The numbers behind the announcements – and what they mean for people living on one income.

We know you’ve already seen and heard the Budget headlines. So we’re not going to give you another blow-by-blow account or try to cover every measure announced.

Instead, we’ve picked out the figures we think matter to single people, and anyone managing a household on one income. What’s changing? Who stands to benefit? What might be less positive than it first appears? And, importantly, what was missing?

And we can’t help wondering: are there signs that the growing number of single people is finally beginning to register in Westminster? Are politicians starting to recognise that more than 28 million single people represent a sizeable part of the population – and a significant number of voters? We’d like to think so. We’ve certainly been making the case!

Because the devil’s in the detail. And when there’s no second income to share the bills, the detail can make quite a difference.

In this article: Household bills | Income and tax | Housing and saving | What’s missing?

HOUSEHOLD BILLS & EVERYDAY COSTS

£100 – A little breathing space on energy bills

Around 20 million households in England in Council Tax bands A to D are due to receive a one-off £100 payment towards their energy bills from January 2027.

So here’s one positive worth highlighting: the payment is per household, not per adult. So someone living alone receives the same £100 as a household with two adults. For once, we’re not missing out because support is calculated on a household rather than a per-person basis. Yippee!

Most people paying Council Tax by direct debit should receive it automatically. If you don’t pay by direct debit, your council should invite you to apply. The arrangements for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are being handled separately by the devolved governments, so we’ll keep an eye on those.

It’s welcome help, but let’s put it into perspective. Martin Lewis estimates that a typical household could face an annual energy bill increase of around £450 from January, if current forecasts prove right. The £100 payment would cover just over a fifth of that, leaving around £350 – or roughly £7 a week – still to find.

Helpful, certainly. A solution to rising energy costs? Not quite.

£108 – The gas standing charge. Now this IS worth celebrating!

The big point here is simple: moving away from a fixed charge that everyone pays, towards putting more of the cost into the gas people actually use. And that’s something worth shouting about!

Yippee! At last, some good news on a subject we’ve been banging on about for quite some time.

The daily gas standing charge – currently costing around £108 a year on average – is due to be removed from household bills. The Government has asked Ofgem to deliver the change, with the aim of having it in place by the end of 2027, or as soon as possible afterwards.

Instead, the cost will be transferred into the price paid for each unit of gas used.

Now, before we get carried away and start dancing round the kitchen, there’s a little detail to explain. The cost isn’t simply disappearing. The Government estimates that around 60% of account-holding households could save an average of about £45 a year. People who use less gas are more likely to benefit, while those who use more could pay more. The exact impact will depend on how much gas each household uses.

So why are we so pleased?

Because the standing charge is a fixed household cost. Someone living alone pays exactly the same as a household with several people sharing the bill. It doesn’t matter whether one person is paying it or four. And that’s precisely the sort of unfairness we’ve been highlighting.

We’re not suggesting that every single household uses less gas, or that families should be penalised. But moving away from a fixed charge that everyone pays regardless of usage is a welcome step in the right direction.

And perhaps – just perhaps – this could be the start of a much wider rethink about household charges. There are plenty of other costs where the number of people sharing the bill makes a difference, but the bill itself doesn’t take that into account.

There is a wait, though. This won’t happen immediately, and the precise start date still needs to be confirmed. Electricity standing charges are not being removed at this stage, although the Government has also committed to reforming them. One step at a time!

We’ve looked at the wider issue in our article on household bills and the discounts you may be missing.

£50 – Electricity VAT

The Budget also extends the existing removal of VAT on household electricity until July 2027. The Chancellor says this will take around £50 off the annual price cap.

Worth being clear about the wording here: this isn’t a brand-new VAT cut announced in the Budget. It’s an extension of a measure already in place. Still, an extension that helps keep bills down is welcome. We’ll take it!

INCOME & TAX

£12,570 – The tax-free allowance that isn’t moving

The amount most people can earn before paying income tax – the Personal Allowance – remains frozen at £12,570. The higher-rate threshold remains at £50,270, with the freeze continuing until April 2031.

This is one of the less obvious ways our tax bills can increase. It’s called fiscal drag, often described as a stealth tax. A rather dry name for something that can quietly take more money out of your pocket.

Put simply, if wages rise but tax thresholds don’t, more of our income becomes taxable. We don’t need to be earning a fortune or receiving a particularly generous pay rise for this to affect us.

To give an idea of the impact, the latest ONS figures put average regular earnings at around £707 a week, or £36,800 a year. If earnings continued rising at the recent rate of 3.7% a year, that average salary would reach roughly £42,500 by 2030/31.

If the tax-free allowance had risen in line with recent inflation of 3.1% a year, it would be around £14,200 by then, rather than remaining at £12,570. That’s roughly £1,630 more income that would otherwise have been tax-free – worth around £325 a year in income tax for someone paying the basic rate.

