Category Archives: Budget 2023

$60m a day: soaring interest bill on Australia’s debt eclipses cost of childcare or infrastructure

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Treasurer says $112bn cost over five years is one of fastest growing pressures on budget, blaming Coalition for the ‘mess’ it left

Interest payments on commonwealth government debt will cost the federal budget $112bn over five years, or $60m a day.

The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, revealed the soaring cost of debt ahead of Tuesday’s budget, which will show interest now costs more than the family tax benefit, childcare or infrastructure.

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Military sites to house asylum seekers to meet ‘essential living needs and nothing more’, says minister – as it happened

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Eagle how the pay settlement for health workers will be funded.

Hunt says, as with all pay settlements, departments fund them from the money they get in the spending review. But in exceptional circumstances they can speak to the Treasury about extra help.

But we make a commitment that there will not be a degredation of frontline services for the public.

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Doubts grow over number of NHS doctors helped by pension giveaway

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New figures reveal only 100 hospital doctors left NHS in 2022 due to voluntary early retirement, despite claims by Jeremy Hunt

The number of hospital doctors that could be helped by Jeremy Hunt’s pensions giveaway has been cast into doubt, after new figures revealed that only 100 of them left the NHS last year due to voluntary early retirement.

Criticism has mounted about the measure announced in the budget, which would scrap the up to 55% tax levied on lifetime pension pots worth just over £1m and raise the annual allowance threshold from £40,000 to £60,000.

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NHS workers expected to be offered one-off payments worth up to 6% as part of revised pay offer – UK politics live

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Health secretary expected to announce a formal pay offer to key unions later today

Sinn Féin’s US fundraising arm has caused a row by calling for a referendum on Irish unity in adverts in the New York Times, Washington Post and other US publications.

The half-page ads were paid for by Friends of Sinn Féin and ran on Wednesday urging support for unity referendums in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. “It is time to agree on a date,” it said. “Let the people have their say.”

They’re ads from Irish American organisations whose view on reunification is well known and held for a very long time and they take out ads every year. So, the focus now needs to be on getting back to work [at Stormont].

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Budget: UK on track for ‘disastrous decade’ of income stagnation

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Thinktank says taxes as share of GDP are on course to reach 70-year high but public services are being cut

The UK remains on track for a “disastrous decade” of stagnant incomes and high taxes, despite cuts to public services, the Resolution Foundation has said in its analysis of the budget on Wednesday.

The thinktank, whose stated aim is to improve the standard of living for low- and middle-income families, said typical household disposable incomes were on course to be lower by the end of the forecast period in 2027-28 than they were before pandemic, when inflation was taken into account.

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Jeremy Hunt defends pensions giveaway as Labour vows to scrap it

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Shadow chancellor says decision to axe lifetime allowance is ‘wrong priority at the wrong time for the wrong people’

The Labour party has vowed to reverse the chancellor’s £1bn budget pensions tax “gilded giveaway” for the wealthiest 1% if it wins the next general election, as Jeremy Hunt defended his decision to scrap the lifetime pensions allowance.

The shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, said Labour would seek to force a Commons vote next week on the decision, which critics argue will allow the wealthiest people to put a limitless amount into their pension pots, which can then be passed on to their heirs without paying inheritance tax.

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Jeremy Hunt is helping rich instead of helping people into work, says thinktank

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IFS says budget pensions giveaway could open up loophole for avoidance of inheritance tax

Jeremy Hunt’s huge pensions giveaway for the wealthiest 1% may have no impact on increasing the number of people in work, while opening a loophole for avoidance of inheritance tax, a leading economic thinktank has warned.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies said the surprise measure in the chancellor’s budget “probably won’t play a big part, if any” in increasing the number of people in work.

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Jeremy Hunt aims to spur business investment with ‘full expensing’ tax break

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Measure over next three years will allow firms to write off costs of IT equipment and machinery against tax on profits

Jeremy Hunt has launched a flurry of tax breaks to encourage investment by businesses after the double blow of microchip designer Arm opting for a New York stock market listing and AstraZeneca deciding to build a new factory in Dublin.

Businesses that invest in IT equipment and machinery will be able to claim back the cost by writing it off against tax on their profits, the chancellor announced in his budget on Wednesday.

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Jeremy Hunt makes U-turn on planned cut to energy support

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Campaigners unite with suppliers to call on ministers to give long-term help to struggling households

Ministers are under pressure to announce plans for a social tariff to help Britons struggling with their energy bills over the long term, after the government performed a U-turn on a planned cut to support for households.

On the morning of the chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s budget speech, the government confirmed the energy price guarantee would continue at its current rate, which limits a typical annual household bill to £2,500. It is being extended from April, when it was due to expire, for a further three months until the end of June.

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Budget pension shake-up is £4bn tax giveaway for wealthy, critics say

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Jeremy Hunt criticised for scrapping lifetime allowance and increasing annual contribution cap

The chancellor has been accused of unveiling a £4bn tax giveaway that will benefit the wealthiest people in the UK by dramatically increasing how much they can stash away in pensions while enjoying the full tax benefits.

Jeremy Hunt announced a major shake-up of the rules governing how much people can pay into their retirement pots, which will have no impact on the vast majority of the population but could lead to huge gains for the top few per cent of wealthy, older pension savers. Labour claimed it was a handout for “the richest 1%” and that someone with a £2m pension pot would pay up to £275,000 less in tax as a result.

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Hunt’s disability plans put 1m at risk of losing £350 a month, IFS says

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Charities and disability campaigners say chancellor’s proposals set out in his budget more ‘stick than carrot’

Up to 1 million people currently claiming incapacity benefits could lose hundreds of pounds a month as a result of plans outlined in the budget to push ahead with the “biggest reforms to the welfare system in a decade,” experts have said.

The warning came as ministers unveiled a range of measures to try to drive more people back into the workplace, including scrapping controversial “fit for work” tests for disabled claimants and stepping up the threat of benefit sanctions against part-time workers.

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Hunt likely to save spending spree for polling day, not budget speech

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The chancellor has room for giveaways in this week’s budget, but business and consumer groups fear he will hold them back for the election

Jeremy Hunt is under pressure to be generous when he delivers his first budget speech since he became chancellor last October.

The public finances have improved dramatically from the chaotic days that followed Liz Truss’s mini-budget in September, which rocked international money markets and sent interest rates on government debt soaring. The cost of financing Britain’s debt has fallen in recent months and the cost of gas on wholesale markets has tumbled.

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Extra costs for customers on prepayment meters to be scrapped in budget

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Treasury says move will save four million households £45 a year on their energy bills

Prepayment meter customers will no longer be charged more to receive their energy under reforms to be announced in the budget.

The chancellor is to end the “prepayment premium” from July, saving more than four million households £45 a year on their energy bills, according to the Treasury.

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Labour challenges Hunt to adopt NHS training policy he wanted to ‘nick’

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Rachel Reeves tasks chancellor with finding money to double England’s doctor and nurse training places

Rachel Reeves has challenged Jeremy Hunt to find the money for Labour’s plan to double training places for doctors and nurses – pointing out he said he wanted to “nick” the opposition’s policy just two weeks before becoming chancellor.

The shadow chancellor said NHS shortages were causing 1.5 million people in need of medical treatment to say their work was suffering, with new analysis showing it was costing the economy about £700m a year.

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