Spring Budget Today - What Can We Expect & What Do You Think?
In the News
It's the Spring budget today and at 12.30, the chancellor Jeremy Hunt will announce all the new measures in The House Of Commons.
A few things seem to have been leaked already such as 30 hours free childcare extended to 1 and 2 year olds and the extension of the energy price guarantee until June at £2500 but the extra £66 per month help with energy bills will end in April as planned.
Will fuel duty on petrol and diesel go up and will alcohol and cigarettes go up too?
Updated
Cigarette levy is to rise by 12.7% in line with the Retail Price Index (RPI) plus an extra 2% on top of this. The ONS says the average pack of 20 cigarettes costs £12.84, so the increase will see £1.89 added to the price and means it is going up to £14.73!
30 hours FREE childcare for children aged 9 months for households in England working 16 hours or more a week. Being phased in so from -
April 2024 - 2 Year olds get free 15 hours a week
September 2024 - 9 months - 3 Years get 15 hours free a week
September 2025 - 9 Months to school aged get 30 free hours a week
This is England only but other UK countries will get funding and make announcements soon. Seems to be taking a while to implement so will not benefit those with young children now
Fuel duty is being frozen for another year.
£63m pot for leisure centre pool heating costs and to become more energy efficient
Nuclear energy now environmentally sustainable for investment and will get more funding.
New Fitness For Work programme to get benefits
Tougher rules on seeking work and increased support for people with children and receiving universal credit
Yearly Tax-free amount for pension pots increases from £40,000 to £60,000 after being the same for the last 9 years
Families getting universal credit get childcare payments in advance and no longer in arrears and cap increased from £646 per month to £951 per month maximum
Here’s a summary of the main measures expected From The BBC
Main National Insurance, inheritance, income tax personal allowance and higher rate thresholds frozen for further two years, until April 2028. The threshold for the additional 45% rate of income tax cut from £150,000 to £125,140
Energy: Energy price cap extended for one year beyond April. Windfall tax on profits of oil and gas firms increased from 25% to 35% and extended until March 2028
Minimum wage: Minimum wage for people aged over 23 increased from £9.50 to £10.42 an hour from next April
Benefits and pensions: State pension payments and means-tested and disability benefits increased by 10.1%, in line with inflation
Capital gains tax: Tax-free allowances for dividend and capital gains tax cut
Do you think these measures go far enough? Inflation is still at 10.1% and food inflation is a whopping 16.7% - what would you to help tackle it?
No major announcements apart from what has been pre announced/leaked . The devil will be in small details , not in the speech but will become apparent in the coming days once the analysts have scrutinised the full budget document (a very weighty tome running to hundreds of pages ).
Overall expect nothing good and certainly no giveaways . Perhaps something to reward family carers and child carers as the government seems keen to get parents back to work .
I remember not so long ago when only rich folk could afford childcare and we planned our family for when we could afford years with only one parent working . Now the state or Aunts , Grandparents etc widely take on childcare duties .
We need investment in our commonly owned services such as housing, railways and NHS health services. It’s important that not more is leaked and further privatised during a time where so many a struggling and there barely are any resources, while many being one pay check away from a life crisis or street homelessness.
Im not impressed that they are cutting taxes for the wealthiest 1%.The idea of childcare from 9 months old sounds amazing but most nurseries are already struggling to get staff and balance the books, so I cannot see how it will be implemented.
Stop taxing middle earners so much. Don't earn enough to be a "high earner" but earn too much to qualify for any benefits. Their contributions go to those with their hand out, all that does is make everyone struggle, a vicious circle. It's not right, it shouldn't be someone else's responsibility for other people's life choices
Seems strange to make having children easier when the country is grossly over-populated and the huge environmental issues this causes. A responsible tax system would push couples into having a single child and punish them financially for more. We can't seem to get our head around the issues from the planet of so many billions of people and the need to reduce that to reduce the burden on the planet. Making childcare easier could allow people to have more children which is not ideal to say the least.
Today’s Budget focused on a promise to grow the UK economy lets hope they stick to what they are promising for once!
The Chancellor’s speech was full of aspiration and affirmation but words are only words till actioned so lets hope we see solid evidence soon.
A healthy and thriving economy needs investment from allot of different sectors and we must hope we can trust the government to spearhead an effective man management team to make sure everyone is on the same page.
Hope confidence is appreciated and well placed
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