I would say that the biggest announcements in the Budget Speech 2007 were the following,



Both have to do with savings and retirement. Now, I'd very much against a social security system, even the inventor admitted that it would fail in the long term, but that he wouldn't be around to worry about it (I wish I could find a reference for that).

We will all now be taxed to add towards this system. The tax will be capped at some level (like UIF) and then you can contribute towards your own retirement funding. A lot of the reason for this is to allow people who get no tax break for saving (i.e. those who earn under the tax limit) some sort of incentive to save (in the same way that retirement savings can currently be deducted from your taxable income).

I personally don't really want to be forced to save in this way. I'd rather contribute my savings into my own funds rather than government managed ones. This obviously also opens up a whole new can or worms for fraud to take place on a HUGE scale.

The social security policy document has now been released....will need to read through to find out how things might go.