As the most expensive and stressful time of the year hurtles towards us, many members of the public (including me) worry about money, inflation, and how we are going to afford it all. The luxuries of Christmas and the costs of enjoying the festive period hang over us all. The word hangover being somewhat apposite here.

With that said, the long-awaited and highly anticipated budget was shared with the public earlier this week, so what can we expect?

Rachel Reeves, who has served as Member of Parliament for Leeds West and Pudsey since as early as 2010, outlined the promises of change to be cutting the cost of living by tackling inflation, cutting waiting times for patients with the NHS, cutting interest rates and aiming to make the tax system fairer and fit for a 21st-century Britain.

Parliament has already begun to deliver on those promises and mandates for change, as the government will provide additional capital investments to roads, rails and also energy at a budget of over £120 billion (whilst also introducing a one-year freeze on rail fare), 170,000 additional homes will be built, 5.2 million NHS appointments will be available and decisive action will be taken to sort out the cost of living and cut down inflation.

Young people specifically will see real change as the minimum wage rises to align with growing costs, increasing by £0.85 an hour for 18–20 year olds, £0.51 for 21 and over, and rising to £8 for apprentices. The welfare system has also seen a huge makeover, as the government intends to rebalance Universal Credit rates, encouraging more people to work, as it won’t pay to be off sick rather than work, and abolishing the two-child limit in order to pull over 450,000 children out of poverty.

The government wants to keep tax low and fair, as the typical low-income family would tend to pay more in council tax than a multi-million-pound property in Westminster, whilst also raising taxes on property, savings income and dividends, and also applying road taxes to electric vehicles via a per-mile levy that those who own these vehicles will have to report themselves.

The budget also includes support for our elders, as they introduce a commitment to the Triple Lock for the duration of this parliament in order to support the incomes of over 12 million pensioners. In April 2026, those pensioners will receive an extra £575 a year, as the State Pension will be uprated by a massive 4.8%.

Overall the budget features tax rises mostly impacting those with higher earnings while proposing some relief measures for lower-income households, such as freezing rail rates and eliminating the two-child benefit cap.

As with all budgets, this is a serious attempt to strike a balance between the increase in spending we've all been demanding and long-term economic stability. Is this the Christmas turkey we've been expecting, or will it be figgy pudding for all? All new socks will have been consigned to the bottom draw and tinsel put away for another year before we really know for sure.