The most eye-catching policies in Philip Hammond’s autumn statement are those designed to help the “just about managing” families – from a ban on letting agents’ fees to slightly softening the blow of benefit cuts for those in work.
The most significant move is a change to the new universal credit welfare system that softens the pace of withdrawal of in-work benefits for claimants as they increase their hours.
It will help about 3 million people, although experts from the Resolution Foundation thinktank have warned it will in no way compensate for the scale of cuts to the work allowance – a benefit replacing tax credits – that hits new claimants on universal credit.
A second flagship policy for the just about managing families – known as Jams – is a proposed ban on fees for letting agents.
This policy was opposed by Conservative ministers until very recently. David Cameron’s election team put out a press release in April 2015 saying Ed Miliband’s plan to do the same would increase rents for “hardworking families”.
A large affordable housing programme is a third measure for the Jams, who tend to be defined as households earning £15,000 to £30,000 a year.
There will be an additional £1.4bn to encourage construction of 40,000 such homes, although Labour said it was “too little, too late” given the deep cuts to housing investment in 2010, which have meant that the supply of affordable places to live has never caught up.
Another measure for low earners is a boost to the “national living wage” announced by George Osborne earlier this year.
It will go up from £7.20 per hour to £7.50, although the pace of this increase does not appear to be enough to reach the target of £9 by 2020 promised by the former chancellor.
A crackdown on fraudulent whiplash claims is an additional modest measure aimed at helping the Jams, as it is designed to bring down car insurance costs by about £40 annually.
The Ministry of Justice has proposed either scrapping the right to compensation for minor whiplash injuries or putting a cap on the amount people can claim.
Infrastructure investment will be the second major plank of Hammond’s policy announcements, particularly aimed at improving productivity of the workforce.
The chancellor will deploy more than £1bn to boost broadband speeds for up 2 million homes and businesses – despite the fact that millions of other homes are not yet connected at all – and another £1.3bn of new investment in roads, primarily targeted at small projects to relieve traffic congestion.
