With most of the Government's plans for the UK finances leaked to the media before the Chancellor stood up there were few surprises in George Osborne’s 2012 Budget. What was surprising though, was that despite students having to pay the highest tuition fees ever, they were only mentioned once in the Budget.
Image by: Cohdra, USA
So what’s in the 2012 Budget for students?
For those students working themselves through university there was some good news in that the tax threshold, the amount of income at which people start paying tax, will be increased. The tax-free amount goes up to £8150 from April 5th this year and £9205 in 2013.
The other main tax change announced in the 2012 Budget was the slashing the top rate of income tax to 45% for those earning over £150,000. The Chancellor explained to a packed House of Commons that he believed the 5% cut in tax for high earners would make them work harder and longer which, so the Osborne logic goes, actually increases the amount of tax the rich pay overall.
The Chancellor announced a similar idea for businesses and reduced the amount of tax companies pay to 24% the lowest level of tax on business in Europe or the United States. The chancellor is hoping his new low corporation tax, that drops to 22% in 2014, will encourage businessmen to work harder too.
The rate of Income Tax taken from those on lower incomes remains unchanged at 20% and 40%.
There was the usual hike in tobacco duty which increased by 5% above the rate of inflation, but taxes on booze has not been raised above the 2% already planned.
Looking at the wider economy there was little to cheer about. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) predicted tiny economic growth (0.8%), the cost of living rising in 2012 by 2.8% and Government debt sticking at over 120 billion a year for the foreseeable future. Despite these miserable figures the Chancellor expects unemployment to fall.
There was some positive news for universities able to take advantage of the Chancellor’s £100 million investment encouraging private-sector investment in research and development. This change, coupled with changes in the rules to make it easier to patent new ideas, and a promise to speed-up sluggish British broadband, will be welcomed by the UK’s technology universities and go some way to achieving the Chancellor’s aim of making the UK “Europe’s technology centre”. David Willetts, universities and science minister, said: “As part of our drive in bringing together the business, charity and university sectors, this new £100 million investment could bring in upwards of £200 million additional private funding to help stimulate innovation and secure our high-tech future.”
Apart from the Chancellor’s investment in bolstering the links between UK universities and business, there was nothing much in the Budget for students.
Read the 2012 Budget Report (Try to find the word student in the Budget Report, there's one in there somewhere) 
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