Your pay, energy bills and savings: How the Budget affects you

Families facing cost-of-living pressures are being offered some help, or "breathing space" as Chancellor John Healey is calling it.

The help comes as prices are rising faster than expected with annual energy bills in particular likely to increase by hundreds of pounds in January.

Here's how the key announcements in the Budget affect you and your money.

If you are living in a home in council tax bands A to D in England, you will receive a one-off £100 "Household Energy Payment" from January, funded by extra tax on banks.

It will be paid directly into your bank account.

Council tax bands are listed below - you can check which one you are in by looking at your annual bill or checking the government's website, external, although that was struggling to cope with traffic after the announcement.

Administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will receive the equivalent funding, and they will decide whether to introduce the same payment.

This is designed to help with soaring energy bills, with some forecasts suggesting a typical annual bill could rise by £400 or so to £2,100 in January the saving will be only a portion of that. Although it's designated for energy bills, you can spend the money on anything you wish.

The VAT cut on electricity bills, which was introduced in October, will also be extended to July. It was due to end in April.

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The fee for connecting to your gas supply so called standing charges will be scrapped in England, Scotland and Wales, next year "or as soon as possible after", the chancellor said.

These fixed daily charges will then be shifted onto the price you pay for each unit of energy.

The Treasury calculates that 60% of households will save an average of £45 a year, with lower users gaining the most. But the saving will come after the projected big rise in bills in January.

Higher users - in the biggest houses but also large, low-income families - will pay more than they currently do.

The government wants to extend reforms to electricity standing charges later.

The 5p "temporary" cut in fuel duty on petrol and diesel, introduced by Rishi Sunak in 2022, will be extended to July. It was scheduled to be phased out from January.

It means drivers will still pay the levy at 52.95p per litre.

Motor fuel prices have risen sharply owing to the continued impact of the Iran war on drivers, with diesel having recently hit new records when it moved above £2 per litre.

The cost of filling a typical family car with diesel has gone up by around £30 since late February. A tankful of petrol costs about £23 more.

Changes to cash Isa scrapped

The chancellor has scrapped his predecessor's plans to reduce the annual amount people can save tax-free in cash in Individual Savings Accounts (Isas).

Rachel Reeves had wanted the policy to encourage personal investment in stocks and shares.

It meant, from April 2027, if you're under 65, you would only be able to save £12,000 a year in cash in an Isa, rather than £20,000.

But that plan has now been ditched.

Instead, the government plans to create a new "Starter Isa" for first-time investors.

More tax for some savers and landlords

If you have a large amount in savings, or if you fail to use the tax-free Isa allowance, then you will pay more tax from April.

You do not pay tax on all savings. There is the annual £20,000 Isa allowance, and an annual savings income allowance (in other words, the interest received on a savings pot) of £1,000 for basic rate taxpayers and £500 for higher-rate taxpayers.

But beyond that savings tax rates will rise by four percentage points to 24% and 44% respectively from April.

Landlords could also pay more in tax. In analysis published on Wednesday, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said these steps along with measures over the past decade that have reduced private landlord returns "collectively risk leading to a steady rise in rents".

Minimum wage rise but you'll pay more tax

Minimum wage rates will rise by 3.9% in April. It means:

Eligible workers aged 21 and over on the National Living Wage will receive £13.21 an hour, up from £12.71

If you are aged 18, 19 or 20, the National Minimum Wage will increase to £11.27 an hour, up from £10.85

For those aged 16 or 17, the minimum wage will rise to £8.31 an hour, up from £8

The separate apprentice rate which applies to eligible people under 19 - or those over 19 in the first year of an apprenticeship – will also increase to £8.31 an hour, from £8