Autumn Statement 2023: What are the key points?
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has delivered his Autumn Statement in the House of Commons.
The Statement sets out the government’s tax and spending plans for the year ahead as well as setting out how much will be spent on key public services.
Taxation and wages
- Main rate of National Insurance cut from 12% to 10% from 6 January, affecting 27 million people
- Class 2 National Insurance – paid by self-employed people earning more than £12,570 – abolished from April
- Class 4 National Insurance for self employed – paid on profits between £12,570 and £50,270 – cut from 9% to 8% from April
- Legal minimum wage – known officially as the National Living Wage – to increase from £10.42 to £11.44 an hour from April
- New rate to apply to 21 and 22-year-old workers for the first time, rather than just those 23 and over
Benefits and pensions
- Universal Credit and other working-age benefits to increase by 6.7% from April, in line with September’s inflation rate
- Local Housing Allowance rates – which determine the level of housing benefit and Universal Credit people receive to pay rent – to be unfrozen and increased to 30% of local rents
- Work Capability Assessment to be reformed to reflect availability of home working after Covid pandemic
- Funding of £1.3bn over the next five years to help people with health conditions find jobs
- Further £1.3bn to help people who have been unemployed for over a year
- Claimants deemed able to work but refuse to seek employment to lose access to their benefits and extras like free prescriptions
- State pension payments to increase by 8.5% from April, in line with average earnings
Business and infrastructure
- “Full expensing” tax break – allowing companies to deduct spending on new machinery and equipment from profits – made permanent
- The 75% business rates discount for retail, hospitality and leisure firms extended for another year
- Households living close to new pylons and transmission infrastructure to get up to £1,000 a year off energy bills for a decade