New law to protect access to cash announced in Queen’s Speech

Financial Services and Markets Bill will maintain and enhance the UK’s position as a global leader in financial services having left the EU.
The Bill will protect cash by ensuring continued access to withdrawal and deposit facilities across the UK.
Banks can be required by the regulator to reimburse victims of authorised push payment fraud.

New laws to protect access to cash and help victims of financial scams were announced during the Queen’s Speech yesterday.

The new Financial Services and Markets Bill, announced in yesterday’s Queen’s Speech at the state opening of parliament, will support consumers by protecting access to cash. It will ensure the continued availability of withdrawal and deposit facilities across the UK, and that the country’s cash infrastructure is sustainable for the long term.

Cash remains an important payment method for millions of people across the UK, particularly those in vulnerable groups, and the government is committed to preserving it.

The Bill will also enable the Payment Systems Regulator to require banks to reimburse authorised push payment (APP) scam losses, totalling hundreds of millions of pounds each year. This will ensure victims are not left paying for fraud through no fault of their own

These measures form part of wider plans to maintain and enhance the UK’s position as a global leader in financial services, cutting red tape while maintaining high regulatory standards and ensuring the sector continues to deliver for individuals and businesses.

Economic Secretary to the Treasury, John Glen said: “We are reforming our financial services sector now we have left the EU to ensure it acts in the interests of communities and citizens, creating jobs, supporting businesses, and powering growth across all of the UK.

“We know that access to cash is still vital for many people, especially those in vulnerable groups. We promised we would protect it, and through this Bill we are delivering on that promise.

“We are also sticking up for victims of financial scams that can have a devastating impact, by ensuring the regulator can act to make banks reimburse people who have lost money through no fault of their own.”

The Financial Services and Markets Bill delivers on the ambitious vision for the financial services sector set out by the Chancellor at Mansion House last year. It builds on the Financial Services Act 2021, which was the first step in amending the UK’s regulatory regime outside of the EU.

The Bill will make the most of the opportunities of Brexit, by establishing a coherent, agile and internationally-respected approach to financial services regulation that is right for the UK.

The main elements of the Bill are:

Revoking retained EU law on financial services and replacing it with an approach to regulation that is designed for the UK. This includes the Solvency II legislation governing the regulation of insurers, which the government has committed to reform.
Updating the objectives of the financial services regulators to ensure a greater focus on growth and international competitiveness.
Reforming the rules that regulate the UK’s capital markets, the engine of the UK economy, to promote investment.
Ensuring that people across the UK continue to be able to access their own cash with ease.
Introducing additional protections for those investing or using financial products, and to make it safer and support the victims of scams.

More details will be available when the Bill is formally introduced.

Tax cut worth up to £1,000 for half a million small businesses starts today

Tax cut worth up to £1,000 for eligible businesses announced by the Chancellor at the Spring Statement takes effect today
Increase in Employment Allowance from £4,000 to £5,000 benefits around 495,000 businesses – 30% of all UK firms
Takes the total number of firms not paying the Health and Social Care Levy to 670,000

Nearly half a million UK businesses will benefit from a tax cut worth up to £1,000 from today (6 April 2022).

The Employment Allowance has risen from £4,000 to £5,000 – meaning smaller firms will be able to claim up to £5,000 off their employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs) bills.

Announced by the Chancellor at last month’s Spring Statement to reduce employment costs, the change takes an extra 50,000 firms out of paying NICs and the Health and Social Care Levy. This increases the total number of businesses not paying NICs and the Levy to 670,000.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak said: “This tax cut for half a million businesses will help them thrive and grow to help drive our economic recovery.

“It comes on top of a suite of wider tax cuts available to firms, including 50% business rates relief, a record fuel duty cut and the super-deduction, the largest two-year business tax cut in our history.”

This is the third time the government has increased the Employment Allowance since its introduction in 2014, demonstrating an enduring commitment to supporting smaller businesses. Firms will be able to employ four full-time workers on the National Living Wage without paying employer NICs at all.

