Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt has announced the Autumn Budget today (November 17).
The Budget includes:
Benefits
Households on means-tested benefits will receive a cost-of-living payment in 2023/24 of £900 in instalments. There will also be separate £300 payments to pensioners and £150 for people on disability benefits.
In April 2023, the government will also increase the benefit cap in line with inflation by 10.1%.
Working age benefits will rise by 10.1%, and the Triple Lock on pensions will remain, meaning pensioners also get a rise in the State Pension and the Pension Credit in line with inflation at 10.1%.
Wages and tax
The National Living Wage will be increased by 9.7% to £10.42 an hour, giving a full-time worker a pay rise of around £1,600 a year.
Tax rises will see the threshold at which higher earners start to pay the 45p rate reduced from £150,000 to £125,140, while Income Tax, Inheritance Tax and National Insurance thresholds will be frozen for a further two years until April 2028.
The Dividend Allowance will be reduced from £2,000 to £1,000 next year, and £500 from April 2024 and the Annual Exempt Amount in capital gains tax will be reduced from £12,300 to £6,000 next year and then to £3,000 from April 2024.
The threshold for employer National Insurance contributions will be fixed until April 2028, but the Employment Allowance will continue to protect 40% of businesses from paying any NICS.
The main rate of Corporation Tax will increase to 25% from April 2023.
Business rates and properties
Business rates payers in England will see the multiplier frozen in 2023-24 while relief for 230,000 businesses in retail, hospitality and leisure sectors will also increase from 50% to 75% next year.
The revaluation of business properties, which takes effect from April 2023, will have a Transitional Relief scheme to cap bill increases for those who will see higher bills. This limits bill increases for the smallest properties to 5%. Small businesses who lose eligibility for either Small Business or Rural Rate Relief as a result of the new property revaluations will see their bill increases capped at £50 a month through a new separate scheme.
Energy bills
The Energy Price Guarantee capping typical energy bills at £2,500, until April 2023 when the cap rises to £3,000. With prices forecast to remain elevated throughout next year, this equates to an average of £500 support for households in 2023-24.
NHS, Schools and Energy Levy and more
Access to funding for the NHS and social care is being increased by up to £8 billion in 2024-25.
The schools budget will receive £2.3 billion of additional funding in each of 2023-24 and 2024-25,
From 1 January 2023 the Energy Profits Levy on oil and gas companies will increase from 25% to 35%, with the levy remaining in place until the end of March 2028, and a new, temporary 45% levy will be introduced for electricity generators.
From April 2025 electric vehicles will no longer be exempt from Vehicle Excise Duty although rates will be lower than other vehicles
Cap on the increase in social rents at a maximum of 7% in 2023-24.
You will own nothing and be happy as unelected WEF’s Klaus Schwab tells his puppet politician minions – and who was tellingly present at the recent G20 gathering of dubious entities. Funny how all the political parties turn a blind eye to the billions of pounds now frittered away on covid hand-out fraud, unsafe and ineffective jabs, useless PPE contracts to cronies, destruction of businesses and jobs through lockdowns, support for Western puppet Zelensky, aligning our military to the European Defence Union via PESCO and nonsensical mark-ups on energy bills, etc. etc. Any political party signing up to any of this is no friend of the people it is supposed to serve. Nor is any local politician of any colour. The cowardice to address the real issues is astounding. And the censorship still prevailing.