Homepage
Overview
Maintaining a stable economy
Promoting productivity and enterprise
Employment opportunity for all
Building a fairer society

Delivering high quality public services
Protecting the environment
Where taxpayers' money is spent
Get in touch
Visit HM Treasury Site

The Government wants to build a fairer society in which everyone can contribute to and share in rising national prosperity. The Pre-Budget Report sets out the steps the Government is now taking to help achieve its aim of tackling child and pensioner poverty, promoting savings and building a modern tax system in which everyone pays their fair share.

Introduced in April 2003, the Child Tax Credit provides a secure stream of income for families with children, helping to tackle child poverty. 10.5 million children are benefiting from the support it provides. The Pension Credit, introduced in October 2003, provides extra help for low and modest-income
pensioners and rewards those who have saved for retirement.

In the Pre-Budget Report, the Government takes further steps to promote a fairer society, including:

• a ten-year strategy to promote childcare, setting out how the Government will achieve its vision of affordable, high-quality childcare for all parents who need it;
• an extension of paid maternity leave to nine months from April 2007, and improvements to the childcare element of the Working Tax Credit;
• a package of measures to ensure that everyone has access to banking, affordable credit and free face-to-face money advice;
• a payment of £50 to households with someone aged over 70 to help with council tax and other living expenses, paid by the end of December 2005;
• promoting saving through Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs), the Saving Gateway and the Child Trust Fund; and
• measures to promote fairness in the tax system, tackle tax fraud and avoidance, and protect revenues.

Back to top