What the Autumn Budget 2026 means for you

Here's what to expect.

On 2 October the average litre of diesel in the UK cost more than £2 for the first time, according to the RAC. Four weeks later, on Wednesday 28 October, the Chancellor, John Healey, stands up to deliver the Autumn Budget, and the question most households are asking isn't about fiscal rules. It's simpler than that: will filling the car, heating the house and getting through January cost more?

Some of the answer is already settled, some will be decided on Wednesday, and quite a lot of it won't reach your bank balance until April. I've gone through what's fixed, what's likely, what it means for drivers, workers, pensioners and anyone with an energy bill, and the practical things worth doing now. I'll update this page on Budget day once the documents are out.

When is the Budget?

The Chancellor set the date in July: Wednesday 28 October. The time isn't announced in advance, but Budget statements usually follow Prime Minister's Questions, at about 12:30pm. Once he sits down, the Office for Budget Responsibility publishes its forecasts for the economy and the public finances, and the Treasury puts the full documents on GOV.UK that afternoon.

The headline announcements rarely take effect that day. Income tax and National Insurance changes usually start with the new tax year on 6 April 2027. Duties can move sooner: at the last Budget, tobacco duty rose from 6pm the same evening. Fuel duty is the one to watch if you want to know what changes before spring.

The background matters because it limits what the Chancellor can do. Inflation rose to 3.5% in September, up from 3.1% in August, with petrol and diesel the biggest push, and the Bank of England's rate is 3.75%, with its next decision on 5 November. The Resolution Foundation reckons the Chancellor's room within his borrowing rules has halved since March, from £24bn to £12bn, mainly because the government's borrowing costs have gone up. Less room means harder choices on tax and spending, and those choices are what Wednesday settles.

What's already settled

These hold unless the Budget changes them, and several shape your money whatever Wednesday brings.

• Income tax thresholds stay frozen until April 2031. The tax-free personal allowance is £12,570 and the 40% band starts at £50,270 (Scotland sets its own bands). The Prime Minister has said the allowance will be looked at in this Budget without promising a change, and has pledged to keep the manifesto promise not to raise the rates of income tax, VAT or National Insurance.
• There's no VAT on household electricity in England, Scotland and Wales until 31 March 2027. The cut from 5% to 0% started on 1 October and is worth about £45 a year to a typical home. Gas still carries 5%, and so does electricity in Northern Ireland.
• The energy price cap is £1,723 a year for a typical home paying by direct debit, until 31 December.
• The 5p fuel duty cut runs until 31 December. Unless the Budget changes it, duty then rises from 52.95p to 55.95p a litre on 1 January and to 57.95p on 1 March.
• The cash ISA limit falls to £12,000 for under-65s from 6 April 2027. The overall ISA allowance stays at £20,000.
• The Plan 2 student loan threshold is frozen at £29,385 until April 2030.
• From January 2027, new rules make subscriptions easier to cancel, with reminders before renewals and a way out online if you signed up online.

What could change on Wednesday

These are the decisions people are waiting on. None is confirmed until the Chancellor says it. If you'd rather watch than read, the London Standard's explainer from 22 October runs through the main ones in under three minutes.

State pension. Under the triple lock, the state pension rises each April by whichever is highest of September's inflation, earnings growth or 2.5%. Earnings grew 3.9% in the three months to July, beating inflation's 3.5%, so the full new state pension is on course to rise from £241.30 to about £250.70 a week. That's roughly £13,000 a year, which would take it above the personal allowance for the first time. The Treasury has said that people whose only income is the full new or basic state pension won't pay income tax on it from April 2027, with how that works due on Wednesday. The Prime Minister has also said the triple lock stays for the rest of this Parliament.

Benefits. By law, most disability and carer benefits must rise at least in line with prices, so by at least 3.5% from April. Other working-age benefits are the government's call; last year they went up with September's inflation. The Universal Credit standard allowance follows its own law, which adds a set percentage on top of inflation each year until 2029-30.

