Young professionals will see big tax hikes

For anyone still tempted to believe Rachel Reeves has stuck to her manifesto promise not to put taxes up on working people, let me disabuse you of the notion.

As the OBR pointed out yesterday, by 2030 there will be more than 10m people dragged into paying higher rates of income tax compared to 2023, thanks to the freezing of rate bands. Those 10m people, who will add a big share of the £8bn raised by yesterday’s freeze extension, won’t feel Reeves has helped them.

But the income tax band freeze only tells half the story. Buried in the Budget document was another Labour bombshell for workers – a freeze on the Plan 2 student loan repayment threshold. That means any graduate born after 1992 will be doubly hit by Reeves’ Budget.

The compound eff

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