94% of businesses benefitting from the £1,000 increase are small and micro businesses, and the sectors that will see the highest numbers of employers benefitting are the wholesale and retail sector (87,000); the professional, scientific and technical activities industry (63,000); and the construction sector (52,000).

Today’s Employment Allowance change is one of a number of measures on offer to spur business growth, including that:

Last week eligible high street businesses saw the start of a new 50% business rates relief worth almost £1.7 billion, subject to a £110,000 cash cap per business.
Businesses across the board are also benefitting from a freeze to the business rates multiplier, putting the brakes on bill increases and worth £4.6 billion over the next five years.
Businesses are already benefitting from our temporary twelve-month-long 5p cut to fuel duty.
Companies have one year left to make investments that benefit from the super-deduction, the largest two-year business tax cut in modern British history.
Our landmark Help to Grow programmes are supporting SMEs to adopt productivity enhancing software and to get mini-MBAs.
We will ensure that our tax regime for innovation is globally competitive and properly incentivises higher business investment in R&D, with further plans to be set out in the Autumn.

Michelle Ovens CBE, founder, Small Business Britain, said: “The Chancellor’s move to increase the employment allowance is welcome, and will certainty play a role in helping those businesses with employees deal with the huge cost-of-living challenges they are currently facing.

“In particular, it is good to see the immediacy of this rise in employment allowance, which will go towards helping businesses asap.”

Martin McTague, National Chair of the Federation of Small Businesses, said: ““The increase in the Employment Allowance helps small firms do what they do best, creating and sustaining jobs.

“This was FSB’s ‘hero ask’ at the Spring Statement, and we have hugely valued the time taken by Treasury officials to work with us on the positive impact this will have not just on work opportunities, but also training and investment.

“The Chancellor has now raised the Allowance twice since his appointment, stepping up for small businesses.”

Lee Harris-Hamer, from White Horse cleaning services based in Thirsk, North Yorkshire, said: “As a growing company, we appreciate the opportunity to reduce our annual NI liability because this helps us to invest the savings in other areas like staff training and further growth.

“Staff are our key asset and we want to be able to continue recruiting and offering more employment opportunities locally. Government has supported us with the change and we are proud to be members of FSB who championed the increase.”

Jo Bevilacqua, owner of Serenity Loves hair and beauty salon, Peterborough: “This rise in the employment allowance offers welcome breathing space for my small business and others like us across the country.

“In an age where we are all facing increasing costs from all angles and every penny counts, this will help ease some pressure, allowing us to invest more in staff – whether it is increasing salaries or offering training.”

Chancellor launches efficiency drive to cut £5.5 BILLION of Govt. waste

The Prime Minister and the Chancellor order new crackdown on cross-Whitehall waste to drive efficiency, effectiveness, and economy across government.
The drive will be spearheaded by a new Chancellor-chaired “Efficiency and Value for Money Committee” that will cut £5.5 billion worth of waste – with savings used to fund vital public services.
As part of the crackdown, the annual NHS efficiency target will be doubled to 2.2% and “quangos” will be expected to find at least £800m which will be pumped back into public services.

A CROSS-WHITEHALL efficiency crackdown to cut £5.5 billion of wasteful spending was announced by the Chancellor today (Sunday 20 March).

At the request of the Prime Minister, the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak will spearhead a new drive on efficiency, effectiveness and economy in government spending to ensure departments are delivering the highest quality services at the best value.

The crackdown will be driven by a new Chancellor-chaired Efficiency and Value for Money Committee that will ensure the 5% efficiency target set at the 2021 Spending Review is met across Whitehall and scrutinise strategies to prevent fraud and error. The move will save a total of £5.5 billion with the money being pumped directly back into vital public services.

As part of the renewed drive, the Chancellor said the NHS efficiency commitment will double to 2.2% a year – freeing up £4.75 billion to fund NHS priority areas over the next three years

These savings will be made through a range of programmes including the digitisation of diagnostic and front-line services, which has been shown to reduce cost per admission by up to 13%, improving the efficiency of surgical hubs and developing digital tools to cut time spend by NHS staff on admin tasks.

Surgical hubs improve efficiency by separating emergency and elective care, so more patients can be seen in a given amount of time, improving value for money without impacting patient safety.

