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On whether a small business owner making a profit of \u00a313,000 would count as a working person, she said she could not go into specific details about “who may or may not be captured in tax measures that may or may not happen in the Budget”.<\/p>\n
She said she understood people’s frustration but added: “They haven’t got long to wait.” <\/p>\n
She reiterated the government’s message that ministers faced “tough choices” following the “inheritance” left by the previous Conservative government.<\/p>\n
On the same programme, Griffith accused the government of behaving “at the very least like the worst form of dodgy car hire firm, conjuring up small print that never existed”.<\/p>\n
The chancellor is also expected to increase the National Insurance rate for employers in the Budget and lower the threshold for when employers start paying tax, in a bid to raise \u00a320bn. <\/p>\n
Businesses argue that the hike would make it harder to hire staff, hindering the government’s aim of boosting growth. The increase could also hit employees if employers opt to reduce pay rises. <\/p>\n
In addition to offering some hints about what might be in the Budget, the government has also provided details about what spending will be announced.<\/p>\n
Ministers have pledged \u00a31.4bn to rebuild 50 schools in England a year and \u00a344m to help foster carers and kinship, which is where a child is raised in the care of a friend or family member who is not a parent.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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‘Bittersweet Budget’<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Former Bank of England economist Andy Haldane said: “The distinction between working people or not makes no real sense. <\/p>\n
“The truth is, it is very unlikely over the course of this Parliament we won’t almost all be paying a bit more to close the gap.<\/p>\n
“In the land of hard choices, it was always going to be a bittersweet Budget. <\/p>\n
“The bitter bit is the tax pill, which will be big, and the sweet part is the investment.”<\/p>\n
Before the July general election, the Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank accused both main parties of a “conspiracy of silence” over public finances. <\/p>\n
IFS director Paul Johnson said “eye-wateringly tough choices” would be needed if the government wanted to stick to a self-imposed rule that debt must be falling as a proportion of the size of the economy in five years’ time. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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