Age needs one voice. Now it has:
Age Cyrmru is the new force combining Age Concern Cymru and
Help the Aged in Wales. Age Cymru is a member of the Age UK family.
The new force combining &
George Osborne, the coalition Government's Chancellor, has given his first Budget, with the focus on reducing the deficit through savings. We asked Paul Lewis of Radio 4’s Moneybox fame to look at what was announced and how the tax and benefit measures will affect you.
Some things – like the increase in Capital Gains Tax – were not quite as bad as feared. But we did get the widely predicted rise in VAT. It will go up from 17.5% to 20% from 4 January next year. And if you are insuring your home, your car, or your dog, then the price of that will rise too. The tax on most insurance policies will increase from 5% to 6% from the same date.
Some experts had suggested that welfare benefits would not rise with inflation next year. They were wrong. Instead Treasury official dusted off a plan to change the rate of inflation used. Out goes the old Retail Prices Index (RPI) which has been measuring price rises since World War II. In comes the much younger Consumer Prices Index (CPI) which nearly always shows a lower rate of inflation than the RPI. So benefits will rise by less each April saving a whopping £5.8 billion a year by 2014/15.
From April 2011 the basic state pension paid on your National Insurance contributions will rise in line with earnings or the CPI (whichever is higher) – and by at least 2.5% in any case. And, for 2011 only, if RPI is rising more rapidly than any of those then it will be used instead. The rest of the state pension such as SERPS will rise with CPI.
The state pension age is already due to increase to 66 between 2024 and 2026, but the Chancellor announced a review of this timetable, and it's widely expected that the change will be brought forward. The government will also start consultations soon on how quickly to phase out the Default Retirement Age from April 2011.
Tough new rules will apply to those claiming Disability Living Allowance from 2013. In future you will need a medical before you can claim it and that will also apply to existing claimants. No announcement has been made about extending that change to attendance allowance for the over 65s.
If you pay tax and are under 65 then you will benefit from a rise in the amount of tax-free income you can have before you start paying tax. It will go up by £1,000 next April instead of around £200 which expected and will be £7,475. However, there is no news on the level of the higher allowances for those aged 65 or more.
There will be no change in the inheritance tax threshold – frozen at £325,000 – and little change in Capital Gains Tax. A new higher rate of 28% is introduced at once for those with income and gains above about £44,000 in one year.
If you are under pension age and work then National Insurance rates will rise by 1% to 12% from April 2011. Winter fuel payment will not be changed this year – but to qualify you have to be 60 by 5 July 2010.
There are a number of significant changes to Housing Benefit and housing costs on income-related benefits including Pension Credit. Some of these changes will affect only people of working age, but a number of them will affect older people too.
Cuts in spending which could damage services that many older people rely on will not be announced until 20 October.
Finally, no changes in duty on petrol, tobacco or alcohol were announced – except cider which will see a cut in the extra duty imposed by Alastair Darling. Cheers!
Set your location to see what Age Cymru offers in your local area.
A guide to benefits, entitlements and financial assistance for older people in Wales.
Benefits, entitlements and financial assistance - a guide for older people in Wales (PDF 439KB)
A factsheet containing further information about Carer's Allowance.
Carer's Allowance (PDF 153 KB)
Downloads
A download is a document (like a research report, a leaflet, or an application form) that can be transferred from our website to your computer. You can download a file, view it on your screen, print it, or save it to your computer.
PDF stands for ‘portable document format’.
Most downloads on this website are PDFs. We use this format to ensure that the document looks the same on everyone’s computer (website pages, by contrast, appear differently depending on how people have got their computer set up).
Computers use a program called Adobe Acrobat Reader to download PDFs. If you try clicking on a link to download a PDF and it doesn’t work, you will need to install Adobe Acrobat Reader onto your computer.
The process is quite straightforward and is free.
PDFs cannot be changed. If you need to be able to type into a downloaded document (for example, if we are offering a letter template that you need to put your name on) we will provide it as a Microsoft Word document rather than a PDF. You can then download it, type into it and save it to your computer.
Downloads will open on your computer in a new browser window.
Inside this window (below all your web browser menus), there will be a toolbar with options for you to print or save the document.
Close the browser window to return to the Age UK website.
We have made every effort to make our PDFs accessible to screen readers. Here is an overview of your accessibility options available in Acrobat Reader. Please ensure that you have downloaded the latest version of Acrobat Reader from the Adobe Reader website to ensure that they are included in your version of the programme.You can use Adobe Reader to read a PDF out loud with the following shortcut keys:
You can also convert a PDF into a web page by following these steps:
You can convert a PDF document into a text file for use with other software and hardware such as Braille printers by opening the PDF and choosing ‘Save as text’ from the File menu.
Set the appearance of this website so you can read it more easily
To see information relating to England, Northern Ireland or Scotland set your preference below: