Spending plans called out
Hunt also unveiled measures to tackle the “unfairness” of the child benefit regime. At present, the payment is withdrawn if one parent earns more than £50,000 a year.
“That means two parents earning £49,000 a year receive the benefit in full but a household earning a lot less than that does not if just one parent earns over £50,000,” he said. “Today I set out plans to end that unfairness.”
He said the Government would consult on moving the high-income child benefit charge to a householdbased system by April 2026.
“But because that is not a quick fix, services amid predictions of severe cuts in state spending.
He announced that the Government was committed to a real-terms increase in day-to-day spending – but experts said this would be eaten up by a few key areas and will translate into cuts across many other parts of the state.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies calculated that because of Government pledges to boost spending on the NHS, defence, schools, overseas aid and childcare, other areas must be cut to keep to the 1% increase target.
Scottish Finance Secretary Shona Robison said: “Public services up
I make two changes today to make the current system fairer,” he added.
“I confirm that from this April the high-income child benefit charge threshold will be raised from £50,000 to £60,000. We will raise the top of the taper at which it is withdrawn to £80,000.
“That means no one earning under £60,000 will pay the charge, taking 170,000 families out of paying it altogether. And because of the higher taper and threshold, nearly half a million families with children will save an average of around £1300 next year.” and down the UK are in real need of investment, and they’re being sacrificed to deliver unsustainable tax cuts.”
She added: “Today’s UK Spring Budget is nothing short of a betrayal of public services across the UK.
“Our hope had been the Chancellor would have eased pressures on services – not least by providing more funding for capital.”
The Scottish Government has accused the UK Government of failing to boost capital spending which would hurt Holyrood’s ability to invest in major infrastructure projects such as roads and schools.
I know it’s one of many but it’s a pretty big U-turn