What has Alistair Darling announced?
Everyone will be able to earn more before they pay tax. For 22 million people on low and middle incomes this means an extra £120 in their pockets – regardless of whether they were better or worse off after the 10p tax rate was scrapped. Of the 5.3 million households estimated to have been hit by the abolition of the 10p rate, the chancellor said 4.2 million would receive as much, or more, than they had lost, while 1.1 million would see their loss at least halved. Those 1.1 million households could still be paying up to £2 a week more than in the last tax year. However, some of them will be in the group of 60-65-year-olds benefiting from an additional £50 winter fuel payment announced earlier last month by the chancellor.
