Pre-Budget Report: At-a-glance

Last updated at 15:33 02 December 2004


Chancellor Gordon Brown today set out his vision for a "family friendly" welfare state as he put more help for working parents at the heart of his annual Pre-Budget Report. It includes:

News for parents

  • For the first time, maternity leave can be transferred from mother to father. This means a £285 million cash injection.

  • Paid maternity leave will be extended to nine months by April 2007 with the aim of giving mothers a whole year of paid leave by the end of the next Parliament.

  • The maximum maternity pay and child benefits for new mothers will rise to £8,300 in April 2007.

  • The Government will also consult on extending the right of staff to request flexible working to parents of older children.

  • From April employers will be able to offer staff £50 a week extra for child care free of tax and national insurance.

  • Child care tax credits will rise for those on lower and middle incomes, covering up to 80% of costs up to £175 a week for the first child and £300 for two or more children. A two earner household on median income of £34,000 with typical child care costs would get an extra £700 a year.

  • The National Minimum Income Guarantee for single parents with one child will rise to £258 a week.

  • Child Trust Funds are to be increased so that the £250 and £500 downpayments at birth will be doubled at seven years old.

  • By April 2007, there would be an extension of free nursery education for three and four year olds to 15 hours a week. Funds would be provided to keep schools open from 8am to 6pm to look after children while their parents are at work.

  • 3,500 children's centres will be built by 2010 in England - one for every community and an average of five in each constituency.

    • Council tax news

    • An extra £1 billion available for councils to help keep council tax bills "substantially below" last year's average 5.9% hike. Of that, £125 million was extra funding, £512 million was being diverted from Government departments and the rest from relaxing obligations on authorities to spend resources on particular services.

    News for pensioners

    • Winter fuel payments will rise by £50 for the over-70s to £250 and to £350 for over-80s.

    News for workers

    Mr Brown announced new moves to bring single parents and disabled people back into the workforce. They included:

    • Lone parents offered a one-off £40 a week bonus to encourage return to work.

  • The £40-a-week payment to help former Incapacity Benefit claimants back to work would be extended to a third of the country - with the rest of the UK set to follow.

    • News for savers

    • Consultation on extending the Individual Savings Account limit of £3,000 for another five years to 2009. The maximum annual investment limit in Mini Cash ISAs was due to drop to £1,000 in 2006, but the Chancellor said the Government was committed to the tax-free scheme.

    News for teenagers

    • The launch of the first ever National Employer Training Programme, to enable teenagers to stay on at school for educational training.

    News for drivers

    • £20m extra to encourage the use of cleaner fuel.

  • The petrol duty increase stays frozen.

  • The duty on bioethanol fuels would be 20p per litre less than conventional fuels from January 1 but similar concessions would not be extended to sulphur-free fuel.

  • Duty rates on rebated oil would not be frozen because of the tax evasion and fraud that had resulted from a lower rate of duty, said Gordon Brown. But the rise would be 1p per litre not the expected 2.4p.

    • Other news

    • A package of support for science includes the naming of Manchester, Newcastle and York as science cities for the North.

  • Britain committed to helping Africa with International Finance Facility, 100% debt relief and AIDS research as G8 president next year.

  • An extra £105 million for security and counter-terrorism.

  • Plans for further relocation of civil servants outside London including 1,230 from the Ministry of Defence to Yorkshire and 600 from the ONS to Wales.

  • A new expert Asia Task Force would aim to boost British exports to India and China.

  • Public spending to rise to £579 billion in 2007-08, £607 billion in 2008-09 and £634 billion in 2009-10.

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