Key takeaways from Rachel Reeves' spring statementReuters
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00:00The universal credit standard allowance will increase from £92 per week in 2025-26
00:05to £106 a week by 2029-30,
00:09while the universal credit health element will be cut for new claimants by around 50% and then frozen.
00:15I am pleased that the OBR confirmed today
00:19that real household disposable income will now grow this year
00:24at almost twice the rate expected in the autumn.
00:29Compared to the forecast in the final budget delivered by the party opposite,
00:33and after taking into account inflation,
00:37the OBR say today that people will be on average
00:41over £500 a year better off under this Labour government.
00:46Today I am reflecting two steps that we have taken on our spending plans.
00:51First, because we are living in an uncertain world,
00:54as the Prime Minister has set out,
00:56we will increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP,
01:00reducing overseas aid to 0.3% of gross national income.
01:05Today I go further,
01:07continuing our investment in cutting-edge technology,
01:10investing in the HMRC's capacity to crack down on tax avoidance,
01:15and setting out plans to increase the number of tax frauds discharged every year by 20%.
01:20These changes raise a further £1 billion,
01:23taking the total revenue raised from reducing tax evasion
01:27under this Labour government to £7.5 billion.
01:32We are investing £1 billion to provide guaranteed,
01:36personalised employment support to help people back into work,
01:41and £400 million to support the Department for Work and Pensions
01:45and our jobcentres to deliver these changes effectively and fairly,
01:50taking total savings after that to the package to £3.4 billion.
01:55Today I build on that work by bringing forward £3.25 billion of investment
02:01to deliver the reforms that our public services need
02:04through a new transformation fund.
02:07That is money brought forward now
02:09to bring down the costs of running government by the end of the forecast period,
02:14by making public services more efficient,
02:17more productive, and more focused on the user.
02:21I can confirm today the first allocations from this fund,
02:24including funding for voluntary exit schemes to reduce the size of the civil service,
02:30pioneering AI tools to modernise the state,
02:34investment in top technology for the Ministry of Justice
02:37to deliver probation services more effectively,
02:40and upfront investment so we can support more children into foster care
02:45to give them the best possible start in life and reduce cost pressures in the future.