THE CHANCELLOR is coming under pressure to deliver new plans to help the spiralling cost of living crisis as he prepares to deliver his Spring budget update.
Rishi Sunak will unveil details of his spending plans in the Commons today, with a reduction in fuel duty speculated to be one of the main items revealed.
This will not go far enough, opposition politicians argue, to save hard working families from falling into poverty, with members of his own party also calling for a rethink on the rise to National Insurance.
The Chancellor and Boris Johnson have both insisted the planned rise to NI will go ahead in April, however Whitehall sources have speculated Mr Sunak could raise the level at which is it paid, therefore excluding the lowest earners from the rise.
Labour has accused him of being the "high tax" Chancellor, while the SNP have called him the "poverty Chancellor" ahead of the announcement.
Alison Thewliss, the SNP's treasury spokeswoman, said: "Rishi Sunak has become the poverty Chancellor. At a time when families face the biggest blow to living standards since the 1970s, Mr Sunak is pushing people further into poverty and hardship by hiking taxes, slashing Universal Credit, and scrapping the pensions triple lock.
"The Chancellor must stop making excuses and bring forward a major package of support to reverse the damage the Tory government is causing to household incomes and tackle the Tory cost-of-living crisis.
Mr Sunak is expected to link the country's economic stability with the war in Ukraine, and will tell MPs that he will "confront this challenge to our values not just in the arms and resources we send to Ukraine but in strengthening our economy here at home."
He is expected to add: "So when I talk about security, yes – I mean responding to the war in Ukraine.
“But I also mean the security of a faster growing economy.
“The security of more resilient public finances.
“And security for working families as we help with the cost of living.
Those struggling to pay their energy bills will be hoping for new support from Mr Sunak, as charity Citizens Advice said it was “continuing to break unwelcome records: issuing more food bank vouchers and referrals to charitable support than at any point since the start of the pandemic”.
Dame Clare Moriarty, the organisation’s chief executive said: “In his Spring Statement, the Chancellor has a crucial opportunity to stem the tide of this cost of living crisis. Increasing benefits in line with inflation, expanding the Warm Home Discount and announcing a more generous energy rebate should be top of his list.”
MPs were told today that the measures which had already been announced were “insufficient for the scale of the crisis we’re facing”.
Gillian Cooper, head of energy policy at Citizens Advice told the Commons Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee committee: “We have to recognise that there are millions of households that are simply unable to cope with the energy bill increases that we’re going to see this year.”
MoneySavingExpert founder Martin Lewis told the committee that energy companies were upping customers’ direct debits disproportionately to the price cap increase, even for those in credit.
The rocketing energy bills faced by households was caused in part by a post-pandemic rise in demand for gas, with lower levels of production.
This was exacerbated by the war in Ukraine both due to energy supplies but also the production of wheat and some metals.
A planned rise in National Insurance contributions and changes to income tax, combined with forecasts that wages will rise slower than inflation, will also hit households.
A briefing from the House of Commons library said the cost of living across the UK has been rising since early 2021, while in January this year inflation reached its highest recorded level since 1992.
The Chancellor has already announced a £200 loan to gas and electricity payments from October – although not until the price cap jumps 54%.
Plus, certain households will get a £150 council tax rebate in April.
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