Labour Party Chancellor Rachel Reeves has confirmed she is raising the basic and new state pension by 4.8%.
State pensioners born in certain years handed extra £575 from DWP
Younger state pensioners – on the New, Full rate – are set for an extra £575 from the Department for Work and Pensions. Labour Party Chancellor Rachel Reeves has confirmed she is raising the basic and new state pension by 4.8%.
The chancellor says this means “an increase of £575 per year for the new state pension, and £440 per year for the basic state pension”.
This is in line with the government’s commitment to the triple lock. After the announcement, Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said she hopes that Ms Reeves “enjoyed” delivering her budget “because it really should be her last”.
READ MORE State pensioners born before 1953 will be denied £2,920 due to ‘two-tier’ rule
She told MPs: “What a total humiliation. It’s a total humiliation. Last year she put up taxes by £40bn, the biggest tax rate in British history.
“She promised that she wouldn’t be back for more. She swore it was a one-off. She told everyone that from now on it would be stability, and she would pay for everything with growth.
“Today, she has broken every single one of those promises. If she had any decency, she would resign.” She also mocked Ms Reeves’s proud claim, repeated last year and in today’s budget, that she is the UK’s first ever chancellor.
“After this budget, she will go down as the country’s worst ever,” Badenoch said. She accused Labour of “hiking taxes to pay for welfare” and says it will increase benefits for 560,000 families, by £5,000 on average.
“They are hiking taxes on workers, pensioners and savers to pay for handouts to keep their backbenchers quiet.”
Badenoch said these backbenchers cheered last year “because they didn’t understand the consequences of what they were doing, and still don’t”.
She added: “What she could have chosen today is bring down welfare spending and get more people into work.
“Instead, she has chosen to put a tax up to tax after tax. Taxes on workers. Taxes on savers. Taxes on pensioners. Taxes on investors. Taxes on homes. Holidays. Taxes, I think, even milkshakes. Taxes on anyone doing the right thing.
“She and this government have lost what little credibility they had left. And no one will ever trust her again.”