In today’s budget, George Osborne announced a four year freeze in working age benefits from April 2016.{jcomments on}
HMRC have produced a list of the benefits which will be frozen and those that wont.
Benefits which will be frozen are:
- Jobseekers’ Allowance
- Employment and Support Allowance (but not the support group component)
- Income Support
- Child Benefit
- applicable amounts for Housing Benefit
- Local Housing Allowance rates, with provision for high rent areas.
- Child tax credit and working tax credit (excluding disability elements)
Benefits which will not be frozen are:
- Maternity Allowance
- Statutory Sick Pay
- Statutory Maternity Pay
- Statutory Paternity Pay
- Statutory Shared Parental Pay
- Statutory Adoption Pay
- disability, carers and pensioners’ premiums in the frozen benefits
- the Employment and Support Allowance Support Group component
- disability elements of tax credits
- other disability, carer and pensioner benefits, which will continue to be uprated in relation to prices or earnings as applicable.