Living wage increase from £8.91 to £9.50 an hour to be announced in Wednesday’s budget

By lifting the national living wage to £9.50 an hour, this brings it to the real living costs of those living outside of London, according to an independent campaign group.

The chancellor is set to annouce an increase the national living wage to £9.50 in Wednesday’s budget, it has been reported

It will increase from the current living wage of £8.91 per hour for those who are aged 23 and over.

The national living wage is what the UK government calls the national minimum wage for anybody above the age of 22-years-old.

Those who are below that age are eligible for what is called the “national minimum wage”, which will also see a rise.

This comes after The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has said that job vacancies within the UK hit 1.1 million between the months of July and September, the highest level since records had began back in 2001.

People aged 21-22 will see an increase to £9.18 an hour from £8.36 and apprentices will get a rise to £4.81 from £4.30.

However, the chancellor has made no announcement on other age groups, with under 18s currently getting £4.62 and 18 to 20-year-olds getting £6.56 an hour.

Despite the name, the national living wage has not previously been based on the true cost of living, however, by increasing the figure to £9.50 it brings it up to the actual living wage for those living outside of London, this is according to the Living Wage Foundation.

The independent campaign organisation has said that the living wage within London is £10.85 an hour.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced a further series of spending pledges ahead of the autumn budget as he has promised to do “whatever it takes” to support families with the nation’s cost of living.

Among the promises he has already revealed are:

• £1.4bn to encourage foreign investment into UK businesses and attract overseas talent

• £700m to be spent mainly on the new post-Brexit borders and immigration system, as well as a new maritime patrol fleet

• £435m for victims services, crime prevention and the Crown Prosecution Service

• £560m for adult maths coaching to help increase numeracy

• a six-month extension to the COVID recovery loan scheme to June 2022.

This comes after Dominic Raab has told LBC that he wants to draft in British ex-offenders and existing prisoners in order to support the economy instead of relying on foreign labour’s “old addiction”.

There are calls from Labour for the chancellor to remove VAT from domestic energy bills from 5% to zero for six months in order to help families this winter.

The party said the cut could be funded by higher than expected VAT receipts this year.

And the Liberal Democrats want Mr Sunak to make funding to end the cladding crisis a major focus.