This increased efficiency target will ensure that the record funding settlement of £188.9 billion a year by 2024-25 for the Department for Health and Social Care is delivering the best possible value for money for the taxpayer, the money saved will be used to fund front line NHS priorities.

Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak said: “During these challenging times it’s vital that every single penny of taxpayers hard-earned cash is being spent well.

“The current level of waste across government is simply not acceptable – which is why we’re doubling down on wasteful spending and launching an efficiency drive to make £5.5 billion worth of savings.

“That money will then be pumped directly into the world class public services that the British people deserve “

The crackdown will also see a review of Government Arm’s Length Bodies or “Quangos” who will be expected to save at least £800m from their budgets.

The Arm’s Length Body Review will see savings come from better use of property, reduced reliance on consultants, increased digitisation and greater use of shared services, as well as the use of benchmarking to drive efficiencies.

The Treasury will also launch a new Innovation Challenge to crowdsource ideas from civil servants on how government can reduce waste and improve public services, with winners selected this Summer and best ideas becoming Government policy

This new Committee comes ahead of the Chancellor’s Spring Statement on Wednesday (23rd March) where the Chancellor will update Parliament on his plan for the economy in response to the OBR’s latest economic forecasts.

Government scheme that protected millions of jobs with £38 billion of support lent to businesses closes today

The Covid Corporate Financing Facility, which provided a quick and cost-effective way to raise working capital for large firms, comes to an end with every penny repaid.
The Bank of England facility provided almost £38 billion of support to more than 100 of the UK’s biggest firms, and made a profit for the taxpayer whilst protecting millions of jobs.
Firms that employ almost 2.5 million people were directly supported including those in the car industry, travel, hospitality, and high street stores.

The Chancellor has hailed the success of a Covid scheme that provided almost £38 billion of support to some of the UK’s biggest employers during the pandemic, protecting millions of jobs whilst making a return for the taxpayer, as it comes to an end today.

Household names, such as Gatwick Airport, the Football Association and the National Trust, were among more than 100 of the UK’s biggest employers that benefitted from the Covid Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF). The scheme has recouped every penny that was lent – plus a profit of over £60 million.

Rishi Sunak said the Bank of England administered scheme, which was launched in March 2020 at the start of the pandemic, was another example of the government offering support at unprecedented speed to protect millions of jobs and taxpayer’s money simultaneously.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak said: “We not only took unprecedented action but did so at unprecedented speed to protect jobs and businesses throughout the pandemic.

“The CCFF scheme ensured that many of the UK’s biggest employers could continue to pay wages and suppliers, protecting millions of jobs – and on top of that every penny has been repaid.”

The final CCFF repayments were made today, with all companies paying back what they owed. The scheme has made a profit of over £60 million for the taxpayer because the rate of interest applied to the cash provided by the Bank of England was priced at rates comparable to the market before Covid. Companies therefore paid back a slightly larger amount at maturity compared to the finance they borrowed initially.

Peter Vermeulen, Chief Financial Officer at the National Trust, said: “The HM Treasury team did an amazing job during the height of the pandemic. The National Trust, like many other large organisations, experienced an unprecedented liquidity squeeze, accompanied by enormous levels of uncertainty around the future.

“The CCFF was set up swiftly and in a highly transparent manner. The team at HM Treasury issued clear guidance and worked tirelessly to support us with the application and the associated legalities.

“We cannot commend the team highly enough for the excellent work they have done. It was an essential lifeline for the National Trust and has safeguarded some of the essential work we do on cultural and natural heritage, for the Nation. Thank you.”

Mark Burrows, Chief Operating Officer at The Football Association, said: “The pandemic was a serious challenge for The FA. We were faced with huge losses from cancelled events and competition disruptions affecting our broadcasting rights.

“As a not-for-profit organisation that reinvests its surplus into grassroots football, being able to rely on the security of CCFF as a quick and cost-effective way to raise working capital meant we were able not only to continue to support our business, but grassroots football across the country.”

Through the purchasing of short-term corporate debt – known as commercial paper – the CCFF provided a quick and cost-effective way to raise working capital for companies who were fundamentally strong but were at risk of experiencing severe disruption to cashflows.