The minimum wage. The National Living Wage is £12.71 an hour, and the Low Pay Commission sends its advice for April 2027 to the government by the end of October. Its own working range runs from £13.02 to £13.34, with £13.18 in the middle.

Fuel duty. The RAC has asked for the cut to be extended and increased, or for VAT on fuel to come down the way it did for electricity. Whether January's rise goes ahead is the decision drivers will feel first.

Help with energy bills. The Warm Home Discount takes £150 off the electricity bill, and the Financial Times has reported plans to raise it to £250 for people on benefits, and the London Standard's explainer above puts it at £300. On 21 October the Prime Minister also asked ministers to look at taking standing charges off gas bills. The average gas standing charge is 29.68p a day, about £108 a year, but nothing has been decided.

First-time buyers. A proposed Your First Home scheme in England is expected to help first-time buyers of new-build homes from participating developers with a 2.5% deposit and a government-backed equity loan of 20% of the price. The costs, price caps and dates are due at the Budget.

Property. The extra yearly charge on homes in England worth £2m or more starts in April 2028, from £2,500 a year up to £7,500 above £5m, paid by owners. On 11 October the Chancellor was reported to have decided against bringing that threshold down to £1.5m.

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What it means for your household

Most of this lands in January and April rather than next week, which gives you time to plan. This is the order it arrives in, as things stand before Wednesday.

• 1 January 2027: fuel duty is due to rise 3p a litre, the new energy cap starts and the new subscription rules begin.
• 1 March 2027: fuel duty is due to rise another 2p a litre.
• 31 March 2027: VAT-free household electricity ends in Great Britain.
• April 2027: the new minimum wage starts, the state pension and benefits rise, and the cash ISA limit for under-65s falls to £12,000.
• April 2028: the yearly charge on homes in England worth £2m or more starts.
• April 2031: income tax thresholds stay frozen until then.

Before the detail, I'd like to know what's weighing on you most.

If you drive

If the default rises go ahead, a litre costs 3.6p more from 1 January and 6p more from 1 March, once VAT is added to the duty. On a 55-litre tank that's about £2 more from January and £3.30 more from March. In the government's weekly figures for the week of 19 October, diesel averaged 199.33p and petrol 174.57p.

Prices vary more between forecourts than the national average suggests. Since 8 October, Google Maps has shown near real-time pump prices from the government's Fuel Finder scheme, under which forecourts have to report a price change within 30 minutes. The government reckons comparing prices saves a car-owning household around £40 a year, and Waze, the RAC and several other apps use the same data.

If you pay energy bills

The cap moves again on 1 January, and the forecasts have climbed through October. On 30 September Cornwall Insight forecast £1,999 a year for a typical home, 16% more than now. By 21 October the average of British Gas, EDF and E.ON's predictions, gathered by Uswitch, was a 26% rise, which by my sum is about £2,170 a year, or £37 a month more than now. Ofgem confirms the real figure by 25 November, and the VAT-free electricity ends on 31 March unless the Budget extends it.

The cap only covers standard variable tariffs, so if you're on a fixed deal, January's rise reaches you when the fix ends. People with a fix ending soon have been weighing this up on r/UKPersonalFinance. In one thread this month, most replies said to stay on the cheaper fix while it lasts but watch new fixes closely, because their prices change daily rather than waiting for the cap date, and one person said their supplier let them sign up to their next fix early.

In another thread, the clearest advice was to add up a whole year's cost for each deal, standing charges and exit fees included, rather than assuming a longer fix is better. The comparison below takes your postcode and how much you use, then puts the cheapest tariff I hold beside staying on the cap, with the unit rates and standing charges shown.

If you work

With the thresholds frozen, a pay rise pulls more of your income into tax each year, and more people cross into the 40% band at £50,270. The take-home pay calculator shows what you keep after income tax, National Insurance, student loan and pension, by the year, month and week. If you're repaying a student loan, the repayments calculator does the same for that.

