Low Incomes: Mid Bedfordshire

(asked on 20th November 2023) - View Source

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to provide financial support to people on lower incomes in Mid Bedfordshire constituency.


Answered by
Laura Trott Portrait
Laura Trott
Chief Secretary to the Treasury
This question was answered on 23rd November 2023

The Government announced further support at Autumn Statement 2023 to support the most vulnerable: From 1 April 2024, the Government is increasing the NLW by 9.8% for 2.7 million low paid workers. Local Housing Allowance rates will rise to the 30th percentile of local market rents in April 2024 for 1.6 million households. The government will also uprate all working age benefits in full by September 2023 CPI of 6.7%, benefitting 5.5 million households in 2024-25. This brings the total support over 2022-2025 to help households with the high cost of living to £104 billion – an average of £3,700 per UK household.

As part of the Government’s long-term plan to grow the economy and reform the tax system, employees will see their main National Insurance Contribution (NICs) rate cut from 12% to 10% from January 2024 onwards, and the main rate of Class 4 NICs for the self-employed will be reduced from 9% to 8% from April 2024. This is a tax cut worth over £9bn per year, the largest ever cut to employee and self-employed National Insurance.

Looking across all tax, welfare and spending decisions made since Spending Round 2019, the impact of government action continues to be progressive, with the poorest households receiving the largest benefit as a percentage of income in 2024-25.

Reticulating Splines