People on Lower Incomes

4. What fiscal steps he is taking to provide financial support to people on lower incomes.

In addition to extending the energy price guarantee, and to help people further, cost of living payments for vulnerable households will kick in next year. We are also uprating benefits and increasing the national living wage to £10.42 an hour.

What assessment has my right hon. Friend made of the saving a typical family will achieve as a result of his fuel duty measures announced in last week’s Budget?

I thank my hon. Friend for saying that. We think the average driver has saved about £200 in total since the 5p cut was introduced, but we are also introducing draught relief for beer drinkers in pubs and 30 hours of free childcare for young parents who are struggling with childcare costs. There are a lot of cost of living measures in the Budget.

I thank the Chancellor for all he does, and for his hard work. It is more than just beer drinkers, of course. Carers who also work part time are precluded from receiving carer’s allowance if they earn just over the threshold. Will he consider uplifting the carer’s allowance earnings threshold in line with inflation?

I thank the hon. Gentleman for mentioning carers, who do an amazing job. It is fair to say that our NHS and care systems would fall over without the incredible job carers do. We will always keep under review what we can do to help these very important people.