If you're retired

A full new state pension about £490 a year higher is good news, but because it would sit above the personal allowance, anyone with even a small workplace or private pension on top could find more of that taxed. HMRC usually collects it through your pension's tax code, so it's worth checking the code on your pension payslip in April.

If you save or have a mortgage

In September, three of the Bank of England's nine rate-setters voted to raise its rate to 4%, and the next decision is on 5 November. If it does go up, savings rates could edge up with it and new fixed mortgage deals could cost more. If your fixed deal ends in the next six months, it's worth talking to your lender or a fee-free broker now rather than in the spring. For savers, this tax year, which runs to 5 April 2027, is the last in which under-65s can put the full £20,000 into a cash ISA.

Ten down-to-earth ways to get ready

None of this needs a spreadsheet. Most of it is an hour or two over the next couple of months.

1. Wait for the detail before reacting. The speech gives the headlines; the documents give the dates. Very little changes on Wednesday night, and GOV.UK's summary the next morning is the clearest place to see what applies to you.
2. Fill up before 1 January if duty rises, without stockpiling. A full tank bought on 31 December saves you a couple of pounds; cans in the garage aren't worth the risk.
3. Send a meter reading on 1 January. If you're on the capped tariff without a working smart meter, a reading on or just before the day the cap changes means December's use isn't billed at January's rates. Citizens Advice suggests sending one every month anyway, to keep bills accurate.
4. Check whether you get the Warm Home Discount. In England and Wales it comes automatically if, on 23 August, you or your partner got Universal Credit, Housing Benefit, income-related ESA or Pension Credit and one of your names is on the electricity bill, with letters going out from late October. In Scotland some people get it automatically and others have to apply to their supplier. It isn't available in Northern Ireland.
5. Know your real monthly pay. Running your salary through the take-home pay calculator once the April changes are known is the quickest way to see what the Budget means for you.
6. Go through two months of bank statements for subscriptions. List every regular payment and cancel anything you haven't used in a month. If you want to know whether a membership is still good value, what it costs has the plans and the price rises we've recorded for many of the common ones.
7. Find your April phone and broadband rise. Contracts signed since 17 January 2025 have to state any rise in pounds and pence, so it's in your contract. If you're out of contract, ask for a better price or look at SIM-only plans. Anyone in a household on Universal Credit can get a broadband social tariff, and the big providers take Pension Credit and several other benefits too.
8. Set the Christmas total before you shop. Decide the whole amount, split it between people, then buy. The government is consulting this autumn on banning fake "was" prices, but until then it pays to check how a price has moved before trusting a "was" price. My Black Friday guide has a simple way to keep your own price record.
9. Put every renewal date in your calendar. Car and home insurance, breakdown cover, broadband and your mortgage end date, each with a reminder a month ahead, so you're never rolled on to a renewal price by default.
10. Keep a small buffer. Even £20 a month set aside from now softens a January bill rise.

The social tariffs below are the cheapest broadband ones I hold, with who can get them.

Before you start cutting, it helps to know where your own line is.

If money is already tight

If you're behind on bills or worried about debt, free, confidential help is a phone call away. MoneyHelper, Citizens Advice and StepChange all help for free and won't sell you anything. A benefits check is worth ten minutes too: the free calculators from Turn2us and entitledto show what you could be missing.

For people over State Pension age, Pension Credit matters most, because getting it opens the door to other help, including the Warm Home Discount, Cold Weather Payments and a free TV licence at 75 and over. A claim can be backdated up to three months.

What I'm watching on Wednesday

For most households the Budget comes down to three numbers: what January does to fuel duty, whether the electricity VAT cut and energy help go further, and where the thresholds land for April. I'll update this page with each one once the documents are published, and the figures above will change with it.

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