No one likes rising prices and it is the least well-off who are worst affected by them, as basic supplies and household bills make up a higher percentage of their expenditure. Global events have caused global inflation, with energy and fuel badly affected, which has a significant knock-on effect for everything.
Many countries are going to struggle, and while no government can fix everything, here at home we are seeing an ongoing response to help mitigate the worst of rising prices. We see plenty about the bad news of the unwelcome surge in energy prices, but less so of the measures that will help many of the least well-off.
The new financial year that has just started is seeing the National Living Wage rise by 6.6% to £9.50 an hour. This will mean an extra £1,000 a year for a full-time worker. The raising of the National Insurance threshold to £12,570 a year will take many part-time workers out of National Insurance altogether. Worth over £330 a year, it means 70% of workers will be better off, even after the 1% NI increase to help fund the NHS backlog that the pandemic created.
The government are also delivering a £1,000 effective tax cut for nearly two million families, through the cut to the Universal Credit taper and increase to work allowances. This measure, along with the rise of the National Living Wage and the rise in NI allowance, helps to make people being in work better off. This is very welcome, especially when we have record number of job vacancies. Helping to fill these vacancies will strengthen economic growth which ultimately will be good for everyone.
Other key measures have been the recent doubling of the government’s Household Support Fund for the most vulnerable families, taking it to £1 billion, and the launch of the £9.1 billion package to help families with their energy bills. There will be more to do in the months ahead, but while our political opponents seek to exploit rising global prices for political gain, the Conservatives are getting on with supporting those most in need.
Councillor Duncan Crow, Leader of Crawley Borough Council Conservative Group
6th April 2022
