Budget 2003 Outcomes for Women

The following items are among the outcomes of the 2003 Budget for women:

Fulfilling Women’s Potential: Support for moving from welfare to work

£183 a week for a single earner couple aged 25 or over and working full-time on the National Minimum Wage and £155 a week for a single person.

Supporting Women’s Choices: Support for families with children

A Child Trust Fund: established for each child born since September 2002, with an initial endowment of at least £250 for all, rising to £500 for the poorest one third of children. Endowed during their childhood years and available at age 18.

Child Tax Credit

• Paid from April 2003, around 5 ¾ million families with children with incomes below £58,000 a year will receive the new Child Tax Credit.

• In the first year of a child's life it will be available to families earning up to £66,000 a year.

• A single earner family on median earnings of £21,400 and with two children will be nearly £5.00 a week better off, largely because of the new Child Tax Credit;

• 50 per cent of families with children will be better off, even after changes to income tax and national insurance contributions.

• Including Child Benefit, total support for children from 2003 will be up to £54.10 a week for the first child and up to £92.50 a week for a two-child family.

Working Tax Credit

From October 2003, the Working Tax Credit and the National Minimum Wage will guarantee minimum incomes of:

• £241 a week for a family with one child and one earner working full-time on the National Minimum Wage; and

• £279 a week for a lone parent with two children working full-time on the National Minimum Wage

• With the new housing benefit disregard, for lone parents on a rent of £50 a week, part-time work will pay £213 a week.

More information on the National Minimum Wage from the DTI

Support for Older Women

From October 2003 the Pension Credit will ensure that millions of pensioners who have saved for their retirement benefit from having done so. Around half of all pensioner households stand to gain an additional £400 a year on average under the Pension Credit, with some gaining up to £1,000 a year.

On average, from October 2003 many couples will benefit by up to £19.20 a week, and single pensioners by up to £14.79. The average additional payment will be £7 extra for single pensioners and £9 extra a week for couples.

• pensioner households will be £1,250 a year better off in real terms — around £24 extra a week; and

• the poorest third of pensioner households will have gained £1,600 a year in real terms — over £30 extra a week.

An additional £100, on top of the £200 winter fuel payment, to households with a pensioner aged 80 or over, for the lifetime of this Parliament; and an extension, to 52 weeks, of the period over which all pensioners in hospital receive their full state pension.

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Useful websites

HM Treasury Budget site

DTI National Minimum Wage site