Because it lent directly to large companies, the scheme also provided banks with the space to lend to a wider population of firms who could have otherwise gone bust during the pandemic.

The scheme helped companies across a range of sectors including the car industry, travel, hospitality, and high street stores. It kept cash flowing and delivered on the government’s commitment to do everything it could to support the economy and protect jobs.

Hospitality prayers answered: UK Government doubles Covid support funding … maybe?

The UK Government last night doubled the amount of additional funding available for the governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to tackle Covid – but First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is querying the Treasury’s announcement.

The Treasury says this means the Devolved Administrations can now spend an additional £860 million, increased from the initial £430 million announced earlier last week.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak confirmed the increased funding following discussions with the Devolved Administrations. This will continue to ensure the Devolved Administrations can take the Covid precautions they feel are necessary to keep people safe.

The additional amounts now being provided to each government on top of their Autumn Budget 2021 funding (my italics – Ed.) are:

Scottish Government – £440 million
Welsh Government – £270 million
Northern Ireland Executive – £150 million

These amounts will continue to be kept under review.

These are additional amounts on top of the combined £77.6 billion confirmed for this year at the Autumn Budget 2021. It means that the Devolved Administrations have the certainty they requested to spend additional funding now rather than waiting for Supplementary Estimates in the new year.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak said: “Following discussions with the Devolved Administrations, we are now doubling the additional funding available.

“We will continue to listen to and work with the Devolved Administrations in the face of this serious health crisis to ensure we’re getting the booster to people all over the UK and that people in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are supported.”

However First Minister Nicola Sturgeon continued to query the additional funding in a series of tweets last night.

The First Minister tweeted: “: “Before we get spin on ‘doubling’, the £220m announced last week was NOT new or additional (it was actually £48m less than we had been expecting). Seeking confirmation if this new £220m is additional (tho if so £48m will just make up last w/k loss) & if it has to be repaid to the extent it is new/additional, @scotgov will make sure it goes in full to helping business and the overall Covid effort.”

She added in another tweet: “As infections soar and businesses suffer, we still need much more urgency in action/support from UK Gov – so that devolved gov hands not tied. To that end, it was disappointing and frustrating that neither the PM nor the Chancellor attended this evening’s COBRA.“

Lorna Slater MSP calls for furlough return

The UK Government must urgently reintroduce the furlough scheme so that Scotland can take protective measures against the omicron variant whilst protecting jobs, according to Scottish Greens MSP Lorna Slater.

The funding is needed to support workers and businesses already suffering due to a significant loss in trade and closures caused by local outbreaks, as well as allowing devolved governments to take public safety measures to stop the spread of the new strain of the virus.

Without economic support, the options available to the Scottish and Welsh governments and Northern Irish Executive are more limited.

Scottish Greens Lothian MSP Lorna Slater said: “The UK Government has taken an utterly chaotic approach to COVID, with confusing messages undermined by the Prime Minister himself failing to follow the rules. Omicron is spreading fast and the UK Government must recognise the clear risks to vulnerable people and act decisively.

“The festive period is already disrupted, with many people cancelling plans for gatherings, and hospitality businesses and communities across Lothian are struggling. People need to be supported.

“In Scotland we are taking the steps to reduce the impact of the virus. Now it’s time for the UK Government to act responsibly and do the right thing by reintroducing furlough where it is needed.”

“Self-employed people could be particularly impacted this Christmas, so it’s vital those who missed out last time are included in the scheme, and that sick pay is enhanced to make it easier for people to self-isolate.”

Latest Treasury figures reveal record funding of £41 billion a year for the Scottish Government

Treasury figures published today show breakdown of the record £41 billion per year settlement for the Scottish Government
Scottish Government receives £126 per person of Barnett-based funding for every £100 per person of equivalent UK Government spending in England and Wales
Figures reaffirm UK Government’s commitment to levelling up across the whole of the UK

Figures released today by the Treasury set out how the UK Government will provide a record level of funding to the Scottish Government over the next three years – worth £41 billion a year.