This is an illustration, not a prediction of future pay or inflation. But it shows how the freeze quietly increases the tax take without the Government having to announce an increase in tax rates.

And if we’re relying on one income, there’s no second wage to help absorb the difference. Not quite so painless after all.

HOUSING AND GETTING ONTO THE PROPERTY LADDER

£450,000 – A fairer deal for Lifetime ISA savers

There is some welcome news for first-time buyers saving through a Lifetime ISA.

Previously, buying a property costing more than £450,000 meant facing a 25% withdrawal charge. This has been reduced to 20%, meaning buyers can retain the value of their own contributions and any growth or interest earned on those contributions, rather than losing some of their own savings through the penalty.

The Government bonus is still lost if the property costs more than £450,000, and the property price limit itself hasn’t changed. So while this removes an unfair penalty, it doesn’t solve the problem for buyers in areas where property prices are high.

A step forward, then – but perhaps not quite the leap some buyers need.

Your First Home – A new route onto the property ladder?

The Government has also announced a new Help to Buy-style scheme called Your First Home, aimed at first-time buyers purchasing new-build homes in England.

The idea is to make buying a home possible with a smaller deposit and a smaller mortgage. Buyers will be able to put down as little as 2.5%, with the Government providing a 20% equity loan. The rest is covered by a repayment mortgage through a participating lender.

Let’s put some numbers to it. On a £300,000 property, a 2.5% deposit would be £7,500, the Government loan would be £60,000 and the mortgage would cover the remaining £232,500.

The Government estimates that around 70,000 households in England could benefit. That’s an encouraging target, but what does it mean for people buying alone? The published figures don’t tell us how many single buyers are expected to benefit, or how the scheme might work for people relying on one income.

The scheme is restricted to eligible new-build homes sold by developers taking part. Household income limits are £110,000 outside London and £140,000 in London, with local property price caps also applying. Applications are expected to open in February 2027, with the first property sales from April.

And here’s another important detail. The Government loan is interest-free for the first five years. After that, interest is charged at 1.5% in year six and rises to 3% from year seven. These interest payments are on top of the mortgage and don’t reduce the amount of the loan itself.

The loan is also linked to the value of the property. So, if the home increases in value, the amount to be repaid increases too. In simple terms, if the Government originally lent 20% of the purchase price, the buyer would normally repay 20% of the home’s value when the loan is settled.

This scheme could make a real difference to someone who has struggled to save a larger deposit. But a smaller deposit doesn’t automatically mean a mortgage will be affordable. Buyers still need to pass the lender’s affordability checks – and for someone buying alone, that’s one income doing all the work.

Savings interest – Another hurdle when putting money aside

There is less welcome news for people who have managed to put some money aside.

From April 2027, the tax rates on savings interest rise by four percentage points for people who pay tax on it: 24% for basic-rate, 44% for higher-rate and 49% for additional-rate taxpayers.

For anyone trying to build up savings – perhaps towards a first home – it’s another change worth keeping an eye on. Every little bit of interest can help when you’re saving, so seeing more of it go in tax isn’t exactly encouraging.

6.8% – The gap between housing support and actual rents

One issue raised on BBC Breakfast after the Budget was the Local Housing Allowance (LHA), which helps some people receiving benefits with their rent.

A contributor working with people experiencing housing difficulties said the allowance had been frozen since 2024, while rents in her local area had risen by 6.8% in the previous year. (This was an example from her area, rather than a national rent figure).

The Budget did not announce an increase to the allowance.

And that’s a problem. It leaves a growing gap between the rent some people have to pay and the support they receive. For someone renting alone, there is no partner or second household income to help make up the shortfall.

It’s a significant omission, particularly when affordable housing remains such a challenge.

What was missing?

There were some welcome announcements, but let’s not pretend the Budget has tackled the bigger financial pressures facing people who manage on one income.

Where was the meaningful help for renters whose housing support is falling behind actual rents? Where was a wider look at the extra costs that can come with running a home alone?

We still have a system in which many costs are attached to the household rather than the number of people living in it. Rent, mortgage payments, broadband, insurance, repairs and many household bills don’t neatly halve just because there is only one person paying them.

And while the Government has introduced measures that could help first-time buyers, we haven’t seen enough detail about how affordability for people buying alone has been considered. A household income limit may look generous on paper, but someone buying alone still has just one income to satisfy the lender and meet the ongoing costs of owning a home.

We also need to recognise that single people are not one group with identical circumstances. Some live alone, some share with family, some rent, some own their homes, some are saving for a deposit and others are managing a mortgage. Some are financially comfortable; others are struggling.

This isn’t about saying single people should receive more help than families or couples. It’s about recognising that one person often has to meet the same essential costs without another income to share them.

With more than 28 million single people estimated to be living in the UK, this isn’t a small or insignificant part of the population. It’s time that the financial realities of living on one income were given proper consideration when policies are designed.