The Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced in his 2024 Spring Budget that the National Insurance rate for employees would be cut by 2p in the pound from 6 April 2024 – from 10% to 8% on earnings between £12,570 and £50,270.
The Class 4 rate for the self-employed will be cut from 9% to 6% from 6 April 2024, and the self-employed will no longer have to pay Class 2 contributions.
From 1 April 2024, the National Living Wage for people aged 23 and over will go up from £10.42 to £11.44 an hour.
Workers aged 21 and over will also be entitled to the National Living Wage from 1 April 2024 at the same rate of £11.44 an hour (up from £10.18)
There will also be rises for those aged 20 and under.
State pensions will rise by 8.5% in 2024/2025, in line with the triple lock. Those on the full new single-tier state pension will receive £221.20 a week, up from £203.85.
The lifetime allowance for pension savings will be abolished from 6 April 2024. Previously, there would normally have been a charge on taking pension benefits above £1,073,100 – although this charge was set to zero for the 2023/2024 tax year.
The lifetime allowance is being replaced by 3 new standard allowances:
These allowances for an individual may be higher or lower depending on individual circumstances.
From 6 April 2024, the High Income Child Benefit Charge threshold will increase from £50,000 to £60,000 a year. This means full child benefits will be paid to households where the highest-earning parent earns up to £60,000.
The annual exemption amount for capital gains tax will be cut again from 6 April 2024 – from £6,000 to £3,000.
The annual tax-free allowance for dividends will also be halved from £1,000 to £500. These allowances were also reduced in April 2023.
From 6 April, to open a new cash ISA, you must be:
ISA providers aren't obliged to offer transitional arrangements.
From 6 April, those under 18 won’t be able to open a new cash ISA at HSBC, but it’s something we’ll consider changing in the future.
If you're aged 18 or over, you can now subscribe to more than one of the same type of ISA in the same tax year – as long as you stay within the overall annual limit.
This means you could subscribe to a stocks & shares ISA or a cash ISA, for example, with different providers. However, this doesn’t apply to Lifetime ISAs, where you can only subscribe to one Lifetime ISA in a tax year.
Please note – HSBC doesn't offer Lifetime ISAs.
ISA providers aren't obliged to accept subscriptions to more than one ISA of the same type in the same tax year. HSBC is unable to offer this from 6 April 2024.
If you've gone a whole tax year without making a subscription to an existing ISA, you can now restart subscriptions without needing to complete a new application.
You can also now make a partial transfer of subscriptions made in the current tax year.
Please note – these changes aren’t available at HSBC from 6 April 2024. However, we'll update our information if we make any changes to our ISAs in the future.
If you want to make the most of the tax-free allowances or you’re looking to boost your savings pot this financial year, read our guide on how to save money.
This article was last updated on 10/04/2024, 09:46
