![[UK] Budget 2021: Hourly minimum wage will hit £10 by next general election](http://gpa.net/cdn/shop/articles/bigstock-Senior-woman-visited-by-home-c-412946968_1200x.jpg?v=1635204143)
UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak is due to raise the minimum wage when he presents his budget tomorrow, thinking ahead to the next general election, Daily Record reports.
The hourly minimum wage, which currently stands at £8.91, could go up to £9.45, according to recent reporting.
The Chancellor is hoping to achieve headline figures of £10 an hour for the ‘National Living Wage’ by the next General Election due in 2024. The wage rise automatically increases with the cost of living.
However, opposition politicians and poverty campaigners have warned that rises in inflation, the cut to Universal Credit and a massive fuel increase cost will wipe out any gains.
Care workers in Scotland have called for the proposed National Care Service to pay all care workers £15 an hour to help attract more people to the profession and retain existing overworked staff.
There is a huge shortage of care workers and attracting people to what can be an extremely stressful and demanding job is proving difficult when shelf stacking in supermarkets now pays more per hour.
In response to staff shortages, many private firms are already offering more than the minimum wage to attract new workers.
Labour has called for a six month reduction in VAT on home energy costs to help low earners following a £20-a-week cut in Universal Credit.
Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves said, “The Chancellor can choose to let online giants dodge tax, and ignore the cost of living crisis - or he can give working people a helping hand by providing an immediate cut to their energy bills.”
According to poverty researchers at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 3.8 million low income families are unable to keep up with their household bills. 1.4 million are behind with council tax and 950,000 in rent arrears.
The appalling figures could encourage the Chancellor to reduce the Universal Credit taper rate; the amount which claimants lose from each extra pound they earn, from 63p to 60p.
Mr Sunak will also invest £560 million in improving adults’ maths skills in an attempt to fill one million job vacancies.
However, Jane Gratton of the British Chambers of Commerce said, “More needs to be done to close the skills gap and improving numeracy sits at the very heart of that.”
Source: Daily Record
(Link via original reporting)
UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak is due to raise the minimum wage when he presents his budget tomorrow, thinking ahead to the next general election, Daily Record reports.
The hourly minimum wage, which currently stands at £8.91, could go up to £9.45, according to recent reporting.
The Chancellor is hoping to achieve headline figures of £10 an hour for the ‘National Living Wage’ by the next General Election due in 2024. The wage rise automatically increases with the cost of living.
However, opposition politicians and poverty campaigners have warned that rises in inflation, the cut to Universal Credit and a massive fuel increase cost will wipe out any gains.
Care workers in Scotland have called for the proposed National Care Service to pay all care workers £15 an hour to help attract more people to the profession and retain existing overworked staff.
There is a huge shortage of care workers and attracting people to what can be an extremely stressful and demanding job is proving difficult when shelf stacking in supermarkets now pays more per hour.
In response to staff shortages, many private firms are already offering more than the minimum wage to attract new workers.
Labour has called for a six month reduction in VAT on home energy costs to help low earners following a £20-a-week cut in Universal Credit.
Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves said, “The Chancellor can choose to let online giants dodge tax, and ignore the cost of living crisis - or he can give working people a helping hand by providing an immediate cut to their energy bills.”
According to poverty researchers at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 3.8 million low income families are unable to keep up with their household bills. 1.4 million are behind with council tax and 950,000 in rent arrears.
The appalling figures could encourage the Chancellor to reduce the Universal Credit taper rate; the amount which claimants lose from each extra pound they earn, from 63p to 60p.
Mr Sunak will also invest £560 million in improving adults’ maths skills in an attempt to fill one million job vacancies.
However, Jane Gratton of the British Chambers of Commerce said, “More needs to be done to close the skills gap and improving numeracy sits at the very heart of that.”
Source: Daily Record
(Link via original reporting)