The government will provide £50 million of new capital funding to support the expansion of existing grammar schools in each year from 2017-18, and has set out proposals for further reforms in the consultation document ‘Schools that Work for Everyone’.

With regards Universal Credit, the amount a person’s benefits are cut as their salary increases would be cut from 65 per cent to 63 per cent from April 2017. Under the current taper rate, for every £1 earned above the income tax threshold, a person receiving Universal Credit has their benefit reduced by 65p and keeps 35p.  They will now keep 37p for every £1.

From 2017, the Budget will move from the spring to the autumn and will respond to forecasts from the Office of Budget Responsibility. There will be one more Budget in spring next year, but from Autumn 2017 the Budget will move to the autumn and there will be a Spring Statement.

Mr Hammond said, ‘So the spring Budget in a few months will be the final spring Budget. Starting in autumn 2017, Britain will have an autumn Budget, announcing tax changes well in advance of the start of the tax year. From 2018 there will be a Spring Statement, responding to the forecast from the OBR, but no major fiscal event.’

With the rollout of the 30 hour offer due in September 2017, less than a year away, an increasing number of Early Years providers are warning that they may opt out of the scheme if the proposed funding rates do not increase. However with the rise to the National Living Wage plus growing pressure from other rising business costs such as pensions and national insurance contributions, many providers may struggle to stay afloat.

As government funding fails to keep up with nurseries’ ever increasing costs, this is another blow to sustainability. It is vital that the government act now to support nurseries, in order for them to be in a position to deliver 30 hours of funded childcare next year.

Many charities have expressed their disappointment about the lack of support for families. The Child Poverty Action group said that while the Treasury states that a single parent with one child and no housing costs earning £15,000 will gain £170 per year from the lower Universal Credit ‘taper rate’ announced today, in reality today’s announcement simply means this lone parent will lose £3000 a year, rather than £3,170 a year, as a result of the substantial package of cuts announced in the Summer 2015 Budget. 

Matthew Reed, chief executive of The Children’s Society, said, ‘The rising cost of living will turn the four-year benefits freeze into a major income cut by 2020. Cutting off child tax credit for families who have a third child and further reductions to family support under Universal Credit risk turning just-about-managing families into just-not-managing families. At this rate, despite the Chancellor’s tweaking, many low income families are going to be much worse off by the end of the decade.’