Business
Isas, cars and pensions – how the Budget affects you?
Kevin PeacheyCost of living correspondent
Getty ImagesChancellor Rachel Reeves is announcing her Budget, but details were published early by the official forecaster.
Here are the key measures and how they will affect you and your money.
You may pay more tax
The amount of income at which you pay different rates of income tax will still not be increased in line with rising prices.
Instead the bands – known as tax thresholds – will stay frozen until 2031. That is three years longer than previously planned.
This 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 rates.
You may not earn enough to pay income tax, so VAT, paid when buying goods and services, may hit you harder and that’s been left unchanged.
Driving an electric car will be more expensive
Electric vehicle and hybrid car drivers will be taxed for using the road from 2028.
EV drivers will be charged per mile, on top of other road taxes, in new road pricing.
Calculating the number of miles that drivers cover is difficult.
But fuel duty will continue to be frozen.
You will get a rise if you’re on low pay
The chancellor confirmed increases in April for those on minimum wages.
It means:
- Eligible workers aged 21 and over on the National Living Wage will receive £12.71 an hour, up from £12.21
- If you are aged 18, 19 or 20, the National Minimum Wage increase to £10.85 an hour, up from £10
- For those aged 16 or 17, the minimum wage will rise to £8 an hour, up from £7.55
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 an hour, from £7.55.
If your home is worth £2m you will pay more tax
Anyone who lives in a home valued at £2m or more in England will face a council tax surcharge from April 2028.
There will be four price bands with the surcharge rising from £2,500 for a property valued in the £2m to £2.5m band, to £7,500 for a property valued in the highest band of £5m or more
While known as a mansion tax, it may also capture homes in expensive areas, and will be levied on about 100,000 properties, primarily in London and south east England.
The move will require the valuation of homes in the top council tax bands – F, G and H – for the first time since 1991.
You can check your council tax band here if you are in England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.
Travelling by train in England won’t cost you more
Regulated rail fares in England will be frozen until March 2027 – the first time they have been left unchanged for 30 years.
These fares include season tickets covering most commuter routes, some off-peak return tickets on long-distance journeys and flexible tickets for travel in and around major cities.
Getty ImagesThe freeze only relates to travel in England, and also only applies to services run by England-based train operating companies.
Train operators are free to set prices for unregulated fares.
The bus fare cap of £3 for a single journey, covering most bus journeys in England, is already in place until March 2027.
Saving in a cash Isa will be restricted
The amount of money that can be saved tax-free each year in a cash Isa (Individual Savings Account) will be reduced from £20,000 to £12,000 a year for the under 65s.
Ministers want people to invest more, which comes with greater risk but could help boost growth – a key objective for the government.
There are questions over whether people would naturally put their money into stocks and shares Isas as a result of the less generous tax break on cash Isas.
About a quarter of those who save money into a cash Isa currently save more than £12,000 a year.
But many of those are pensioners, and the chancellor said the over-65s will still be able to save up to £20,000 in cash.
Separately, the Help to Save scheme, which helps those on low incomes and on universal credit to put money aside, will be extended from 2028.
If you have three children you may get more money
At present, parents can only claim universal credit or tax credits for their first two children.
The chancellor says this two-child cap will be scrapped in April next year.
A limit on what you can save into a pension through salary sacrifice
A third of private sector employees and a tenth of public sector workers use a salary sacrifice scheme for their pension savings.
These workers give up a portion of their salary in return for their employer paying the equivalent amount into their pension. The benefit to both employee and employee is that they make savings in national insurance.
A £2,000-a-year cap on the amount that can be put into pensions through this salary sacrifice arrangement will be in place from April 2029.
Employees would still get income tax relief on their pension contributions, but some argue the move will reduce pension saving incentives.
Most benefits and the state pension will rise
Some benefits, including all the main disability benefits, such as personal independence payment, attendance allowance and disability living allowance, as well as carer’s allowance will rise by 3.8% in April, in line with rising prices.
There will be a string of changes to universal credit in April, following announcements made earlier by the government.
The state pension in April will rise by 4.8% in line with average wages, which means:
- the new flat-rate state pension – for those who reached state pension age after April 2016 – will increase to £241.30 a week, or £12,547.60 a year, a rise of £574.60
- the old basic state pension – for those who reached state pension age before April 2016 – will go up to £184.90 a week, or £9,614.80 a year, a rise of £439.40
In general, you need 35 years of qualifying contributions to get a full state pension.
This brings the state pension closer to being subject to income tax – a source of some debate. It will also reignite discussions over the “fairness” of the so-called triple lock.
More on the milkshake tax, prescription charges and Motability
A range of other measures in the Budget had already become clear or been announced in recent days. They included:
- The UK tax on fizzy drinks will be extended to milk-based products in 2028, taking in pre-packaged milkshakes and coffees that are high in sugar. This may push up prices, or lead to ingredient changes

- The cost of a single NHS prescription in England will be frozen at £9.90 for the second year in a row in April
- Disabled people who have a car through the Motability scheme will no longer be allowed “premium” vehicles such as BMWs, Mercedes, Audi, Alfa Romeo and Lexus
- England’s mayors could be given the powers to charge a levy on overnight stays, sometimes referred to as a ‘tourist tax’. Mayors would decide the level of the charge, and how to spend the money in their areas, under the plans which will be consulted upon
Business
Stock Market Live Updates: Sensex, Nifty Hit Record Highs; Bank Nifty Climbs 60,000 For The First Time
Stock Market News Live Updates: Indian equity benchmarks opened with a strong gap-up on Monday, December 1, touching fresh record highs, buoyed by a sharp acceleration in Q2FY26 GDP growth to a six-quarter peak of 8.2%. Positive cues from Asian markets further lifted investor sentiment.
