This month’s Autumn Statement has led to an onslaught of headlines featuring the phrase ‘fiscal drag’. Sometimes referred to as a ‘stealth tax’ the term doesn’t normally move beyond the Westminster bubble or the financial pages so why is it currently causing so much of a stir? To understand why commentators are getting so animated…
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Millions receive first energy bill payment
More than 27 million households across Great Britain have been given their first £66 payment towards their energy bills. The Government’s Energy Bills Support Scheme (EBSS) has already handed out £1.8 billion in payments to 9 per cent of eligible households in England, Scotland and Wales in its first month. This is the first payment…
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Minimum wage rise is good news for lowest paid workers
Low-paid workers were given a welcome boost in Jeremy Hunt’s Autumn Statement with the announcement that the National Living Wage (NLW) would rise by almost 10 per cent. From April 1 2023, the NLW will go up by 92p to £10.42, an increase of 9.7 per cent, to go some way to protecting the poorest…
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Autumn Statement 2022
The new Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, has delivered his Autumn Statement to the House of Commons against a backdrop of a worsening cost of living crisis and with confirmation from the Office for Budget Responsibility OBR that the UK has now entered into a recession. The OBR has stated that the economy is…
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