Middle income earners brace for impact of Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ budget

In Grimsby, teacher Karen Bacon is feeling frustrated by the budget.

While workers on the minimum wage are toasting a 6.7% pay rise, middle income employees are less than impressed.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ promise not to hit their payslips by hiking income tax is welcome, but it doesn’t alleviate their financial pressures.

“I’m struggling, really struggling,” Ms Bacon told Sky News. “As a family, we have talked about Christmas this year. What we are not going to do, rather than what we are going to do. Because we are all struggling.”

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She is also unsure on Labour’s pledge that it’s on the side of the workers.

“Even though the government say they are, I don’t know if they really are,” she added. “The middle people I think get ignored a lot of the time.”

The teacher is willing to give the government time, though. “It’s unfair to charge this government yet and say that they are to blame… because we’ve got to see what they roll out and the effects of it.”

Down in Essex, every single household cost is mapped out in Chris Matthewman’s spreadsheet. Now, he is weighing up how the budget will impact his finances.

He’s on a good income in Basildon and so is his partner Tracey, but with three kids they feel the squeeze every single month.

After watching the chancellor’s announcement, he told Sky News: “Nothing has changed.

“We are exactly the same as we were yesterday.”

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Another of the chancellor’s moves is keeping the freeze on fuel duty – a move Ms Reeves said she made specifically with working people in mind. But the ones I speak to don’t think they’ll notice.

Tracey said: “I don’t know if I was expecting more, but we will just have to carry on.

“We’ll go back to tinkering with the spreadsheet and seeing what we can save every month.”