The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, has just announced the details of the autumn statement for 2023 and among the changes was a decrease in National Insurance rates for employed and self-employed people but what is the personal allowance for 2024/25 and has that been increased?

In the Autumn Statement document which you can find on the gov.uk website there is no mention of the personal allowance.

This is because, the policy paper which was released on 21st November 2022 stated that the personal allowance would be set at £12,570 up to and including the tax year 2027/28.

Therefore the personal allowance for the tax year 2024/25 will remain at £12,570.

There has been some controversy about leaving it at this level as it does mean that more and more pensioners are being dragged into a situation where they need to pay tax, because of the large increases to the basic state pension.

It has been confirmed in the Autumn Statement that the state pension will rise by 8.5 per cent from April 2024. This means that the basic state pension will increase from £156.20 per week in 2023/24 to £169.50 per week with effect from April 2024 – an increase of £13.30.

The full new state pension will rise to £221.20 per week from £203.85 per week – an increase of £17.35 per week.

If people have a small personal/company pension then that can easily go over the £12,570 limit to bring them into the 20% tax bracket.