Labour Pre-Budget Help for Families

A summary of Labour help for families from today's Pre-Budget statement:

• Cheaper shopping from Monday as VAT is reduced by 2.5%
• £75 increase in Child Tax Credits taking them to £2,235 for low income families from next April
• Child Benefit to increase to £20 a week from next April: when Labour was first elected in 1997 this benefit was just £11 a week
• A one-off payment of £70 for children with disabilities next January
• The temporary personal allowance increase of £120 to help families caught out by the abolition of the 10p tax rate made permanent and increased to £145 from April: this will help 4.7 million households
• Taking anyone earning less than £22,000 out of paying National Insurance all together
• The new Savings Gateway to help families save: the Government will add 50p to every £1 saved
• Forcing Energy companies that have failed to put low income households on their lowest tariffs to do so
• £150 million more - on top of the already spent £50 million - to help low income households insulate their homes
• Vehicle Excise Duty increase capped at £5 next year, and in 2010 cut by up to £30 if you drive a less-polluting car
• £1.8 billion to build new affordable homes for rent and shared ownership - £775 million brought forward to next year to kick-start the construction industry and provide thousands more affordable homes
• Mortgage help for those who have lost their jobs doubled - now it covers mortgages of up to £200,000 up from £100,000
• £15 million extra for expert help with debt advice for families - £10million of which could go to the Citizens Advice Bureau