MILLIONS of Brits will want to be in the know ahead of 17 money changes set to hit in 2024.
It’s set to be a bumper year for everyone including benefits claimants, pensioners, workers and parents.
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From National Insurance changes to the final cost of living payment, it’s definitely helpful to know what’s happening and when.
Some of the changes were announced earlier this year as part of the Spring Budget, such as the introduction of free childcare.
While others were confirmed just last month during the Autumn Statement such as how much benefits payments will be going up by.
We’ve rounded up all the changes set to hit in 2024 and how they affect you.
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Energy price cap change – January 1
Energy bills are set to rise by £94 for millions of households in the new year.
The energy regulator Ofgem has confirmed the new price cap, which comes into effect on January 1 and will be in place until March 31.
The cap will rise from £1,834 to £1,928 a year.
It’s important to note though that this is not a cap on the overall amount people will pay for their energy.
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Instead, it caps the amount that they pay per kilowatt hour, or unit, of gas and electricity.
It’s not the only time energy bills will be changing next year either.
At the moment the energy price cap is adjusted every three months, and the next change after January will come on April 1.
The price cap is due to fall by £268 to £1,660, according to energy analysts at Cornwall Insight – but this won’t be confirmed until February.
This trend is currently expected to carry on through 2024, falling again to £1,590 in July before a slight increase to £1,640 from October.
Tax rules for online sellers – January 1
From the New Year HMRC will be cracking down on people who earn extra income through various side hustles.
This includes people who sell items on Vinted or Depop as their income will soon be reported directly to HMRC.
It’s all part of a wider tax crackdown from HMRC on people boosting their income via side hustles.
The new system could slap sellers with an unexpected tax bill if they don’t comply with all the necessary tax regulations.
From January 1, HMRC will direct these platforms to record how much money people make by listing their services on them.
Those with a side hustle will still be expected to fill in a tax return and pay what they owe the HMRC every year.
But, the taxman will also go directly to these platforms, who will become responsible for recording this information and handing it over to HMRC
HMRC will then be able to use this data as well as any submitted tax returns to work out if there are any discrepancies.
The measures will also affect those renting out properties on Airbnb and other property rental platforms, or selling other services online.
The first reporting deadline for the sites will be one year after the rules are introduced, on January 31, 2025.
To meet the strict requirements must bring in new ways of collecting seller details to pass on to HMRC in the correct format.
The taxman will then verify it against its own records to make sure individuals are correctly reporting their income on their tax returns.
Free childcare applications open – January 2
More parents can apply for free childcare from January 2.
Working mums and dads of two-year-olds are in line for 15 hours of support as part of the massive government expansion.
The rollout kicks in from April but Education Secretary Gillian Keegan has previously urged parents to sign up early.
They can apply on the same government website parents of three and four-year-olds sign up for their existing 15 or 30 hours.
The childcare package announced at the Budget last March is being rolled out in stages starting from April 2024 when two-year-olds in households where all parents work at least 16 hours a week will be eligible for 15 free hours of childcare a week.
In September children aged between nine months and two years old in households where all parents work at least 16 hours a week will be eligible for 15 free hours of childcare a week.
And from September 2025 children aged between nine months and two years old in households where all parents work at least 16 hours a week will be eligible for 30 free hours of childcare a week.
National Insurance changes – January 6
From January 6, the main 12% rate of employee National Insurance Class 4 contributions will be cut.
Jeremy Hunt announced as part of the Autumn Statement that the rate will be reduced to 10% from January 6.
This change will help 27million people and it means that someone earning an average salary of £35,000 will save over £450.
It is also good news for millions of self-employed workers who will also get to keep more of their hard-earned cash.
To see how much you’re set to save from January have a look at our story.
This kind of big change to taxes tends to kick in from the beginning of the new tax year in April.
The fact that it’s coming in January was a surprise to many.
Mr Hunt also abolished some National Insurance Contributions (NICs) in the Autumn Statement.
Class 2 National Insurance, a flat rate compulsory charge that is currently set at £3.45 a week is set to be abolished.
The Chancellor said that this change would save two million self-employed workers £350 a year from April 6.
Tax return deadline – January 31
Customers have a month left to submit their online tax return for the 2021 to 2022 tax year.
The deadline for filing paper-form tax returns ended on October 31 2023 – but thousands can still file theirs online.
