Budget 2025 - Inflammatory Neuropathies UK's Response

If you're living with GBS, CIDP, MMN, or another Inflammatory Neuropathy, you may have questions about how today's budget impacts you. Are you having trouble getting your head around what was said, or just fancy a quick summary of the key points? Well, if so, our Chief Executive is here with his traditional reflection on the budget and what it means for people impacted by Inflammatory Neuropathies, and for the charity itself. 

To be honest, there wasn’t a great deal of anticipation for this budget. There had been early releases of what might be in it, followed by leaks, followed by statements. And then the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) only go and release their response to it before the actual budget speech.  

The result was that there really were no surprises in the budget, and to be honest, there wasn’t a huge amount that will impact on most of us, or on the charity. 

The big one was the removal of the two child benefit cap. This does impact some of our community, and has been seen (particularly by those on the left) as something that was contributing to the increase of child poverty, and was having a significant impact on many families. After all of the issues around welfare cuts this year, this was a positive step forward for the government in meeting the needs of those who need the most support. 

We know that there will be further discussions around welfare and benefits further down the line, but for now and in this budget there wasn’t much else except for an extension and expansion of the ‘Help to Save’ scheme, which boosts the savings of people on Universal by adding a Government bonus of 50% on the highest amount in the account. This was expected to end in 2027 but has been extended and opened up to more people. 

Also in welfare, there have been some changes to the Motability Car Scheme. The removal of top end car has been much publicised, but also in the budget, the Chancellor added VAT to payments for some type of cars, and ended relief from insurance premium tax for Motability. This may have an impact on some of our drivers out there. 

In health news, there weren’t any new announcements. All spending commitments and increases had already been made in the spending review. However, one bit of good news was that prescription costs in England were frozen. 

Most of us worry about our heating costs, especially this time of year, and while there weren’t any solid announcements to help with this, the Chancellor did announce that she was scrapping the ECO scheme which had been designed to support low income families. She said it hadn’t worked and by scrapping it a family would see bills come down on average by £150 a year. I imagine this saving will be eaten up by price increases, but we can only hope that the overall impact means a few pounds in all our pockets. 

For those of us earning, income tax and national insurance was frozen. While this isn’t a direct tax increase, it is seen as a ‘stealth tax’ as wages increase, people pay more tax, and some people move into a higher tax band.  

Good news for some earners was that the minimum living wage has increased. Employers may not like this, but there weren’t too many other impacts for them in the budget either. Pensions will also increase in line with the triple lock, so excellent news for pensioners. 

There were a number of other announcements that will have impact across the board. Tobacco duty went up (2% points above RPI), as did alcohol (at RPI). Fuel duty for vehicles will remain frozen for five months, then will go up by with inflation, and those of us with electric vehicles or hybrid vehicles will have to pay more per mile that we cover. Milkshakes and canned lattes will be added to the list hit by the sugar tax. 

So, for most of our community, not very much to be concerned with. Hopefully mostly positive, but with the usual cost of living increases. For the charity, probably nothing that will impact us directly, or nothing that I have seen straight away. A rather routine, well presented, and careful budget, typical of a mid-term government seeking to keep the peace.

I’d be interested to hear if you thought differently about this year’s budget. Get in touch with us on socials (@inflamneurouk) or via hello@inflammatoryneuropathies.uk and share your views.