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Currently, rumours abound about how we, as a nation, will spend the extra cash in our wages this month! Will it go on rising energy bills, rising petrol costs…maybe even rising food bills…or will we be kind and help out the high street?
Back in April, then not-Prime-Minister-but-Chancellor Gordon Brown seemingly made a bit of a cock up. His heart was in the right place, bless him, but like a drunk on a night out he didn’t really think of the consequences before sticking his tongue down the collective throat of British taxpayers.
In a bid to keep us peasants happy, Brown reduced the basic tax rate from 22% to 20% - seemingly great, however he offset this cost by abolishing the 10% rate. For people earning less than £18,500, this meant an additional tax cost of over £200 a year, rending those he set out to help – low earners – even worse off. After many moans and jeers from the backbench (or that’s how I imagine it, anyway), Brown rethought his genius plan and brought back the 10% band while simultaneously retaining the 2% reduction. Sooooo, basically, to compensate all the money they took off us over the months between then and now, we (I say we, I mean most of us) will be getting a ‘rebate’ of £120 in the form of a £60 lump sum this September and a further £10 every month until the end of this tax year. Hurrah!
I’ll be spending mine on one of 2 things; either a nice new haircut, or some work clothes – both unnecessary, both luxuries and both nothing at all to do with paying for “rising” anything! The way I figure it, I would rather be poor with good hair than poor with rubbish hair! But those with families and larger financial responsibilities than I might view it differently. I’m not sure there will be enough people being as indulgent as I to influence the Retail Sales Monitor next month, but it’s an interesting thought, all the same.
The British Retail Consortium’s Retail Sales Monitor figures for August were released this week, and can be found on our new Retail Statistics page, along with various other super interesting Economic and Retail Statistics! Take a look, formulate your thoughts and leave us a comment below.
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