Those who miss the paper deadline, still have until January 31 to file online.
Self-assessment customers face a penalty of £100 if their tax return is up to three months late.
Further fines of £10 a day are applied after three months, up to a maximum of £900.
For payments late by six months, you’ll be fined 5% of the tax you owe or £300, whichever is greater.
You can calculate how much your fine will be on the Gov.uk.
Cost of living payment – February 6
Households on certain benefits, including Universal Credit, will receive the £299 payment directly into their bank accounts between February 6 and February 22.
Those eligible for the tax-free payment won’t have to do anything as it will be made automatically.
The full list of benefits that qualify people for the payment is:
- Universal Credit
- Income-based jobseekers allowance
- Income-related employment and support allowance
- Income support
- Working tax credit
- Child tax credit
- Pension credit
You need to have been entitled to a payment of any of the qualifying benefits above between November 13 and December 12 to be eligible for the free cash.
If you were later found to be entitled to any of the above benefits between the same dates you will also be eligible for the payment too.
Households on tax credits only will receive their payment from HMRC after the others are paid by the DWP.
The £299 payment is the final of three payments that form the £900 support.
The first instalment worth £301 was paid out to over eight million households in April and May.
The second payment of £300 started being paid on October 31.
Rail fare change – March 3
Rail fares are set to rise again in March.
Prices will rise, although not using the usual formula based on July’s Retail Prices Index (RPI), which was 9%.
Fares will instead be hiked by 4.9% next year, the Department for Transport has announced.
The rise will affect season tickets on most commuter journeys, some off-peak return tickets on long-distance journeys, and flexible tickets for travel around major cities.
The current cost of a weekly commute from Oxford to London is £6,096, which will rise to £6,394 from March next year – £298 more.
Meanwhile, a season ticket from Tunbridge Wells to London will rise by £372 to £5,829.
Deadline for backdating Pension Credit for CoL – March 5
The deadline for pensioners to backdate claims for Pension Credit in order to receive the third Cost of Living payment is March 5.
The benefit is available to people who have reached state pension age and are on a low income.
Pension credit claimants are among those eleigible for the government’s cost of living payment being dished out in February 2024.
For other benefits, you’ll need to have been eligible for the qualifying benefits between November 13 and December 12 to be eligible for the free cash.
But Pension Credit works slightly differently and can actually be backdated by three months.
That means that as long as you submit a claim by March 5, you’ll still be able to get the £299 Cost of Living cash.
Pension Credit provides an average of £3,900 each year in extra financial support – but around 800,000 eligible households are missing out.
Spring budget – mid-March
The last spring budget took place on March 15, 2023.
The Budget is when the Government outlines its plans for tax hikes, cuts and things like changes to Universal Credit and the minimum wage.
It’s different to the Spending Review, which sets out how much public cash will go towards funding certain departments, devolved governments and services, such as the NHS.
The Budget is read out in the House of Commons by the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
The last big financial announcement was in November’s Autumn Statement.
Fuel duty cut to end – March 23
Thanks to The Sun’s Keep it Down crusade, Fuel Duty had been frozen at 57.95p since March 2011 and temporarily slashed by an extra 5p in 2022.
This 52.95p rate is due to expire in March next year – meaning a fresh battle against the hated tax is brewing ahead of the Budget in the spring.
Fuel duty is a tax on fuel including petrol, diesel, biodiesel and bioethanol.
VAT (Value Added Tax) is also charged on most fuel.
The Sun’s Keep it Down campaign has forced ministers to freeze duties for 13 years in a row.
National Living Wage rise – April 1
Millions of workers will get a £1,800 pay rise next year.
As of April next year, the National Living Wage for those over 21 will rise from £10.42 to £11.44.
It’s the biggest hike to the minimum wage for a decade and for the first time will apply to over-21s, rather than over-23s.
The change was confirmed in the Autumn Statement when the Chancellor said full-time workers on the National Living Wage will get a pay rise of over £1,800 a year.
Here are the new rates that will be implemented from April 1, 2024:
- Those aged 21 and over will get £11.44 rather than the current rate of £10.42
- For 18 to 20-year-olds, the rate will be £8.60, an increase of £1.11 on the previous wage of £7.49
- 16 to 17-year-olds will get £6.40, an increase of £1.12 on the previous rate of £5.28
- The apprentice wage will also increase to £6.40 from £5.28
Council tax rise – April 1
Council tax is once again expected to rise from the 1st of April.
