One major relief for millions of households is provided by energy bills, because on 1 April, the energy price cap is actually falling. It will drop to £1,690 – down 12.3% – saving the average household £238 a year – or £20 a month. Alongside this, 29 million workers stand to benefit from the National Insurance cut on 1 April, when the main rate for employees drops from 10% to 8%. The government estimates that when added to the cut in January, the cuts will save the average worker £900 a year.
However, this isn’t the full picture, because we need to see this in the context of frozen income tax thresholds. When you take these into account too, anyone earning over £60,000 will be worse off. This is partly because they may have been pushed into paying a higher rate of tax. However, it’s also due to the fact that the chunk of their income over £50,270 is subject to a different band of National Insurance, which hasn’t been cu