The Summer Budget 2015

George Osborne has unveiled his second Budget of the year, and the first wholly conceived by the Conservatives in 19 years. Coming just five months after the traditional Budget, this emergency Budget - known colloquially as the summer Budget - lays out another raft of measures that will affect the lives of parents, students, workers and pensioners across the country.

Below is a brief overview of the planned changes:

National Living Wage

Considered the Tories' ace in the hole, the National Living Wage will see workers paid a minimum of £7.20 an hour from 2016, rising to £9 an hour by the year 2020. However, not all workers will be entitled to the NLW: employees must be at least 25 years old.

Welfare Benefit Cuts

Welfare has arguably been hit hardest by the emergency Budget. Benefits are to be capped to £20,000 (£23,000 in the capital). Employment and support allowance payments are to be cut, child tax credits restricted to two children by 2017, no automatic housing benefit for those between 18 and 21, and working age benefits will be frozen for four years.

There will, however, be a 1% cut in social housing rent, and 30 hours of free childcare available for parents of three to four-year-olds.

Personal Allowance

Taxpayers will benefit from another rise in the personal allowance, a £200 increase taking the threshold to £11,000 for 2016/17, rising to £11,200 the following tax year.

The higher rate threshold will also increase, going from £42,385 to £43,000 next year.

Dividends

A new £5,000 tax-free allowance on dividends will be put in place, potentially reducing tax bills for some investors from 2016/17.

Inheritance Tax

The inheritance tax threshold is set to increase to £1m from 2017. allowing owners of homes worth up to that figure to pass on their property to children or grandchildren without incurring any hefty IHT levies.

Buy-to-let

Tax relief for buy-to-let landlords will drop from current levels - 40 or 45 per cent - to 20 per cent from April 2020.

Corporation Tax

This will be reduced to 19% in 2017 and 18% in 2020 respectively.

University Grants

Maintenance grants for students from low-income households (under £43,000) will be scrapped, paving the way for the introduction of further loans, to be repaid once the graduate is earning over £20,000.

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