying your first home. But like you say, there's a limit on the value of the property, which is£450 ,000.

22:09And if you take the money out to buy a home that was over that, you'd get a 25 % penalty. It's accessing your money. It is brutal. So most people think I get 25 % bonus, but then I get 25 % penalty. I'm in the same position, but you're not. You're actually worse off because 25 % of a bigger number means you get less. So effectively, they've reduced the penalty to 20 % if you buy a property over 450 ,000, which basically means you just don't get the bonus. Yeah, essentially. So if you put the 1 ,000 pounds in, you get 1 ,250. Yeah, 20 % reduction is back down to 1 ,000. Yes, exactly. However, the penalty, the higher penalty, I believe, will still apply if you were just to take your money out and not buy a house or use it for retirement.

22:51Yes, I agree.

22:52Pete Matthew: Yeah, yeah, that sounded right. He did very clearly say you should end up with no less than you'd paid in. He did, yeah. Which I thought was interesting because if it's a stocks and shares lifetime, I assume it had fallen. This is something you should. It's like, well, that's not a guarantee then. Yeah, it should. It's a bit woolly, isn't it? If you're investing it, there's obviously a potential that it grows considerably more than just the 25 % bonus you've put in and a tiny bit of interest if it's cash-backed. But stocks and shares, you can't guarantee that it's not lower and then they take 20 % off you.

23:24Pete Matthew: Yeah, we'll see. I think that's an interesting one. I don't know the stats off the top of my head, but I think a lot of the lifetime ices are sort of cash for people buying houses. Okay. I think it depends. I've got clients who will have a stocks and shares lifetime icer or parents specifically, I mean grandparents wanting to set them up for grandchildren. when obviously they turn 18. Yeah. Able to do that instead of funding junior ISA. For house purchase, if you're 18, you're probably more than five years out. So we do have a handful of stocks and shares, lifetime ISAs. But importantly, we have some for clients that are using them as a retirement pot or a side alongside.

24:07So obviously, I think the understanding is that all those kind of rules remain the same. so leave in till 60 and then there's no penalty and then you can take tax free withdrawals as you want to and just go get them while you can. Yeah, exactly, because they're probably not going to be around forever. But it's not changing till April 28, I believe. So as we understand it again, lifetime assets are still open and able to get a new one if you're under the age of 40. But then you'll be able to continue funding them as you were before. Until age 50, can't it? Yeah, yeah.

24:41Pete Matthew: Yeah, weird thing, lifetime ISA. Very weird, yeah. Serve a purpose, but there's going to be a new one. From 2029, I believe? All the ISAs. Imaginatively called the first-time buyer ISA. I mean, that suggests that the over-60 thing will probably work. Are they saying that it's going to be the same? No, no, this is purely for first-time buyers. First-time buyers. So no retirement option there? No. All right. So it's going back to the helped buyers. Basically, what they're doing, they replaced it. We're on version three. Essentially. actually. Just cracking up all the ices. Exhausting. So the difference here, I believe, is that the bonus isn't going to be paid up front.

25:17So with a lifetime ices, you put the money in and the government will give you the bonus straight away. So therefore, like you were saying, if you're invested, you'll get, well, if it's in cash, you'll get the interest on the bonus as well. If you're invested, the growth on the bonus as well. Well, this is a bonus on withdrawal.

25:30Pete Matthew: Yes. So you'll get 25 % bonus. Yes. So essentially, if you were leaving it for a long time, you're going to get less growth, essentially, but you still get the bonus on withdrawal. Weirdly, the cap on the property is still on$450 ,000, I think, from what I read. And the maximum bonus is up to£20 ,000. Oh, really? Yeah. I didn't read that. So the maximum total bonus will be£20 ,000? Yeah. I think I read. Don't quote me. I suppose the maximum bonus is£1 ,000 a year, isn't it, currently? Yeah. So that is quite a lot of years. Yeah. It didn't sound much when you said it like that, but I suppose it is.

26:06Pete Matthew: Okay. Yeah. So, yeah, changes there. Changes to ISAs. No changes to cash ISAs. New ISAs. Two new ISAs. Two new ISAs. Yeah, yeah. And we don't know a lot about either of them. Sketchy details still. Yeah, it's frustrating. Yeah, the innovative one, sorry, ISA incentive one, there's no details yet. No detail at all. Consultation to follow. With the industry, though. So hopefully, they'll ask the right people in the financial services industry and we'll get something decent. We can throw some ideas around. It'll be good, though, if it gets people invested. No, I agree. especially with the ISA incentive.

26:39I didn't read that or hear that, that that was just for like young people. No, I don't think it is. I'm just really fascinated to see what that could be. And I think that's a way better way of getting people investing rather than playing around with the cash ISAs and messing around with tax inside ISAs. Just keep it simple. I know. You just don't want to do the tax reports.

