Homepage
Key Budget measures include
Maintaining economic stability
Productivity and enterprise in a flexible economy

Employment opportunity for all
Building a fairer society
High quality public services
Protecting the environment

Household income
Where taxpayers' money is spent
Further information
Visit HM Treasury Site

The Government wants to promote a dynamic and flexible labour market that equips people to adapt to changing economic conditions and delivers full employment throughout the country.

The labour market has performed well in recent years. There are now more people in work than ever before and unemployment is at its lowest for a generation. The New Deal has helped almost 415,000 young people into work and help has been extended to other groups such as lone parents, older people and those with disabilities.

Paid from this month, the Working Tax Credit will help to make work pay for people on low incomes, with or without children. Together with the National Minimum Wage, which rises to £4.50 an hour from October 2003, the Working Tax Credit helps to deliver a more flexible labour market, while ensuring a degree of stability in workers' incomes. Budget 2003:

• provides additional support to help people search for jobs during the first six months of unemployment;


• provides new flexibility for Jobcentre Plus districts to respond to local labour market conditions and help people move quickly into work;


• reforms Housing Benefit to improve financial gains to work and deliver greater reliability in the service to claimants;


• improves support for lone parents, with pilots of a new £20 a week worksearch premium for those who are actively seeking work;


• provides extra help for people from ethnic minorities, with specialist jobsearch advisers in areas with high ethnic minority populations; and


• launches an enhanced package of support for partners of benefit claimants to reduce the number of workless households in the country.

Back to top

Back to top