The Block Grant Transparency publication provides a detailed breakdown of the funding settlements announced for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland at Spending Review 2021.

The £41 billion annual funding settlement is the largest, in real terms, since devolution more than 20 years ago. It ensures that the Scottish Government are well-funded to improve public services such as education, housing, health and social care, and will support the UK Government’s mission to level up the UK and build back better and greener from the pandemic.

In addition to Block Grant funding, the UK Government is also making direct investments in Scotland, such as committing more than £170 million through the Levelling Up Fund and the Community Ownership Fund, which will help to improve local infrastructure, regenerate town centres, and could even help to buy your local pub or community sports club.

Scotland will also benefit from cuts to Air Passenger Duty to improve connectivity and support jobs at Scottish airports.

UK Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Simon Clarke said: “We’re committed to ensuring Scotland receives its fair share, and the latest Spending Review has provided a record £41 billion a year to the Scottish Government.

“This is funding substantial additional spending on key public services – as set out in last week’s Scottish Budget.

“We’ve also ensured people in Scotland have been supported throughout the pandemic, and the UK Government’s schemes have supported around one in three Scottish jobs. Now we’ll continue to work with the Scottish Government as we progress our recovery.”

Scottish Secretary Alister Jack said: “Funding for the Scottish Government is the highest it has ever been, at a record £41 billion a year.

“The block grant settlement comes on top of significant direct UK Government investment in Scotland. We are committed to levelling up right across the UK, and are working with the Scottish Government and local councils to improve communities the length and breadth of Scotland.

“We recently announced a £191 million boost for Scottish community projects, on top of the £1.5 billion we are investing in City Deals in Scotland.

“For almost two years, the UK Government has been focused on protecting people’s lives, livelihoods and jobs. We will continue to tackle the pandemic while building a brighter future with a strong economy for people in every part of the UK.”

At Budget 2017, the Treasury committed to publish an annual Block Grant Transparency publication after each UK Government Budget to show a breakdown of changes to the devolved administrations’ block grant funding.

This report is intended to support greater transparency and accessibility to the people of Scotland as to how the UK Government provides funding to the Scottish Government

UK Government confirms extra funding for devolved governments to tackle Covid

Additional funding from the UK reserve will be made available to the governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to progress their vaccine rollout and wider health response, the UK Government has confirmed today.

While the devolved administrations are well-funded to continue their response to Covid-19, and have their own reserves and contingency funds, any additional in-year Barnett funding will not be confirmed until early 2022 through the Supplementary Estimates process.

HM Treasury has therefore announced that additional funding will be made available to the devolved administrations to provide greater certainty and allow them to plan as they tackle Covid-19 during the crucial weeks ahead.

HM Treasury will set this amount of additional funding in the coming days and will keep it under review in the following weeks.

The UK Government has already provided the devolved administrations with an extra £12.6 billion through the Barnett formula this year – this includes £1.3 billion confirmed at the recent Autumn Budget and takes their total funding this year to £77.6 billion.

This is on top of UK Government spending on vaccines and tests for the whole of the UK and UK-wide support for businesses and jobs.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak said: “Throughout this pandemic, the United Kingdom has stood together as one family, and we will continue to do so.

“We are working with the governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to drive the vaccine rollout to all corners of the United Kingdom and ensure people and businesses all across the country are supported.”

If the amount of funding provided up front to each devolved administration is more than the Barnett consequentials confirmed at Supplementary Estimates then any extra amount will be repaid in 2022-23, or over the Spending Review period if necessary.

If the Barnett consequentials are higher than the amount provided up front the devolved administrations will keep the extra funding.

The news was released as First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was updating MSPs on the latest coronavirus restrictions.

Universal Credit changes: how will they affect you?

Spending Review and Autumn Budget 2021: Universal Credit Taper Factsheet

FACTSHEET ISSUED BY HM TREASURY

The UK Government says the best way to support people’s living standards is through good work, better skills, and higher wages.

We will always give families the support they need and the tools to build a better life for themselves.

The UK’s modern Universal Credit (UC) benefit system ensures that people on the lowest wages are given the support they need to thrive and fulfil their potential.

