Budget today

Tax Thresholds frozen sìnce 2021 and STILL frozen.

Is this a clumsy joke?

A budget that hasn’t got any unpleasant shocks and helps with the rise in energy prices. Overall so far so good.
As for helping out with energy bills for households between council tax bands A - D, any means of calculating this would cause some to complain but I think is a broad stroke that aims to help those in less expensive houses, assuming that those who live in higher bands are on higher incomes in order to afford mortgage repayments and higher bills on such properties.

Doodledog

Yes, that's always a tricky balance. I think rent and childcare need to be sorted out first, so people aren't spending such a high percentage of their income on those.

The Chancellor has kept the Local Housing Allowance freeze for Housing Benefit, which will mean the gap between rents and Housing Benefit will continue to increase.

He's also chosen not to tackle the issue of higher earners receiving in effect a higher tax "gift" on pension contributions, which could have raised billions.

I think it's an underwhelming and disappointing budget.

I dearly would have loved to see some things frozen, unfrozen and increased to reach sensible levels based on today’s economy and cost of living,

Chatgtp estimates that weekly 'savings' from the Budget measures could be between £1.35 and £3.45, depending on eligibility criteria. I don't think those with a DI of minus £73 per week are gong to be terribly thrilled. It's not exactly a Lottery win, is it?

I think what it’s done is bought time. There’s nothing very controversial or challenging in it for the average taxpayer, so the government will be left to do the other stuff on the agenda without a furore. Whether that was the right thing to do I don’t know, but I understand why they did it.

Thanks Cossy when I rented the landlord paid the council tax, hence my confusion,

MaizieD, that is a very interesting way of looking at income. I haven't seen it before, but it is certainly thought provoking.
Thank you for introducing it to me.

This:

Impact on households: distributional analysis to accompany Budget 2026

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6ae1850f16428df53760627d/Impact_on_households.pdf