The payment is an annual fee you pay to your local council.
The cost is set by your council and goes towards funding local services.
The exact amount payments will rise by is set to be announced in February next year.
This year saw the majority of local authorities hike rates by 5% – though in some cases bills went up by 15%.
TV licence price increase – April 1
Households will be paying more for their TV licence fee from next year.
For the past two years, the licence fee has been frozen at the price of £159 but that is set to change.
It was expected that an increase was on the horizon as it was previously agreed the fee would rise in line with inflation after April 2024.
This has now been confirmed and the BBC licence fee will rise from £159 to £169.50, as of April 1, 2024, an increase of £10.50.
TV watchers could have been paying £15 more as bosses had hoped to hike it by a bit more than just over a tenner.
But ministers pushed for them to settle in line with September’s 6.7% inflation rate.
Everyone who watches TV in the UK needs to pay their annual licence fee, which counts for any live TV or anything on BBC iPlayer on any device.
If you don’t have one it’s a criminal offence and you could be landed with a fine of £1,000.
Flexible working changes – April 6
The Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act is set to come fully into force on April 6.
It is set to improve current flexible working rights, allowing employees to make two formal flexible working requests in a 12-month period.
The right to make a flexible working application also becomes a day one right on April 6, 2024.
Until then employees will need 26 weeks’ continuous employment to make a request.
Employers will need to consult with employees before rejecting any such applications and will have only two months to consider and decide the outcome.
Flexible working is a way of working that suits an employee’s needs, for example having flexible start and finish times, or working from home.
All employees have the legal right to request flexible working – not just parents and carers.
Benefits rise – April 8
Universal Credit and many other benefits will rise in line by 6.7% next April.
How much you get does vary depending on which benefit you’re on, so payments will be different for each person.
The average family on Universal Credit will see an increase of around £470 a year from April 2024.
This is the equivalent of an increase of around £39 per month.
Child Benefit payments will go up for their eldest or only child from £24 a week to £25.60.
For every additional child, payments would be hiked from £15.90 to roughly £17.
Income support will go up to £71.70 a week – a £4.50 a week pay rise, from April 2024.
Attendance allowance payments will increase from £68.10 to £72.66 a week – a rise of £4.56.
The higher rate is worth £101.75 weekly, which will rise to £108.56.
If you get the maximum amount of PIP, you can expect your payments to rise from £172.75 a week to £184.32 a week from April 2024 – up by £11.57 a week.
For the full list of benefits increasing in April and how much they’re going up see our handy explainer.
State pension increase – April 8
Those on State Pension will see a rise of up to £901 in payments from next year.
It comes as Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced the move in the Autumn Statement that the pension triple lock will remain intact.
The amount pensioners get from the state rises every year in order to keep up with the cost of things like food and household bills.
Payments will increase by 8.5%, in line with last July’s wages figure.
That’s because the triple lock system sees the state pension rise in line with whatever is highest out of: wages for May to July, 2.5% or September’s inflation figures.
It means pensioners on the new state pension will be looking at as much as £901 a year.
This is up from just over £10,600 to £11,501 a year.
And a weekly rise from £203.85 to £221.20 – a £17.35 increase.
It’s important to note though that this is for those entitled to a “full” new state pension.
How much individuals get is based on the number of qualifying years they’ve accrued.
Older pensioners who retired before April 2016 will get a weekly rise from £156.20 to £169.48, and an annual rise from £8,122.40 to £8,812.96.
Alcohol duty – August 1
The government has said it will freeze alcohol duties until August 1, 2024.
It was a major win for The Sun’s Save Our Sups campaign.
The freeze will come to an end at the beginning of August though.
The annual uprating decision will be announced in the Spring Budget.
Alcohol duty is a tax charged at the point of production or importation of drinks of alcoholic strength exceeding 1.2% alcohol by volume.
Duty rates differ for beers, ciders and perries, wines, spirits, and other fermented products.
Read more on The Sun
The last time prices were increased was on August 1, 2023.
The price of some drinks crept up by as much as £1.29 while the cost of a bottle of wine climbed by 44p.
