Jeremy Hunt wants to tempt parents and over-50s back to work

• Chancellor Jeremy Hunt proposed measures to encourage early retirees.
• And parents of young children back to work.
• With inflation expected to drop by more than half next year.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has laid out measures to encourage early retirees and parents of young children back to work.

In his Budget, he proposed measures for over-50s who have not returned to the workforce since the pandemic, as well as a significant extension of free daycare.

With inflation expected to drop by more than half next year, he asserted, the UK will avoid a recession.

Yet Labour accused him of “dressing up stagnation as stability.”

In a Budget speech lasting more than an hour, Mr. Hunt said: “In the face of enormous challenges, I report today on a British economy which is proving the doubters wrong.”

According to the Office for Budget Responsibility, the GDP would contract by 0.2% in the following year, which is better than anticipated and does not strictly constitute a recession.

By the end of 2023, inflation is anticipated to have decreased from 10.7% in the last quarter of last year to 2.9%.

According to the OBR, living standards are still likely to deteriorate by the most since records have been kept, but the decline will not be as severe as it was predicted in November.

He outlined plans to entice over-50s who have retired early, including 350,000 who have not returned to work since the pandemic, back into the job, calling them “the most skilled and experienced people we have.”

More “mid-life MOT” courses and new “Returner ship” programs will be offered to help people develop their abilities.

The removal of restrictions on the amount employees can save in pension savings over the course of their lifetimes before paying taxes, however, was the major announcement.

Mr. Hunt said that this was done to stop NHS physicians from retiring too soon, but Labor countered that it would mainly help the richest 1% of people.

The chancellor also announced plans to do away with Work Capability Assessments, which he claimed would “couple benefit entitlement from an individual’s ability to work.”

Also, he confirmed intentions to increase free childcare in England.

“I don’t want any parent with a child under five to be prevented from working, if they want to, because it is damaging to our economy and unfair, mainly to women,” Mr. Hunt told MPs.

Instead of the three and four-year-old’s covered by the existing policy, he pledged qualified homes in England up to 30 hours per week of free childcare for youngsters as young as nine months.

Working families will receive up to £6,500 annually under the phased approach, which won’t be fully implemented until September 2025.

In order to increase the availability of daycare, he also promised to improve the staff-to-child ratios in England and provide wraparound care for parents of older children at the beginning and end of the school day.

Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer said: “After 13 years of his government, our economy needed major surgery, but like millions across our country, this Budget leaves us stuck in the waiting room with only a sticking plaster to hand.

“A country set on a path of managed decline, falling behind our competitors, the sick man of Europe once again.”

Stewart Hosie, a spokesman for the SNP’s economic policy, said: “It’s simply pitiful that the chancellor hasn’t reduced energy costs despite having the means to do so.

“The Tories are ripping families off by keeping bills at such exorbitantly sky-high levels, with many families forced to pay three times what they paid a year ago.”

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