Spring Statement 2022: Rishi Sunak promises tax cuts and National Insurance change amid cost of living crisis

Chancellor Rishi Sunak offered help through the tax system for millions of workers as the cost-of-living crisis and war in Ukraine hit the economy.

He shielded lower earners from the impact of the forthcoming National Insurance hike, cut 5p off fuel duty from Wednesday evening and promised to cut income tax by 1p in 2024.

But he acknowledged the impact of inflation, which is at a 30-year high, and the global economic uncertainty caused by Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) downgraded growth in gross domestic product – a measure of the size of the economy – from the six per cent forecast for this year at the time of the Budget in October to just 3.8 per cent.

Next year’s growth forecast has been downgraded from 2.1 per cent to 1.8 per cent.

Inflation hit 6.2 per cent in February, up from 5.5 per cent in January, again reaching the highest level since March 1992, when it stood at 7.1 per cent.

Mr Sunak said inflation was forecast to average 7.4 per cent this year due to “disruptions to global supply chains and energy markets, combined with the economic response to Putin’s aggression”.

He said the UK’s actions against Mr Putin’s regime are “not cost-free for us at home” and present a “risk” to the recovery.

Mr Sunak said “it is too early to know the full impact of the Ukraine war on the UK economy” but the OBR acknowledged there was “unusually high uncertainty” around the economic outlook.

The cost-of-living crisis driven by rising fuel and energy prices was set to be exacerbated in April by the 1.25 percentage point hike in National Insurance to fund the NHS and social care.

But Mr Sunak unveiled a £6bn plan to increase the threshold at which people start paying National Insurance contributions (NICs) by £3,000 to £12,570 from July.

Mr Sunak said it was “a £6bn personal tax cut for 30 million people across the United Kingdom, a tax cut for employees worth over £330 a year”.

Around 70 per cent of workers will have their tax cut by more than the increase coming in April, he said.

And he promised further support in 2024 with a pledge to cut the basic rate of income tax from 20p in the pound to 19 – “a £5bn tax cut for over 30 million people”.

But Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank, said: “What is the possible justification for cutting income tax rate while raising NI rate?

“Drives further wedge between taxation of unearned income and earned income. Yet again benefits pensioners and those living off rents at expense of workers.”