What Jeremy Hunt's statement means for you
The new Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, has been making announcements about Government policy changes today.
Here are some of the headlines, taken from
BBC News:
- Reduced support with energy bills
- Income tax cut is cancelled
- Little chance of mortgage rates dropping immediately
- Planned increases in the duty rates for beer, cider, wine and spirits will now go ahead, rather than being cancelled
- Anyone on the major benefits - such as Universal Credit - should expect a rise in what they receive. However, that won't come until April
- Potential for spending cuts
- IR35 reforms to stay
- The change in the threshold of how much a property has to cost before stamp duty is paid from £125,000 to £250,000 will stay
- The 1.25% rise in National Insurance will still be cancelled on 6 November
Our response
On
Twitter, we said:
The government has created yet more uncertainty for disabled people. The lack of clarity related to benefits will do nothing to provide assurance after an already turbulent year.
Unfortunately, today’s announcements were more about reassuring markets than reassuring people.
All over the country, millions of disabled households are facing a tougher winter, with impossible choices ahead.
It would have helped today to hear the Chancellor announcing how those choices will become easier.
❌ But yet again, disabled people’s needs have been ignored.
We need the government to commit to uprating benefits in line with inflation, and increasing the payments made to disabled households to deal with rising energy bills.
If not, they condemn disabled people to continue bearing the brunt of this crisis.https://t.co/pSUeXwlTW7
It’s crucial that the government now acts on the concerns of disabled people, and restores the confidence and financial stability we need to live our lives.
There’s only so much uncertainty we can be forced to endure.
— Scope (@scope) October 17, 2022
Over to you...
What do you think about the announcements?
