Your pay, energy bills and savings: How the Budget affects you

Families facing cost-of-living pressures are being offered some help, or "breathing space" as Chancellor John Healey is calling it.

The help comes as prices are rising faster than expected with annual energy bills in particular likely to increase by around £300 or more in January.

Here's how the key announcements in the Budget affect you and your money.

If you are living in a home in council tax bands A to D in England, you will receive a one-off £100 "Household Energy Payment" from January, funded by extra tax on banks.

It will be paid directly into your bank account.

You can find your council tax band by looking on your annual bill, or by looking on the government's website, external - although that was struggling to cope with traffic after the announcement.

Administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will receive the equivalent funding, and they will decide whether to introduce the same payment.

This is designed to help with soaring energy bills, with a typical annual bill expected to be £2,000 or more in January, although you can spend the money on anything you wish.

The VAT cut on electricity bills, which was introduced in October, will also be extended to July.

It was due to end in April.

Healey announces £100 energy payment for millions and bank tax rise in first Budget

The fee for connecting to your gas supply so called standing charges will be scrapped in England, Scotland and Wales, next year "or as soon as possible after", the chancellor said.

These fixed daily charges will then be shifted onto the price you pay for each unit of energy.

The Treasury calculates that 60% of households will save an average of £45 a year, with lower users gaining the most.

But the saving will come after the projected big rise in bills in January.

Higher users - in the biggest houses but also large, low-income families - will pay more than they currently do.

The government wants to extend reforms to electricity standing charges later.

The 5p "temporary" cut in fuel duty on petrol and diesel, introduced by Rishi Sunak in 2022, will be extended to July.

It was scheduled to be phased out from January.

It means drivers will still pay the levy at 52.95p per litre.

Motor fuel prices have risen sharply owing to the continued impact of the Iran war on drivers, with diesel having recently hit new records when it moved above £2 per litre.

The cost of filling a typical family car with diesel has gone up by around £30 since late February.

A tankful of petrol costs about £23 more.

The chancellor has scrapped his predecessor's plans to reduce the annual amount people can save tax-free in cash in Individual Savings Accounts (Isas).

Rachel Reeves had wanted the policy to encourage personal investment in stocks and shares.

It meant, from April 2027, if you're under 65, you would only be able to save £12,000 a year in cash in an Isa, rather than £20,000.

Instead, the government plans to create a new "Starter Isa" for first-time investors.

Minimum wage rates will rise by 3.9% in April.

It means:

Eligible workers aged 21 and over on the National Living Wage will receive £13.21 an hour, up from £12.71

If you are aged 18, 19 or 20, the National Minimum Wage will increase to £11.27 an hour, up from £10.85

For those aged 16 or 17, the minimum wage will rise to £8.31 an hour, up from £8

The separate apprentice rate which applies to eligible people under 19 - or those over 19 in the first year of an apprenticeship – will also increase to £8.31 an hour, from £8

However, these figures mean, this time around, there's no progress on Labour's manifesto promise to narrow the gap in minimum wages between older and younger workers.

For all workers, the ongoing freeze in the income bands, or thresholds, at which income tax is paid went unmentioned in the Budget.

But it means any kind of pay rise could drag you into a higher tax bracket, or see a greater proportion of your income taxed than would otherwise be expected.

Scotland has its own income tax bands.

The triple lock policy means that the state pension will go up in line with average wage increases, at 3.9%.

the flat-rate state pension for those who reached state pension age after April 2016 will be £250.70 a week, or £13,036.40 a year, up £488 on now

the old basic state pension for those who reached state pension age before April 2016 will be £192.10 a week, or £9,989.20 a year, up £374.40 on now