Martin Lewis: My instant Budget reaction – how it affects the pound in your pocket

Martin Lewis takes you through the Chancellor Rachel Reeve's 2025 Autumn Budget, focusing on the key personal and consumer finance points that'll impact you.

This includes the amount you can save into your cash ISA each year being cut from £20,000 to £12,000 from April 2027, but only for those under 65; as well as government plans to reduce energy bills by £150 from April 2026.

Martin explains that Income Tax and National Insurance thresholds have been frozen until 2031, and the confirmed 4.8% rise to the State Pension.

Martin also talks about the 4.1% rise in the National Minimum Wage to £12.71 per hour for those aged 21 and over (£10.85 per hour to those aged 18 to 20), and the removal of the two-child benefit limit from April 2026.

You will only be able to get the National Insurance benefits on salary sacrifice for pensions of £2,000/yr from 2029.

The Plan 2 student loan repayment threshold has been frozen for a further three years,

The MoneySavingExpert founder also found things not mentioned in the Budget speech, but were in the docs, including a consultation on replacing Lifetime ISAs with a new first-time buyers product, and a letter from the Chancellor to Ofcom asking it to review the rules after O2 hiked its price hikes.

We're updating our story as we get more detail: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/new...

00:00 Introduction
00:21 Frozen tax thresholds
00:49 Savings changes
02:30 Energy bill changes
03:43 Salary sacrifice cap
04:18 4.8% State Pension increase
05:10 Two-child benefit cap ending
05:58 Student loan thresholds frozen
06:44 Lifetime ISA consultation
07:43 'Mansion tax'
08:08 O2 price hikes
08:26 EV road tax
08:43 Quick roundup of other changes