JEREMY HUNT is planning to boost the national living wage in an effort to help Brits through the cost of living crisis.
The Chancellor is preparing a ten per cent hike, which would see the threshold rise from £9.50 to £10.40 an hour.
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The move would mean a pay day for more than 2.5m Brits.
The national living wage is the minimum amount all employers have to pay staff aged 23 and over.
Those younger than 23 can be paid the minimum wage instead, which is £9.18 for 21 – 22-year-olds and £6.83 for those aged 18 – 20.
Final confirmation of changes to the living wage will come this Thursday when Mr Hunt reveals his Autumn Statement.
The major budget will detail how the Treasury is going to fill an estimated £50bn black hole in the public purse.
The gaping hole came about because of the pandemic, Mad Vlad Putin’s war in Ukraine, soaring energy costs and Liz Truss’ disastrous mini budget.
On Sunday the Chancellor warned tax rises will hit “everyone” and that “we’ll all be paying a bit more tax”.
Gloomy Mr Hunt added that there will be no enticing “rabbit out of a hat” policies either.
But yesterday Rishi Sunak dropped his biggest hint yet pensioners will be protected while others feel the squeeze.
Asked if he would hike pensions in line with inflation next year, the PM insisted he was “someone who understands the particular challenge of pensioners”, adding “they will always be at the forefront of my mind”.
However the Chancellor is set to give councils more powers to raise local taxes to pay for social care.
Currently local government chiefs are only allowed to hike it by 2.99 per cent plus a one per cent levy for elderly care without a local referendum.
But the threshold for such a vote is set to be raised, meaning it is harder to block hikes.
Meanwhile Mr Hunt will call time on the £10billion a month universal energy bills support – with only the least well off in line for hefty support.
Bills for the average home are set to be capped £500 higher than now at £3,000.
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And Mr Hunt will bat away calls for a repeat of the £400 one-off payment made to households this year to keep bills down.
So overall many families will be on average £900 worse off – the equivalent of £75 every month.
But PM was last night at pains to stress fairness will be at the heart of the budget as he travelled to the G20 in Indonesia.
He said of his plans: “We will put fairness and compassion at the heart of all the decisions we make and I am confident people will see that next Thursday.”
