Yet the Government remains strapped for cash.
The national debt continues to grow, while the annual fiscal deficit is colossal.
This financial year alone, the Treasury is expected to fork out £116billion just in interest payments, far more than the expenditure of most Whitehall departments.
This week, it was announced the Government was forced to borrow £27billion in December 2022, the highest total for that month since records began.
Weighed down by these vast liabilities, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has resorted to drastic measures, such as freezing income tax thresholds and putting up corporation tax.
But now he and his Treasury team are reported to be contemplating an even more significant measure in the long-term drive to balance the books.
According to news reports yesterday, Hunt’s March Budget may include a proposal to bring forward by 11 years the planned rise in the state pension age from 67 to 68.
By law, this rise is due to be imposed in 2046, but some in the Treasury want this change to happen much earlier, in 2035.
IT IS EASY to see why those in charge of the state coffers would welcome such a move, given that every increase in the pension age by a year is estimated to save the government annually £9billion.
This story is from the January 26, 2023 edition of Daily Express.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the January 26, 2023 edition of Daily Express.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Clamour grows for Kid Kobbie to be main man
ENGLAND manager Gareth Southgate is facing growing calls to pick Kobbie Mainoo for Euro 2024.
Red-carded Reid is fined for vile rant at official
STEVEN REID escaped with a £5,000 fine and two-game touchline ban, despite the Nottingham Forest coach’s extraordinary foul-mouthed outburst at a referee.
GARETH HAS MUCH TO PONDER
Choosing squad is toughest job of all
'We've not hit the heights of 2017 but it can happen again'
FINAL SURVIVOR MCSHANE IS BACK TO BOOST CASTLEFORD
Friends reunited
FRANKIE DETTORI and John Gosden were reunited at Meydan ahead of Saturday’s Dubai World Cup fixture.
Police review handling of Rayner home sale claims after Tory MP complains
POLICE are looking into how it investigated claims Angela Rayner broke electoral law in a house sale row.
'If assisted dying were an option, he would have wanted it...'
Ex-nurse backs law change after seeing husband suffer
£80k for couple whose Arctic trip was sunk...by the cold
Globe-trotting pensioners win court fight over holiday
First bridge dead named
SHIP CRASH PILOT'S DESPERATE BID TO SAVE LIVES
Children in Gaza playing among '5,000 unexploded bombs' warns British expert
AN ex-Army specialist sent to Gaza to help locate unexploded bombs has called for an immediate ceasefire, saying children are playing among 5,000 devices left in the ruins.