As an incentive to find good work as the UK economy moves to a high-wage, high-productivity economy, the Government is changing the rate at which people’s UC award gradually reduces once they earn a salary – making work pay.

How does the Universal Credit Taper work?

The taper rate means that if people work more hours, their support is gradually withdrawn. It was withdrawn far more quickly in the old system.

Currently that taper rate starts at 63 pence – so for every £1, after tax, a person earns, their UC payment is reduced by 63pence.

The Government is taking decisive action to make sure work pays, and permanently cutting this taper rate by 8p from 63p to 55p, ensuring more money in people’s pockets.

Some households can earn a set amount before the taper kicks in. This is called the work allowance.

What is the Work Allowance?

Households on UC who are in work and either looking after a child or have a household member with limited capability for work are being supported with an increase in their work allowances.

This is the amount that a person can earn before support begins to be withdrawn as the taper rate kicks in.

Work allowances are currently set at £293 a month if the household receives housing support, or £515 if they do not receive housing support. These are both being increased by £500 per year.

Who is affected?

1.9 million households will benefit from these changes. For example, within five weeks, as a result of these changes:

A single mother of two, renting in Darlington, working a full-time job on the National Living Wage, will see her take-home income increase by £1,200 on an annual basis.
A couple with two children, renting their home with their two children, where one partner works full time at the National Living Wage, and the other works 16 hours a week at National Living Wage will be £1,800 per year better off.

Taken together, this is an effective £2.2bn tax cut for around 2 million of the lowest earning working families.

This applies to England, Scotland and Wales. The Northern Ireland Executive will be provided with funding to implement an equivalent measure.

Who has called for it?

the TUC: “If the aim of UC is to make work pay, the taper rate needs to be revisited’

Centre for Social Justice: “increasing work allowances would help those claimants who are highly motivated to re-enter a weakened labour market to have their incomes supported.”

Child Poverty Action Group: “Lowering the taper would be welcome.”

Joseph Rowntree Foundation: ‘Increasing work allowances and reducing the taper rate would strengthen work incentives and help protect families on low earnings from poverty.”

Centre for Policy Studies: “The Government should implement improvements to work incentives within UC through a cut to the taper rate and increased work allowances. This is desirable in itself and would complement a broader economic programme for increased employment post-pandemic.”

When will it be introduced?

Changes like this are usually introduced at the start of the financial year in April, but in order to support families through the Winter, the reduction to the taper rate and increase to the work allowances will be implemented by the beginning of December 2021.

This builds on continued support to tackle cost of living:

We are supporting millions of workers by increasing the National Living Wage to £9.50 an hour in April 2022 from £8.91.
Young people and apprentices will also see their wages boosted as the National Minimum Wage for people aged 21-22 goes up to £9.18 an hour and the Apprentice Rate increases to £4.81 an hour.
Investing £170million in 2024-25 to increase the hourly rate to be paid to early years providers to deliver the government’s free childcare hours.
Saving consumers £3billion over the coming years on alcohol duty. The freeze will save consumers 3p off a pint of beer, 2p off a pint of cider, 14p off a 75cl bottle of wine and 52p off a 70cl bottle of Scotch.
The average driver will pay around £15 less fuel duty per tank as we freeze fuel duty for twelfth consecutive year, compared with pre-2010 plans.

Taking into account the increase in the National Living Wage, changes in Universal Credit, the freezing of the income tax Personal Allowance and the introduction of the Adult Social Care Levy:

A single parent with two children, working 16 hours a week at the National Living Wage in 2022/23 will still be around £590 better off in cash terms than if none these changes had been made.
A single earner couple with two children, working 35 hours a week at the National Living Wage in 2022/23 will still be around £1,200 better off in cash terms than if none these changes had been made.

New analysis by the independent Joseph Rowntree Foundation reveals that the rising cost of living wipes out much of the financial gain some families will receive from the Universal Credit changes announced yesterday.

