“The government said this budget is front-loaded, but can we be sure of that?”

John* 31 year old IT worker, working full-time. He lives alone, has no dependants, and earns in the region of €55,000-€75,000 each year.

While he agreed with parts of the Four Year Plan, he was concerned that the Budget would bring changes to tax bands, income levy, PRSI and tax relief on private pension contributions, changes to mortgage interest relief and increases in fuel duty.

He calculates that he will be down about €125 a month but suspects it might be higher.

I’ll be hit by the changes to relief on pension contributions. I would have preferred to see some sort of threshold where you can make contributions without levies – there is going to be no real incentive to contribute to a private pension. A cap of €5,000 a year on contributions would allow people on middle-incomes to plan for their future without leaving it open to abuse by high earners.

John says that he bought his house in 2006 and is now in negative equity:

I’ve been overpaying each month to keep payments where they were when rates were at their highest to shield me against future rate increases. I’ve been able to manage so far, however a reduction of €125 a month in income means I may have to cut back some of the overpayment. I don’t feel sorry for myself - I just want to show that there has been some financial planning going on for the past 2-plus years rather than just “partying” with the extra money, to use Brian Lenihan’s words!

John says that he’s hoping not to dip into his savings but will have to cut back on spending to do so:

I’m sure a lot of people are going to be in the same boat, and all this is going to do is stop them from spending because they want to be sure they will have some savings put aside to deal with the next four budgets. I know the government have said that this budget is 65 per cent front-loaded, but can we be sure of that? Overall I don’t see anything in this budget that is going to stimulate the economy, create jobs and get people spending money again.

* Not his real name.

Read about how a director of a small business feels about the budget >