Five hidden announcements in the Budget document including boost for millions on benefits
HOUSEHOLDS should be aware of these hidden announcements which they have missed in the Autumn Statement.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves unveiled her financial plan for the year this morning, which includes a cut to pub beer prices, and hikes in the minimum wage and state pension.
Millions of workers are set to get a £1,400 pay rise as the National Living Wage will be hiked by 6.7% come April.
Elsewhere, beer drinkers are going to see a penny knocked off the price of a pint and drivers will welcome their 15th consecutive year of fuel duty freezes.
However, it was not all good news as smokers are set to rise by £16.78 from tonight due to hikes in tobacco duty.
Elsewhere, raids on inheritance tax mean that bereaved families will have to pay tax on their deceased loved ones’ pensions.
These are the headlines which have been dominating your newsfeed all afternoon, but there are a few hidden gems you might have missed.
The Sun has dug deep into the official Autumn Statement to uncover some announcements you may have missed.
HIGH-INCOME CHILD BENEFIT CHARGE
The government will not proceed with the reform to base the High-Income Benefit Charge (HICBC) on household incomes.
This is because it would have come at a significant fiscal cost of £1.4 billion by 2029-30 if setting the threshold to £120,000-£160,000, where no families would lose out.123
To make it easier for all taxpayers to get their HICBC right, the government will allow employed individuals pay their HICBC through their tax code from 2025, and pre-prepopulate Self Assessment tax returns with Child Benefit data for those not using this service.
You can read more about the tax here.
HELP TO SAVE
The government will extend the current Help to Save scheme until April 5 2027.
The scheme offers lower earners a savings account where they can save a maximum of £50 a month for four years and receive a 50% government boost at the end of year two and year four.
This helps workers kickstart a savings habit and offers up to £1,200 over the four years.
MORTGAGE GUARANTEE SCHEME
The government plans to make the mortgage guarantee scheme permanently available.
Through the scheme, buyers can get a 95% loan-to-value (LTV) mortgage.
The scheme has been extended a number of times and was set to end in 2025.
But now the government intends to make it a permanent fixture of its policy.
TRIPLE LOCK UNTIL END OF PARLIAMENT
The government will maintain the State Pension Triple Lock for the duration of this Parliament.
The triple lock system sees the state pension rise in line with whatever is highest out of: wages for May to July, 2.5% or September’s inflation figures.
By doing this it ensures that pensioners are being paid enough to keep up with rising costs.
MODERNISE SELF ASSESSMENT
The government will invest £16million to modernise HMRC’s app to allow income tax Self Assessment taxpayers to make voluntary advance payments in instalments.
This should make it easier for people who are self-employed or have a side hustle to update HMRC on their earnings.
If you are self-employed you can voluntarily pay National Insurance, but you have to pay it in advance.
Now HRMC will give you the option to pay instalments.
BRITAIN’S MOST MEMORABLE BUDGETS
Today is the first Labour budget for 14 years – and the first ever to be delivered by a female Chancellor.
Brits are bracing for a raft of tax hikes as Rachel Reeves tries to plug the “£22billion black hole” she says she’s found in government accounts.
Here are five other budgets which have caused a stir over the years.
1979 – Geoffrey Howe, Conservative
Margaret Thatcher’s Chancellor Geoffrey Howe slashed both the top rate of income tax and the standard rate.
He also doubled VAT – shifting the tax burden from income to consumption in a huge change for Brits.
Howe also eased controls on foreign exchange in a bid to control inflation.
The budget signalled a massive break from the last Labour government and set the pattern for decades to come.
1988 – Nigel Lawson, Conservative
Nigel Lawson (dad to domestic goddess Nigella) massively slashed income tax again.
The deputy Commons speaker twice cleared the chamber amid noisy protests from Labour MPs slamming the tax cuts.
Lawson also set off a property bonanza by announcing an end to double mortgage tax relief for couples buying homes.
1993 – Norman Lamont, Conservative
In March 1993 the economy was still reeling from Black Wednesday, when the pound crashed out of the European exchange rate mechanism.
Lamont announced tax rises including VAT on domestic gas and electricity.
Later that year Lamont’s successor Ken Clarke froze personal tax allowance and brought in stealth taxes on insurance and plane passengers.
The Lamont and Clarke budgets marked the end of the Tories’s scything tax cuts – and set the stage for Labour’s return to office in 1997.
2002 – Gordon Brown, Labour
Brown raised national insurance by a penny on the pound to fund higher spending on the NHS.
The future PM had fretted over a possible backlash from voters who had re-elected Labour in 2001.
But he managed to pull off the largest rise in health spending in the history of the NHS.
2009 – Alistair Darling, Labour
Labour’s last budget before today came amid the credit crunch and soaring unemployment.
Darling ramped up taxes and borrowing in a bid to fill up draining Treasury coffers.
Tory leader David Cameron blasted Labour’s ‘utter mess’ – and was in power a year later.
2022 – Kwasi Kwarteng, Conservative
Kwarteng unveiled his economic package less than a month after becoming Liz Truss’s Chancellor.
Technically, it was a fiscal statement rather than a budget – but it turned out to be just as seismic.
Rising Tory star Kwarteng announced £45billion in tax cuts including a drop in all rates of income tax.
Markets took frights and the pound went into freefall before the Bank of England waded in to stop a run on UK pension funds.
Mortgage rates soared and Kwarteng was out of the job just three weeks later.