Isas, cars and pensions: How the Budget affects you

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has announced her Budget, but details were published early by the official forecaster.

Here are the key measures and how they will affect you and your money.

The amount of income at which you pay different rates of income tax will still not be increased in line with rising prices.

Instead the bands – known as tax thresholds – will stay frozen until 2031. That is three years longer than previously planned.

This means any kind of pay rise could drag you into a higher tax bracket, or see a greater proportion of your income taxed than would otherwise be expected.

Scotland has its own income tax rates.

You may not earn enough to pay income tax, so VAT, paid when buying goods and services, may hit you harder and that’s been left unchanged.

Electric vehicle and hybrid car drivers will be taxed for using the road from 2028.

EV drivers will be charged per mile, on top of other road taxes, in new road pricing.

Electric car drivers will pay 3p per mile, while plug-in hybrid drivers will pay 1.5p per mile, with the rates going up each year in line with inflation.

Calculating the number of miles that drivers cover is difficult.

But the 5p “temporary” cut in fuel duty on petrol and diesel will be extended from April, followed by a staged increase from September 2026.

The chancellor confirmed increases in April for those on minimum wages.

It means:

• Eligible workers aged 21 and over on the National Living Wage will receive £12.71 an hour, up from £12.21
• If you are aged 18, 19 or 20, the National Minimum Wage increase to £10.85 an hour, up from £10
• For those aged 16 or 17, the minimum wage will rise to £8 an hour, up from £7.55

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 an hour, from £7.55.

Anyone who lives in a home valued at £2m or more in England will face a council tax surcharge from April 2028.

There will be four price bands with the surcharge rising from £2,500 for a property valued in the £2m to £2.5m band, to £7,500 for a property valued in the highest band of £5m or more

While known as a mansion tax, it may also capture homes in expensive areas, and will be levied on about 100,000 properties, primarily in London and south east England.

The move will require the valuation of homes in the top council tax bands – F, G and H – for the first time since 1991.

You can check your council tax band here if you are in England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.

Some levies placed on energy bills will go – lowering bills for millions of households by £150 a year, the chancellor said.

Being cut is a scheme that was designed to tackle fuel poverty and help reduce carbon emissions.

Regulated rail fares in England will be frozen until March 2027 – the first time they have been left unchanged for 30 years.

These fares include season tickets covering most commuter routes, some off-peak return tickets on long-distance journeys and flexible tickets for travel in and around major cities.

The freeze only relates to travel in England, and also only applies to services run by England-based train operating companies.

Train operators are free to set prices for unregulated fares.

The bus fare cap of £3 for a single journey, covering most bus journeys in England, is already in place until March 2027.

The amount of money that can be saved tax-free each year in a cash Isa (Individual Savings Account) will be reduced from £20,000 to £12,000 a year for the under 65s.

Ministers want people to invest more, which comes with greater risk but could help boost growth – a key objective for the government.

There are questions over whether people would naturally put their money into stocks and shares Isas as a result of the less generous tax break on cash Isas.

About a quarter of those who save money into a cash Isa currently save more than £12,000 a year.

But many of those are pensioners, and the chancellor said the over-65s will still be able to save up to £20,000 in cash.

Separately, the Help to Save scheme, which helps those on low incomes and on universal credit to put money aside, will be extended from 2028.

From April 2027, there will be a two percentage point increase to the basic, higher and additional rates of savings income tax, increasing them to 22%, 42% and 47% respectively.

Most people do not save enough to fall into paying income tax on their savings, but it does make the system more complicated.

There will also be increases in the rates of tax on dividends and property income.

At present, parents can only claim universal credit or tax credits for their first two children.

The chancellor says this two-child cap will be scrapped in April next year.

That means many thousands of parents with three or more children will receive more in universal credit and tax credits.

A third of private sector employees and a tenth of public sector workers use a salary sacrifice scheme for their pension savings.

These workers give up a portion of their salary in return for their employer paying the equivalent amount into their pension. The benefit to both employer and employee is that they make savings in national insurance.

A £2,000-a-year cap on the amount that can be put into pensions through this salary sacrifice arrangement will be in place from April 2029. More can be put in, but it will be taxed.

Employees would still get income tax relief on their pension contributions, but some argue the move will reduce pension saving incentives.

Landlords face a higher tax burden, which forecasters expect to mean higher rents for tenants.

In the Budget documents is a plan to replace the Lifetime Isa, which has proven to be controversial, to concentrate on saving for a first home, rather than retirement.

Some benefits, including all the main disability benefits, such as personal independence payment, attendance allowance and disability living allowance, as well as carer’s allowance will rise by 3.8% in April, in line with rising prices.

There will be a string of changes to universal credit in April, following announcements made earlier by the government.

The state pension in April will rise by 4.8% in line with average wages, which means:

• the new flat-rate state pension – for those who reached state pension age after April 2016 – will increase to £241.30 a week, or £12,547.60 a year, a rise of £574.60
• the old basic state pension – for those who reached state pension age before April 2016 – will go up to £184.90 a week, or £9,614.80 a year, a rise of £439.40

In general, you need 35 years of qualifying contributions to get a full state pension.

This brings the state pension closer to being subject to income tax – a source of some debate. It will also reignite discussions over the “fairness” of the so-called triple lock.

A range of other measures in the Budget had already become clear or been announced in recent days. They included:

• The UK tax on fizzy drinks will be extended to milk-based products in 2028, taking in pre-packaged milkshakes and coffees that are high in sugar. This may push up prices, or lead to ingredient changes

• The cost of a single NHS prescription in England will be frozen at £9.90 for the second year in a row in April
• Disabled people who have a car through the Motability scheme will no longer be allowed “premium” vehicles such as BMWs, Mercedes, Audi, Alfa Romeo and Lexus
• England’s mayors could be given the powers to charge a levy on overnight stays, sometimes referred to as a ‘tourist tax’. Mayors would decide the level of the charge, and how to spend the money in their areas, under the plans which will be consulted upon