Philip Hammond will pitch to win over younger voters with a new offer of cheaper rail fares for the under-30s and plans to prevent graduates from overpaying student loans.
The chancellor will use Wednesday’s budget to launch a new discount railcard from spring 2018 for 4.5 million people aged between 26-30, though it has not been confirmed how much the discount would be.
Young person’s railcards, launched in 1974, cover 16- to 25-year-olds, offering up to a third off rail fares for a cost of about £30 a year.
In practice, the new card may extend cheaper travel to anyone under the age of 32, as current arrangements for young person’s railcards allow 23-year-olds to purchase three-year cards just before their 24th birthday.
The Treasury will also unveil a new data-sharing system aimed at stopping the problem of graduate overpayment on student loans.
In 2015-16, 86,000 graduates overpaid on their student loans – with average overpayments of £592 – with money continuing to be taken out of their wages via the tax system after the full loan had been repaid.
A new system will be in place by April 2019 by which HM Revenue & Customs and the Student Loans Company will share data so loan repayments automatically stop when a borrower has fully repaid.
The announcement, expected on Wednesday, is the government’s latest peace offering to students. The prime minister pledged in October to raise the income threshold that triggers student loan repayments from £21,000 to £25,000.