Weekly incomes and Costs for 2022/23	Family 1: single adult, no children, not working	Family 2: single parent, with one young child (assume age 5), part-time 16 hours per week	Family 3: couple with two young children (assume 7 and 5). One FT worker	Family 4: single parent, with one young child (assume age 5), full-time 35 hours per week	Family 5: Couple with two young children (assume 7 and 5). 1 FT worker (35 hours), 1 PT worker (16 hours)
Weekly income before new announcements	£77	£278	£433	£333	£489
Weekly gain from taper rate and work allowance	£0	£8	£19	£19	£31

Total loss from higher cost of living due to…	-£13	-£16	-£23	-£18	-£24
1) increase in energy prices	-£7	-£7	-£7	-£7	-£7
2) overall cost of living increase	-£6	-£8	-£13	-£8	-£13
3) increase in National Insurance and impact of inflation on earnings	£0	-£1	-£3	-£3	-£4

Overall weekly gain or loss after measures and cost of living	-£13	-£8	-£4	£1	£7

Note all five families lost £20-a-week in October 2021, due to the cut in the Universal Credit Standard Allowance, so all are worse-off than they would have been in September 2021. All workers are assumed to be paid at the National Living Wage rate, so benefit from its increase.

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Workers on universal credit should always have been able to keep more of their wages.

“This change does not make up for the £1,000 per year cut to universal credit, and does not help those on universal credit who cannot work.”

500,000 adults to ace maths with ‘Multiply’ numeracy programme

New £560 million Multiply programme to be launched providing personalised maths coaching for up to half a million people across the UK.
Transformational numeracy scheme will transform the lives of some of the 8 million adults in England who have numeracy skills lower than those expected of a 9-year-old.
Funding to be channelled through the new £1.5bn UK Shared Prosperity Fund – which replaces a pot of money previously divvied up and distributed by the EU and means the government can target funding where it is needed most.

A TRANSFORMATIONAL £560 million scheme to improve the maths skills of hundreds of thousands of adults across the UK is set to unveiled by the Chancellor next week.

At Wednesday’s Budget and Spending Review, Rishi Sunak will announce that up to 500,000 people will benefit from Multiply with improved basic numeracy skills through free personal tutoring, digital training, and flexible courses.

More than 8 million adults in England have numeracy skills lower than those expected of a 9-year-old with the North East, West Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber worst affected. And by the age of 30, people with poor numeracy skills are more than twice as likely to be unemployed as their peers.

According to research, improving numeracy skills can increase your pay cheque by 14%, and reduce joblessness by half – boosting the economy and changing lives.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak said: “Better maths can mean a better job and a bigger pay packet. Multiply will help people develop new skills and create opportunities.”

Sam Sims, Chief Executive of National Numeracy said: “Low numeracy blights lives, holding millions of people back from fulfilling their potential and it comes at a huge cost to the economy.

“We need solutions that reach and engage people with low numeracy to build confidence with numbers as well as skills, as a steppingstone to further learning and opportunity.

“National Numeracy is delighted with the announcement of the government’s new ‘Multiply’ scheme, which promises to help improve the numeracy of hundreds of thousands of people.”

Launching in the Spring, Multiply will give people who don’t have at least a GCSE grade C/4 or equivalent in maths access to free new flexible courses to improve their maths.

It will also include a new website with bitesize training and free one-to-one online tutorials to help hundreds of thousands of people improve their maths in every part of the United Kingdom.

The programme will be funded through the new UK Shared Prosperity Fund, which replaces the EU’s Structural Funds, which were previously divvied up and distributed by the EU.

Funding for the UKSPF will increase to £1.5bn per year, meeting the Government’s commitment to level up all parts of the UK. The Multiply scheme is the first step of the new Fund, with further investment provided for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Rather than the EU’s scatter gun approach, the UK Shared Prosperity Fund will ensure the UK Government can target funding where it is needed most – through schemes like Multiply which will help level-up the UK.

Secretary of State for Scotland, Alister Jack said: “The UK Govt made a clear commitment to maintain Scotland’s level of funding following the vote to leave the EU and we have delivered on that promise.

“This is good news for communities across Scotland who will continue to benefit from a range of important projects. Going forward, new arrangements will allow us to deal directly with communities ensuring money is spent on projects that matter most to the people of Scotland.”