by Gareth Morgan on October 31, 2024
My annual updated version of the blogs which were posted here in April 2021, November 2022, and November 2023. This now uses the NLW figure of £12.21 an hour, and the changes to employers NI announced in the Budget of 30th October. The content is still the same examination of the questionable claim that the […]
by Gareth Morgan on April 24, 2024
This is a plea for help ( perhaps that’s a bit dramatic?) As well as Ferret’s core benefits and other calculation systems and models (see https://www.ferret.co.uk/) we produce a number of more task focused ‘reckoners’. These little helpers tackle the odd calculations or assessments you might need when you’re dealing with different scenarios. They include […]
by Gareth Morgan on December 11, 2023
I’ve been told that ChatGPT and its equivalents will mean that there will be no need for benefits calculators or advisers in future. Not only will they provide an easy path through the complicated morass of benefits law and practice but they’ll also be able to find the loopholes and the best options for maximising […]
by Gareth Morgan on November 22, 2023
An updated version of the blogs which were posted here in November 2022 and April 2022. This now uses the NLW figure of £11.44 an hour and the 10% employee NI rate, announced in the Autumn Statement of 22nd November. The message is the same. The real winner from the NLW increase is the Treasury. […]
by Gareth Morgan on June 21, 2023
Those with long memories may remember the days when the means-tested benefits system offered real help to those with mortgages. Payments to lenders contributed, sometimes generously, to the liability of borrowers for interest payments. There has never been any help towards capital repayments within the benefit system. Things changed in 2018. Mortgage interest help, as […]
by Gareth Morgan on March 15, 2023
Today’s childcare announcements in the budget are welcome, they are more helpful than the current support. The changes will make a real difference. Piloting incentive payments for childminders, increasing funding to nurseries providing free childcare, and changing minimum staff-to-child ratios from 1 staff member for every 4 children to 1 to 5 may help increase […]
by Gareth Morgan on March 6, 2023
There has been increasing discussion and interest, recently, in the idea of using existing data, particularly from benefit claims, to determine or automatically award other benefits for people who are entitled. It would be a very attractive way of solving, or reducing, the enormous under-claiming of many benefits. After all, its proponents say, if we […]
by Gareth Morgan on November 15, 2022
A tweaked version of the blog which was posted here on November 15th. This now uses the NLW figureof £10.42 an hour, announced in the Autumn Statement of 17th November. The differences are small but deserve precision. Another update to my previous postings, looking at the real gains (and for whom) of increases in the […]
by Gareth Morgan on October 6, 2022
The driver for limiting benefits increases, instead of linking them to inflation, appears to be presented as an argument that it’s not fair for working people to receive a 5% pay increase while people on benefits will get around 10%. That seems to be a very simple and easy comparison to make and might appear […]
by Gareth Morgan on October 4, 2022
People know that when their bills arrive, they can either cut their consumption or they can get a higher salary, higher wages, go out there and get that new job – Jake Berry MP. Conservative Party Chairman The ‘fiscal event‘, and its reactions and consequences, are not what I really want to look at in […]