State pensioners being handed free £376 thanks to rule change in Budget

Pensioners could gain an extra £376 under the Labour Party government following Chancellor Rachel Reeves' Budget on Wednesday. Under upratings and uplifts to Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) benefits, pensioners are set to benefit.

A pensioner with a full new state pension and private pension may currently have a gross income of £19,000. From this they will pay £1,286 in income tax but benefit from the “triple lock” so his full state pension will rise by 4.1% or £9.05 to £230.25 a week, from April 2025, adding £470.60 to the annual income before tax.

The tax bill on that is £94.12 leaving those pensioners an extra £376.48 in the 2025-26 tax year. Jeremy Hunt has claimed the public is angry at Rachel Reeves for the “biggest tax-raising Budget in history”. The shadow chancellor told BBC Breakfast: “If she had wanted to do this, before the election she should have said so, we could have had this debate.

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“I think what is making people very angry this morning is that she said 30 times before the election that she wouldn’t increase taxes beyond what was spelled out in the Labour manifesto and many people believed her.

“Many people thought this was a new Labour prospectus, not a traditional tax and spend prospectus, and they have woken up to a Chancellor who has given us the biggest tax-raising Budget in history.” Former Tory Party Chancellor Mr Hunt said he understood the Chancellor wanted “more money for the NHS” and other services, but criticised tax rises in the Budget as they would hamper a “successful, strong economy”.

He added on BBC Breakfast today: “We are going to have lower living standards, we are going to have higher prices, fewer jobs, more expensive mortgages, life is going to get tougher for ordinary people.”