Autumn Statement: Energy price cap increase dampens Hunt’s ‘tax cuts’ as he denies pre-election handout – live

Jeremy Hunt and work and pensions secretary Mel Stride have launched a new crackdown on benefit claimants who do not find work within 18 months, Archie Mitchell reports.

The chancellor and Mr Stride will cut payments by thousands of pounds to those who do not comply with new rules.

But ministers have been criticised for trying to “punish” disabled people and those with mental health issues back into work by encouraging them to work from home.

The government has also been slammed for threatening to cut off free prescriptions and dental treatment, help from energy suppliers and cheaper mobile phone packages for those on universal credit.

Mr Hunt said the measures will halve the number of people who are signed off work with no requirement to look for work.

Those who do not find a job after 18 months will then be given six months before their payments are cut off.

The wine and spirits industry has welcomed the freeze to alcohol duty, saying it comes as “a huge relief” to a sector that has “taken a battering”.

Wine and Spirit Trade Association chief executive Miles Beale said: “The alcohol duty freeze comes as a huge relief to wine and spirit businesses and the hospitality sector who have taken a battering over the last few years.

“Following the introduction of an entirely new alcohol tax regime and huge hike in August, the latest data shows a worrying decline in sales, which concerns businesses of all sizes and which would result in less revenue for the Exchequer.

“A second duty rise would have been disastrous.

“We are pleased that the frustrations of consumers, who are fed up with never ending price rises, and of businesses struggling with the cost and complexities of the new system have been heeded.

“These are ongoing concerns about the impact of the new regime, which need to be kept under review. We implore the chancellor and his team to lock in the freeze until at least the end of this parliament. This will keep people in jobs and mean consumers will still be able to enjoy a drink at a price they can afford.”

Jeremy Hunt has announced a cut to national insurance in a boost to around 28 million people, Archie Mitchell reports.

Despite saying only two months ago that slashing tax rates was “virtually impossible”, Mr Hunt has reduced the rate of the levy by two percentage points.

For those who earn less than £12,570 a year, it will make no difference because the lowest-paid don’t pay into National Insurance.

Workers earning up to £50,200 currently pay 12 per cent in national insurance, while the self-employed pay 9 per cent.

But it means somebody on the average salary of £35,000 will save more than £450 a year

Rich Henderson, CEO at Homeless Link, the membership body for homeless services in England said, he was "pleased" that Jeremy Hunt had uplifted the Local Housing Allowance, Holly Bancroft reports.

"It’s no secret that homelessness and rough sleeping are spiralling while local authority and charity services are buckling under the pressure. Raising LHA will at least mean people on low incomes have more breathing space, allowing them to access more affordable housing options while helping prevent homelessness caused by rent arrears," he said.

He criticised increased benefit sanctions, saying they are "not effective in helping people into work".

Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, is responding to the autumn statement.

She says nothing that has been announced today will compensate for years of Tory “failure”.

Rachel Reeves has lashed out at Jeremy Hunt’s autumn statement, saying “nothing that has been announced today will compensate” for years of Tory failure.

“The centrepiece of today’s autumn statement is a cut in the headline rate of national insurance,” the shadow chancellor said.

She added: “I’m old enough to remember when the Prime Minister wanted to put up national insurance as recently as January last year.”

“It was a tax on working people, and we opposed it for that very reason,” Ms Reeves said.

Disability charity Sense has criticised Jeremy Hunt for "heaping pressure onto disabled people to find work", Holly Bancroft reports.

They said the autumn statement had "given with one hand and taken away with the other".

Although they praised the uprating of benefits with inflation, chief executive Richard Kramer said it "doesn’t address the fact that payments are currently too low for many disabled people to live healthy, dignified lives".

Crisis have welcomed the chancellor’s decision to uprate housing benefit for the first time in three years, saying it is "in the short term, the single biggest step the chancellor could take to prevent and end homelessness for tens of thousands of households”, Holly Bancroft reports.

“The three-year freeze on housing benefit has had devastating and far-reaching consequences, with people on the lowest incomes being completely priced out of renting," chief executive Matt Downie said.

However he warned: “While the chancellor’s decision to tackle homelessness in the short-term is a positive step, there is no room for complacency. The next UK government must sustain this investment, otherwise we will see homelessness rise again.”

The director of influential think tank the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has said Jeremy Hunt’s spending plans are “not good for growth”.

Just minutes after the chancellor took to his feet in the commons to set out plans to revive Britain’s flatlining economy, Paul Johnson slammed Mr Hunt’s cash freeze in public sector investment.

Mr Johnson said: “The chancellor just announced a long term cash freeze in investment spending. That's a significant real cut of course.

“We already have public sector investment well below that in most comparable countries. That is not good for growth.”

Speaking in the Commons following the autumn statement, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said: “Today the chancellor has lifted the lid on 13 years of economic failure.

“The chancellor claims that the economy has turned a corner, yet the truth is under the Conservatives growth has hit a dead end.

“What has been laid bare today is the full scale of the damage that this government has done to our economy over 13 years.”

Working people are “worse off” despite the government’s promises, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves told the Commons.

After describing the “damage” caused by the Conservatives, she said: “Nothing that has been announced today will remotely compensate.

“Mortgages rising, taxing eating into wages. Inflation high, with prices still going up in the shops. Public services on their knees. And too many families struggling to make ends meet.

“As the sun begins to set on this divided, out-of-touch, weak Government, the only conclusion that the British people will reach is this: after 13 years of Conservatives the economy is simply not working, and despite all the promises today, working people are still worse off.”