The BSE Sensex was trading at 85,994, up 288 points or 0.34%, after touching an all-time high of 86,159 in early deals. The Nifty 50 stood at 26,290, higher by 87 points or 0.33%, after scaling a record intraday high of 26,325.8.
Broader markets also saw gains, with the Midcap index rising 0.27% and the Smallcap index advancing 0.52%.
On the sectoral front, the Nifty Bank hit a historic milestone by crossing the 60,000 mark for the first time, gaining 0.4% to touch a fresh peak of 60,114.05.
Meanwhile, the Metal and PSU Bank indices climbed 0.8% each in early trade.
Global cues
Asia-Pacific markets were mostly lower on Monday as traders assessed fresh Chinese manufacturing data and increasingly priced in the likelihood of a US Federal Reserve rate cut later this month.
According to the CME FedWatch Tool, markets are now assigning an 87.4 per cent probability to a rate cut at the Fed’s December 10 meeting.
China’s factory activity unexpectedly slipped back into contraction in November, with the RatingDog China General Manufacturing PMI by S&P Global easing to 49.9, below expectations of 50.5, as weak domestic demand persisted.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 1.6 per cent, while the broader Topix declined 0.86 per cent. In South Korea, the Kospi dropped 0.30 per cent and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.31 per cent.
US stock futures were steady in early Asian trade after a positive week on Wall Street. On Friday, in a shortened post-Thanksgiving session, the Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.65 per cent to 23,365.69, its fifth consecutive day of gains.
The S&P 500 rose 0.54 per cent to 6,849.09, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 289.30 points, or 0.61 per cent, to close at 47,716.42.
Business
South Korea: Online retail giant Coupang hit by massive data leak
Osmond ChiaBusiness reporter
Getty ImagesSouth Korea’s largest online retailer, Coupang, has apologised for a massive data breach potentially involving nearly 34 million local customer accounts.
The country’s internet authority said that it is investigating the breach and that details from the millions of accounts have likely been exposed.
Coupang is often described as South Korea’s equivalent of Amazon.com. The breach marks the latest in a series of data leaks at major firms in the country, including its telecommunications giant, SK Telecom.
Coupang told the BBC it became aware of the unauthorised access of personal data of about 4,500 customer accounts on 18 November and immediately reported it to the authorities.
But later checks found that some 33.7 million customer accounts – all in South Korea – were likely exposed, said Coupang, adding that the breach is believed to have begun as early as June through a server based overseas.
The exposed data is limited to name, email address, phone number, shipping address and some order histories, Coupang said.
No credit card information or login credentials were leaked. Those details remain securely protected and no action is required from Coupang users at this point, the firm added.
The number of accounts affected by the incident represents more than half of South Korea’s roughly-52 million population.
Coupang, which is founded in South Korea and headquartered in the US, said recently that it had nearly 25 million active users.
Coupang apologised to its customers and warned them to stay alert to scams impersonating the company.
The firm did not give details on who is behind the breach.
South Korean media outlets reported on Sunday that a former Coupang employee from China was suspected of being behind the breach.
The authorities are assessing the scale of the breach as well as whether Coupang had broken any data protection safety rules, South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT said in a statement.
“As the breach involves the contact details and addresses of a large number of citizens, the Commission plans to conduct a swift investigation and impose strict sanctions if it finds a violation of the duty to implement safety measures under the Protection Act.”
The incident marks the latest in a series of breaches affecting major South Korean companies this year, despite the country’s reputation for stringent data privacy rules.
SK Telecom, South Korea’s largest mobile operator, was fined nearly $100m (£76m) over a data breach involving more than 20 million subscribers.
In September, Lotte Cards also said the data of nearly three million customers was leaked after a cyber-attack on the credit card firm.
Business
Agency workers covering for Birmingham bin strikers to join picket lines
Agency workers hired to cover Birmingham bin strikers will join them on picket lines on Monday, a union has said.
A rally will be held by Unite The Union at Smithfield Depot on Pershore Street, Birmingham, on Monday morning to mark the first day of strike action by agency refuse workers.
Unite said the Job & Talent agency workers had voted in favour of strike action “over bullying, harassment and the threat of blacklisting at the council’s refuse department two weeks ago”.
The union said the number of agency workers who will join the strike action is “growing daily”.
Strikes by directly-employed bin workers, which have been running since January, could continue beyond May’s local elections.
The directly-employed bin workers voted in favour of extending their industrial action mandate earlier this month.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Birmingham council will only resolve this dispute when it stops the appalling treatment of its workforce.
“Agency workers have now joined with directly-employed staff to stand up against the massive injustices done to them.
“Instead of wasting millions more of council taxpayers’ money fighting a dispute it could settle justly for a fraction of the cost, the council needs to return to talks with Unite and put forward a fair deal for all bin workers.
“Strikes will not end until it does.”
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