Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt has recently announced the budget for 2023.
What is the budget?
The budget is a statement made to MP's in the House of Commons by the Chancellor of the Exchequer - currently Jeremy Hunt.
The Chancellor is in charge of the nation's finances.
In the budget announcement, the Chancellor outlines the government's plans for raising or cutting taxes and includes big decisions on spending on health, schools, police and other public services.
Here are they key points from today's budget:
Jobs and work
• 30 hours of free childcare for working parents in England expanded to cover one and two-year-olds, to be rolled out in stages from April 2024
• Families on universal credit to receive childcare support up front instead of in arrears, with the £646-a-month per child cap raised to £951
• £600 "incentive payments" for those becoming childminders, and relaxed rules in England to let childminders look after more children
• New fitness-to-work testing regime to qualify for health-related benefits
• New voluntary employment scheme for disabled people in England and Wales, called Universal Support
• Tougher requirements to look for work and increased job support for lead child carers on universal credit
• £63m for programmes to encourage retirees over 50 back to work, "returnerships" and skills boot camps
• Immigration rules to be relaxed for five roles in construction sector, to ease labour shortages
Taxation and wages
• Cap on amount workers can accumulate in pensions savings over their lifetime before having to pay extra tax (currently £1.07m) to be abolished
• Tax-free yearly allowance for pension pot to rise from £40,000 to £60,000 - having been frozen for nine years
• Fuel duty frozen - the 5p cut to fuel duty on petrol and diesel, due to end in April, kept for another year
• Alcohol taxes to rise in line with inflation from August, with new reliefs for beer, cider and wine sold in pubs
• Tax on tobacco to increase by 2% above inflation, and 6% above inflation for hand-rolling tobacco
Energy
• Government subsidies limiting typical household energy bills to £2,500 a year extended for three months, until the end of June
• £200m to bring energy charges for prepayment meters into line with prices for customers paying by direct debit - affects 4m households
• Commitment to invest £20bn over next two decades on low-carbon energy projects, with a focus on carbon capture and storage
• Nuclear energy to be classed as environmentally sustainable for investment purposes, with promise of more public funding
• £63m to help leisure centres with rising swimming pool heating costs, and invest to become more energy efficient
Economy and public finances
• Office for Budget Responsibility predicts the UK will avoid recession in 2023, but the economy will shrink by 0.2%
• Growth of 1.8% predicted for next year, with 2.5% in 2025 and 2.1% in 2026
• UK's inflation rate predicted to fall to 2.9% by the end of this year, down from 10.7% in the last three months of 2022
• Underlying debt forecast to be 92.4% of GDP this year, rising to 93.7% in 2024
Other
• Commitment to raise defence spending by £11bn over the next five years
• Prison sentences for those convicted of marketing tax avoidance schemes
• £200m this year to help local councils in England repair potholes
• An extra £10m over next two years for charities in England helping to prevent suicide
• Streamlined approvals process promised for new medical products
• £900m for new super computer facility, to help UK's AI industry
UK Budget 2023 announcement
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt has recently announced the budget for 2023.
What is the budget?
The budget is a statement made to MP's in the House of Commons by the Chancellor of the Exchequer - currently Jeremy Hunt.
The Chancellor is in charge of the nation's finances.
In the budget announcement, the Chancellor outlines the government's plans for raising or cutting taxes and includes big decisions on spending on health, schools, police and other public services.
Here are they key points from today's budget:
Jobs and work
• 30 hours of free childcare for working parents in England expanded to cover one and two-year-olds, to be rolled out in stages from April 2024
• Families on universal credit to receive childcare support up front instead of in arrears, with the £646-a-month per child cap raised to £951
• £600 "incentive payments" for those becoming childminders, and relaxed rules in England to let childminders look after more children
• New fitness-to-work testing regime to qualify for health-related benefits
• New voluntary employment scheme for disabled people in England and Wales, called Universal Support
• Tougher requirements to look for work and increased job support for lead child carers on universal credit
• £63m for programmes to encourage retirees over 50 back to work, "returnerships" and skills boot camps
• Immigration rules to be relaxed for five roles in construction sector, to ease labour shortages
Taxation and wages
• Cap on amount workers can accumulate in pensions savings over their lifetime before having to pay extra tax (currently £1.07m) to be abolished
• Tax-free yearly allowance for pension pot to rise from £40,000 to £60,000 - having been frozen for nine years
• Fuel duty frozen - the 5p cut to fuel duty on petrol and diesel, due to end in April, kept for another year
• Alcohol taxes to rise in line with inflation from August, with new reliefs for beer, cider and wine sold in pubs
• Tax on tobacco to increase by 2% above inflation, and 6% above inflation for hand-rolling tobacco
Energy
• Government subsidies limiting typical household energy bills to £2,500 a year extended for three months, until the end of June
• £200m to bring energy charges for prepayment meters into line with prices for customers paying by direct debit - affects 4m households
• Commitment to invest £20bn over next two decades on low-carbon energy projects, with a focus on carbon capture and storage
• Nuclear energy to be classed as environmentally sustainable for investment purposes, with promise of more public funding
• £63m to help leisure centres with rising swimming pool heating costs, and invest to become more energy efficient
Economy and public finances
• Office for Budget Responsibility predicts the UK will avoid recession in 2023, but the economy will shrink by 0.2%
• Growth of 1.8% predicted for next year, with 2.5% in 2025 and 2.1% in 2026
• UK's inflation rate predicted to fall to 2.9% by the end of this year, down from 10.7% in the last three months of 2022
• Underlying debt forecast to be 92.4% of GDP this year, rising to 93.7% in 2024
• Prison sentences for those convicted of marketing tax avoidance schemes
• £200m this year to help local councils in England repair potholes
• An extra £10m over next two years for charities in England helping to prevent suicide
• Streamlined approvals process promised for new medical products
• £900m for new super computer facility, to help UK's AI industry