Overview
- Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ Autumn Budget extended the freeze on income tax and National Insurance thresholds to 2031, a policy the OBR says will pull millions more into paying tax and higher bands by decade’s end.
- The Centre for Policy Studies calculates a worker on £50,000 today will be about £505 worse off in real terms by 2030–31, while pensioners gain at least £306—or up to £537 if pension-only households are exempted from income tax—and out-of-work claimants gain around £290.
- From April 2026, working-age and disability benefits rise by 3.8% and the State Pension increases by 4.8%, with DWP-confirmed Universal Credit standard allowances moving to £424.90 a month for single adults 25+ and £666.97 for joint claimants 25+.
- The government will remove the two‑child benefit cap at the start of the new financial year, with research suggesting hundreds of thousands of children could be lifted out of poverty and many families receiving higher Universal Credit awards.
- Reeves has said people whose only income is the State Pension will not be made to pay income tax on small excess amounts during this Parliament, clarifying how rising pensions will interact with the frozen personal allowance.