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Easy News: Rishi Sunak shares the Spring Statement 2022 and says what the government is doing about the cost of living crisis

This Easy News story is about the Spring Statement which Rishi Sunak shared in March 2022. In the Statement, he explained what the government is doing to try and help with people’s living costs going up – this is sometimes called the cost of living crisis.

Easy News: Rishi Sunak shares the Spring Statement 2022 and says what the government is doing about the cost of living crisis

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    1. On the 23rd of March 2022, the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak gave his Spring Statement.

    2. The Spring Statement explains how the Government plans to spend its money .

    3. He also decides how much money people have to give to the government through taxes. There are many different types of tax.

    4. He said that he would lower Income Tax in 2024, but that it would be dangerous to do it now.

    5. He said that the government needed the money, because nobody is sure about what will happen in the future.

    6. Right now Britain has a very high inflation. Inflation is when things cost more, so the same amount of money can buy less things.

    7. Electricity has also become more expensive quickly. People are worried about how much everything costs.

    8. The energy price cap is the highest price that companies can charge people for gas and electricity. In April, the energy price cap increased by £693 a year, so people’s energy bills have been more expensive.

    9. Lots of people are having to choose between eating and staying warm because they do not have enough money to pay higher bills for gas, electricity and food.

    10. Rishi Sunak said that people will be able to have a £200 loan in October to help pay for their energy bills. This would be paid back as £40 a year for five years, starting in April 2023.

    11. Local councils are also paying £150 back from some people’s council tax. This depends on your Council Tax band and will be paid to you if your house is Band A, B, C or D.

    12. The government has also changed how people pay National Insurance. National Insurance helps pay for caring for people if they get sick.

    13. At the moment, when people are paid for the work they do, they get to keep all of the money they earn for themselves up to £9,880.

    14. If they are paid more than £9,880, then part of that extra money has to be paid to the Government through National Insurance.

    15. Rishi Sunak is changing the amount of money people can keep for themselves from £9,880 to £12,570 from July 2022. This will help people who get paid less.

    16. But once people do start earning more than £12,570, they will have to pay a bigger amount of National Insurance than they did before. This means that a lot of people will have less money to spend than they did before.

    17. Rishi Sunak is also lowering how much money people must pay to the government in tax when they buy petrol for their cars. The government will now take 5 pence less per litre of petrol.

    18. He also said people will not have to pay any tax for adding solar panels or insulation to their houses.

    19. He said that Britain's Gross Domestic Product or GDP has grown slower than people thought. Gross Domestic Product is how much everyone in the whole country makes, added together.

    20. Rishi also said that the government is still spending more money than it makes. He said he is worried about that.

    21. Sign up here to receive Easy News updates sent to your email inbox. Click here to see previous issues of Easy News.

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