27:02Pete Matthew: Yeah, we don't have to stick it in our reports. That's right. So I think the last thing to mention is this new initiative called Your First Home, which fills me with a little bit of dread. So this will enable people to put a deposit down of only 2.5 % on their first home, a loan of up to 20 % backed by the government. I'm not sure how, but – and then obviously the rest on a mortgage. mortgage but you know i'm old enough to remember what got us in the financial crisis of 2007 8 9 where you know people and i mean i originally i even arranged mortgages really early in my career of 120 of a mortgage of a house value 95 secured and 25 unsecured they were northern rock and we all know what happened in northern rock so i do worry when i obviously we need to get uh people in their homes.

27:58Pete Matthew: I do think we have a slight obsession with home ownership in this country, which doesn't necessarily sort of translate to some of our European neighbours. But I'm not sure that sort of piling 97.5 % worth of debt on young people is a great idea. No. But we'll see. I remember when they did the 5%, they just reduced it to 5 % deposit. I mean, I had a 10 % deposit. That was still a lot of money. Yeah. Having a 90 % mortgage. but I was like that was the only way we could get a house. But the mortgage was like half the price of rent. That's the bigger thing, you know, is like the cost of renting. Because interest rates were lower at the time.

28:34Yeah. But that's where we are now. Lots of clients still have mortgages or they'll see children with mortgages and it's how do you support them through that. I've got a client that was like, oh, our mortgage was 2022 before all the, you know, bad, bad 2022. They were like, we fixed at 1.6. For five years or something? Mortgage is up early March next year. It's like, what do you do? Came around quick. Came around quick. And they're still high. So it's great to get people in their homes. I appreciate that they're, again, focusing a lot on that kind of younger generation, which I don't feel part of anymore.

29:14There's no way of them regulating more interest rates than mortgage lenders. so how do you get the default and then we're back to you know 2007 2018 that's the worry isn't it there's some still horror stories of the 5 % you know trying to get out of that oh yeah so yeah maybe like targeting stamp duty or something again would have been a better option but

29:37Pete Matthew: yeah we're not in power no we're not in power and you don't want to write sort of bump up house prices either because that's to achieve anything we basically need more housing stock there's no doubt about that but that obviously is controversial as well. Be really damned if you do, damned if you don't. I mean, that's why I would never ever want to be in government. Sounds like a hiding to nothing. Vote for Pete. No, absolutely not. I'm not standing. Wouldn't have it. I think, is anything else we've missed? I think from our client's point of view, those are probably the main talking points. Personal finance-wise, I think we've covered them more.

30:10Okay. What about just, sorry, the pat leave? Oh, yes. Self-employed, I do think that was quite, well, great that they're actually recognising fathers.

30:19Pete Matthew: Yes. and same-sex partners. Important. Self-employed fathers, same-sex partners who have basically no allowance for parental leave at the minute. So I think that was a nice thing for equality, which was a good point. But yeah, nothing else to add from my corner. Yeah, there was obviously changes to the national minimum wage and national living wage. They're going to require online marketplaces like Amazon eBay to collect VAT from foreign sellers. I think that's good because that's just, it's like nobody could be bothered really just collecting VAT and it's supposed to be a billion quid a year they're going to raise from that.

30:51Pete Matthew: We'll see. I wonder when they're just going to figure out how to take capital gains tax at source. That's what they need to do. Yeah, go on then. Well, if you think about it, I mean, you know, we make sure clients have their tax reports, but a client has to declare capital gains tax. I'm like, how is there not? They're like, oh, we'll increase capital gains tax. We'll reduce the capital gains limit. I'm like, well, that's all well and good if people are reporting their capital gains. suggesting people are misleading I'm just saying there's a lot of onus for people to do it whereas banks when they've changed it to gross interest and then the banks are reporting to HMRC I'm like how come they just haven't got providers to be doing that yet?

31:30Pete Matthew: You'd think the platforms would be able to do it wouldn't you? If you sell like a classic card or something like that that would be different If they're looking for a tax coupe then surely just figure that bit out If they're getting Amazon and eBay to do it So good, alright Right. Well, I think they called it, I think, what did they say? Five ordinary fixes. Those were things like the mileage, tariffs on gherkins and carers, parental pay, carers allowance, the cliff edge and post office drop boxes. These are fairly minor things, not kind of core for our clients, but obviously really important for a lot of people.

32:07Pete Matthew: But it felt like a little bit sort of, okay. Carys Cliff Edge sorry Carys Cliff Edge oh yeah huge deal yeah yeah no I agree four years I think yes four years away yeah so yeah that could have done with being now for a lot of people yeah yeah so that is where you basically lose all your Claris allowance if you go just one penny over the earning threshold yeah and there's a lot of people caring oh yeah yeah yeah you know as a nation we're reliant on that we really are yeah no I agree it's a shame that wasn't now but yeah now brought forward yeah okay hope that was helpful any links Not sure if we've gone over any links, but if we have, they'll be at the show notes, meaningfulmoney.tv slash session 644.

32:46Pete Matthew: My thanks again to Demi and Tom. Thank you. Thank you. We'll see you next time. Cheers.