HOPES are rising that Rishi Sunak could slash the Universal Credit taper rate even further in tomorrow’s mini-budget to help the lowest paid get another tax cut.
In what was a huge win for The Sun’s Make Universal Credit Work campaign, the Chancellor slashed 8p from the hated in-work penalty last year.
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It meant Brits in work and on benefits saw up to a £1,000 a year boost, and helped nearly half a million workers.
And speculation is mounting he could go even further tomorrow.
The taper is currently set at 55p for every pound that Brits on the flagship benefits system earn over their work allowance – but The Sun has long campaigned for this to be reduced to 50p.
The Chancellor also could raise the amount of money that can be earned before the effective tax kicks in.
The monthly Work Allowance is set at £293 if your Universal Credit includes Housing Support, and £515 if it doesn’t.
The taper rate is applied to your Universal Credit payments automatically.
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Or he could raise the rate of benefits in line with inflation to help combat the huge squeeze on incomes – they are currently only set to go up 3 per cent when inflation is nearly at six per cent.
When grilled about whether he would introduce help for people on benefits, he said on Sunday: “For people on Universal Credit, we’ve taken an approach to help make sure their work is rewarded and, of course, I want to make sure that we’re helping people who are most vulnerable.
“I’m enormously proud that we’re doing that because I want to make sure that those people get our help, and they are getting our help.”
The Treasury declined to comment on spring statement speculation.
