In the recent budget, the Chancellor announced tax increases totalling £26 billion in the face of forecasts of weaker economic growth, faster inflation and higher unemployment.
The policies confirmed during the Chancellor’s Speech in the Commons and official Budget papers include:
- A £150 cut to the average household energy bill from April next year as the government removes a large proportion of energy efficiency subsidies off electricity bills and scraps the energy company obligation (ECO) scheme.
- The government will provide an additional £1.5 billion capital investment to tackle fuel poverty through its warm homes plan.
- The freeze on the thresholds for when people start paying different levels of income tax has been extended and will result in 1.7 million people paying more tax. But the government has said that pensioners whose sole income is the basic or new State Pension will not have to pay the tax due when the state pension rises above the £12,570 threshold for paying 20% income tax.
- Basic and new state pension payments will go up by 4.8% from April, more than the current rate of inflation, under the triple lock.
- More than £800 million in funding over the next three years announced as part of the government’s Youth Guarantee which gives every young person a place in college, an apprenticeship or personalised job support.
- Training for apprentices is to be free for under 25-year-olds at small and medium-sized companies as part of the programme.
- Salary-sacrificed pension contributions above an annual £2,000 threshold will no longer be exempt from national insurance from April 2029.
The Centre For Ageing Better’s Chief Executive, Dr Carole Easton OBE has picked out the policies likely to have the biggest impact on older people in an article on the organisation’s website, which is well worth a read. Read Here
