Five spring budget changes Jeremy Hunt could enact to change lives of the elderly | Personal Finance | Finance

Retirement, inheritance, income and many other aspects of older Britons’ lives could change in the months after March 6, when Jeremy Hunt unveils the spring budget, experts have predicted.

The Chancellor’s highly anticipated upcoming Parliamentary address will unveil a host of policy changes, and ministers have hinted the Government plans to focus on British taxes.

Financial experts have predicted that changes to income tax, stamp duty, inheritance, capital gains taxes and more are on the card.

While many of the as-of-yet unconfirmed changes are anticipated to be positive, they have warned that some could come as a double-edged sword for the country’s ageing population.

Hargreaves Lansdown has explored five possible ways in which the upcoming budget could affect the coffers of older people living in the UK.

Income tax changes are the chief headline-grabbing potential inclusion in the budget this year, as the Chancellor is expected to greenlight cuts, effectively putting more money in people’s pockets.

Helen Morrissey, head of retirement analysis at Hargreaves Lansdown, said Mr Hunt would be “roundly cheered” for the move but warned it could have a negative knock-on effect on pensions.

She said people mustn’t forget that cutting income tax would mean a “corresponding cut in basic rate tax relief on a pension which will act as a dampener on people’s retirement savings”.

Inheritance tax is immensely unpopular among voters and was quietly dropped from the 2023 Autumn Statement, meaning it has found its way back onto the agenda ahead of its Spring successor.

Experts believe that, if reforms do reappear, they could include adjusted rules on gifting.

In practice, altered rules would allow older people to support and gift family members with fewer obstacles in their way.

Ms Morrisey said: “Gifting allowances have remained frozen for years, and if they were increased, this would encourage more people to think about how their assets could be used to support their family members during their lifetime.”

Other reforms suggested by the expert include raising the £325,000 inheritance tax threshold to £500,000 or “combining it with the residential nil rate band”.

Capital gains and dividend taxes aren’t as strongly rumoured to be on the cards, but Sarah Coles, the head of personal finance at Hargreaves Lansdown, said the Government has an opportunity to help older people holding assets save money.

She said: “Older people who hold assets outside a pension or ISA run a particular risk of paying capital gains tax and dividend tax.

As a result, the slashing of the allowances for both last April has already hit this group hardest, and the cuts set for this April are set to do even more damage.

“The Government has an opportunity to stop these cuts in their tracks – avoid the capital gains tax allowance falling to £3,000 – something we haven’t seen for 40 years, and stop the dividend tax cut to £500 – a tenth of the original allowance.

“It would help protect investors who have been doing the right thing for decades, to protect themselves in retirement. It would also encourage younger investors to get stuck in – without the first of major tax bills further down the line.”

A group of Tory MPs have called on the Chancellor to cut stamp duty for people who downsize their homes.

Damian Green, Matt Warman and Stephen Hammond, the chairman, vice-chairman and senior member of the One Nation Caucus, have advocated for a tax on foreign property investors buying luxury flats that could pay for a limited stamp duty abolition.

They have asked the Chancellor to consider abolishing stamp duty for people moving to a smaller house.

Research from Hargreaves Lansdowne found that stamp duty was an obstacle cited by people who considered downsizing post-retirement, meaning such an inclusion could allow people to move home with less hassle.

Observers have predicted childcare reforms could appear in the budget, specifically regarding High Income Child Benefit charges.

While social care is not expected to make an appearance, Ms Coles said older Britons paying for their care could benefit from reforms that could protect them from “catastrophic care costs”.

She said: “Over a third of people in care homes pay for their own care and around a quarter of those who have help in the community, and this can come at an extraordinary cost.

“It’s alarmingly expensive and politically difficult for any government to wrestle with the cost of protecting people from catastrophic care costs, but while the can is kicked further and further down the road, the huge potential cost of care makes it impossible for any of us to plan our retirement spending with any real certainty.”