In the last Parliament the deepest welfare cuts the government achieved amounted to £8bn over two years and experts have pointed out that the easy routes to saving money have already been taken – for example, ending the link between benefit rises and the higher RPI rate of inflation.
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What’s in the box?
The Conservatives pledged in their election manifesto that, from April 2017, parents would each be offered a further – and transferable – £175,000 “family home allowance”.
Megan Dunn, the president of the National Union of Students, said: “Cutting maintenance grants would be detrimental to hundreds of thousands of our poorest students who now rely on it, and could risk putting many people off applying to university”.
Changes to the Inheritance Tax threshold – it’s expected to be raised to £1 million.
Although, Mr Osborne could introduce measures to improve the minimum wage to compensate for any cut.
“It is a Budget that sets the way to secure Britain’s future”, he will say.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies has said returning the tax credits to 2003 levels could save the economy £5bn.
Later today Chancellor George Osborne will open the red box and set out his emergency budget, thought to contain large scale cuts to benefits and a shake-up of Sunday shopping. Taxpayers now pay to support the development of renewable energy such as wind and solar, which would not be financially viable without government incentives.
“In your Budget, you have an opportunity to invest in skills and make a long-lasting impact on our economy”.
“The offshore bond essentially defers any income tax and capital gains tax liability until the bond is encashed, which is why there is no cash to declare on an annual basis”.
Mr Osborne has said that households earning more than £40,000 a year in London and £30,000 elsewhere will have to pay closer to market rates for their rented public housing.
NHS will receive a further £8bn, £10bn more in real terms by 2020. This is forecast to cost the BBC nearly a fifth (18%) of its entire £3.7bn income from the licence fee.
Mr Osborne also indicated that he was looking to transfer the £650 million-a-year bill for providing free television licences for the over 75s from the Exchequer to the BBC as he delivered a stinging side-swipe at the broadcaster’s “imperial” ambitions. “This would do nothing for the vast majority of the population except make the pension system marginally more complicated than it already is”.
George Osborne is reportedly considering increases charges for those who are non-domiciled – or “non doms”.
Tax avoidance: the Conservatives promised to deliver £5bn of savings by clamping down on tax avoidance so expect measures here.
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When he announced the second Budget back in May, the Chancellor said that he wanted to “turn promises made in the election into a reality”.
