Millions of workers will enjoy significant tax cuts as the new financial year begins, the chancellor, Philip Hammond, has said, claiming it is “thanks to our careful management of the public finances”.
But there is a darker side to the new financial year for many others – another 12 months of real-terms cuts to benefits, increases in national insurance contributions and a big rise for pension contributions.
In total, there are 35 tax, benefit and pension changes coming into effect on 6 April, plus the increase in the minimum wage from 1 April. The winners are those in higher income bands – up to £100,000 – who will gain significantly from the rise in tax thresholds, although some of that will be pegged back by NI rises.
The losers are those on very low incomes, who gain little from the increase in the personal allowance, and whose benefits will be frozen again. An ongoing work and pensions select committee inquiry suggested affected households will be between £888 and £1,845 worse off in real terms in the coming tax year as a result of the various caps and freezes since 2010-11.
Income tax
The personal allowance (income on which people pay no tax) rises from £11,850 to £12,500, which translates to an extra £130 a year in pay packets. The starting point for the 40% higher tax rate goes up by even more, from £46,350 to £50,000, worth an extra £495 for the better-paid.
National Insurance
An increase in the upper NI band from £46,350 to £50,000 means more income is deducted at the 12% NI rate than before, cancelling out some of the gains from income tax cuts.
Scotland
Scotland sets different income tax rates from the rest of the UK, but Scottish workers must pay the same NI. The gap is now wide; in London, workers will pay 40% income tax on pay of more than £50,000, while in Edinburgh, workers will pay 41% tax on incomes over £43,430. Aegon, an insurance company based in Edinburgh, said: “For an individual on the same £50,000 salary in Scotland, the changes mean they will have to pay out an extra £200 compared with the previous year, making them £720 worse off than their counterparts in the rest of the UK.” But lower earners in Scotland fare better; the starting rate of income tax is 19%, not 20% as in the rest of the UK.
Minimum wage
For the over-25s, this rose by almost 5% on 1 April to £8.21 an hour – worth £690 to a full-time worker over the year. For 21-to-24-year-olds, the rate has risen to £7.70 an hour, and to £6.15 for 18-to-20-year-olds. The government said the increases will benefit 2.1 million low-income workers. The minimum wage was 20 years old this week, and the Resolution Foundation has hailed it as a big success. “Internationally, the UK has moved from the back of the pack towards being a world leader. By 2020, only New Zealand and France will have similarly ambitious wage floors,” the thinktank said.
Benefits
It will be another year of cuts – largely achieved by freezing payouts at last year’s level, with inflation diminishing their value. Jobseeker’s allowance is kept at £73.10 – the same level it was in 2015. Disability benefits and carer’s allowances rise in line with inflation, but nearly all other benefit rates have been frozen. That includes child benefit, which stays at £20.70 for the first child, the same as last year.
State pension
The basic state pension rises from £125.95 a week to £129.20, while the “new” state pension – if you have a perfect NI contributions record – will go up from £164.35 to £168.60 a week.
Company pensions
About 10 million workers are now part of “auto-enrolment”, in which they – and their employers – pay into a minimum company pension. From 6 April, a minimum of 5% of a worker’s salary will be deducted to go into their pension, up from 3% before. For someone working 35 hours a week on the minimum wage, it means deductions will rise from £246 to £440 a year from the start of April.
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Business rates
In a lifeline for struggling small retailers, shops and businesses with rateable values of less than £51,000 will receive one-third off their business rate bills, worth up to £8,000.
Earners over £100,000
Spare a thought for the well-off. Those earning above £100,000 have the £12,500 personal allowance gradually withdrawn until their earnings reach £125,000, by which time it will be gone altogether. This is equal to a tax rate of 60% on this segment of their pay. The Institute for Fiscal Studies said 986,000 people are now taxed in this way, compared with 647,000 when the taper was first introduced in 2008. It estimated the threshold should have moved to £120,000 if the government had wanted to keep it in line with inflation.
