THE mega £65billion Budget was unveiled yesterday with the aim to help Brits get through the Covid crisis.
With a range of support measures introduced, we’re here to show you how they’re going to help you.
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Some of the things announced in the Budget include VAT help, furlough, stamp duty cuts and further help for homebuyers.
The budget won’t be helping everyone, however.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced a freeze to income tax thresholds, meaning workers in Britain can’t benefit from planned increases to the amount that can be earned tax-free.
The tax-free personal allowance – the amount you can earn before paying tax – will rise as planned from April 2021 but then stay at that rate until April 2026.
For basic rate taxpayers the threshold will be held at £12,570 and £50,270 for higher rate taxpayers
Who does the Budget benefit?
The biggest winners to come from the budget announcement are self-employed workers hit by the Covid crisis, as Mr Sunak revealed details of a fourth and fifth self-employment grant.
It will be a welcome relief for an extra 600,000 self-employed workers who have been shut out of government support – but there are still almost 2.5million that miss out.
Another win for workers in the UK, the government will be extending furlough until the end of September.
It means that 80% of people’s wages will continue to be paid for months to come, helping firms get back on their feet.
But employers will have to chip in from July, when they will be expected to contribute 10% of the cost.
This will increase to 20% in August and September when the economy reopens.
Another bit of good news to come from the announcement was that the Universal Credit £20 boost per will be extended for a further six months and “well beyond” the end of the national lockdown in his Budget.
The extended boost is thought to help prevent thousands of families plunging further into debt.
So with all of that, how does the Budget affect you?
To find out, we’ve teamed up with accountancy firm Blick Rothenberg to bring you this easy to use Budget calculator, so you can see how these changes will impact you this year.
How to use the budget calculator:
You can find the Budget calculator here. Using the calculator is super simple.
There are 4 slides at the top, for you to enter your personal information in order for the calculator to work.
You’ll be asked to enter in your age, marital status, number of children you have in full time education and if claim child benefit, annual salary, weekly spend on cigarettes and alcohol, and details about your car if you have one.
Once you’ve entered all of that, the calculator will tell you how much better off or not you’ll be because of the budget.
It’ll calculate how much better off financially you’ll be for the year.
It’s worth noting that the information entered into the Blick Rothenberg tax calculator may be used to produce aggregated trend analysis but will not be used to identify individuals or their personal circumstances.
The calculator is designed only to give you an indication of how the changes could impact your situation.
TAX RAID
How the income tax freeze will affect your wages & cost you at least £576 more
CREDIT CUT
Rishi Sunak confirms Universal Credit will be cut by £20 a week in October
CLOSING DOWN
Marks and Spencer to close ALL current accounts and 29 bank branches this year
BEER WE COME
Wetherspoons to reopen almost 400 pubs in April – is YOUR local on the list?
A-MAZING!
First look inside Amazon’s real-life shop as it goes to war with supermarkets
Find out the key points from the Budget 2021 announcement here.
If you’re still confused about furlough, here’s what you need to know about how it works.
We break down the tax changes for you.
Post-Covid Britain to surge into roaring 2020s with fastest economic growth since WW2
