The Budget - what does it mean for me?
Our political correspondent, Helen Catt, runs through the key points from Rishi Sunak's autumn Budget, as the government sets out tax and spending plans for next year and beyond.
The Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, says the government's latest Budget will prepare the country for a post-Covid 'age of optimism'. Labour said it was a shocking missed opportunity to ease the 'cost of living crisis'. So what are some of the key talking points?
Mr Sunak said the government wanted to create an economy based on high skills, high wages and rising productivity, to 'level up' the country. The National Living Wage would increase to 拢9.50 an hour from April. Business rates would be cut by a total of more than 拢7bn. And a planned increase in duty on fuel and some types of alcohol will be scrapped.
The Chancellor rejected calls to keep the 拢20 a week uplift to Universal Credit, brought in at the start of the pandemic. But he announced changes to the taper rate for people claiming the benefit while in work, enabling them to keep more of the wages they earn. He promised a real-terms increase in funding for every government department, saying spending would go up during the parliament by a total of a 拢150bn.
Shadow Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, said working families would accuse the chancellor of living in a "parallel universe". She condemned the Budget as "a shocking missed opportunity from a government completely out of touch".
Our political correspondent, Helen Catt, has 5 Minutes On the main talking points in the Chancellor's Budget, and what they mean for you.
