But there is some headroom.
National insurance
Stealth taxes such as the frozen income tax thresholds introduced by Sunak when he was chancellor have generated enough income to allow Hunt to cut national insurance payments for both the self-employed and employed workers.
Hunt will abolish class two national insurance payments paid by some 2mn self-employed people in order to qualify for benefits like the state pension, from April 2024.
He said the scrapping of the tax, while still preserving people's entitlement to full access to state pension credits and other benefits, would save self-employed earners £192 a year on average.
Hunt also cut class four national insurance contributions by 1 percentage point to 8 per cent from April, amounting to a saving of £350 a year per person, he said.
In addition he has cut the main rate of employee national insurance to 10 per cent from January, down from 12 per cent, saying "we are delivering the biggest business tax cut to Britain, ever."
But for Shaun Moore, tax and financial planning expert at Quilter, the giveaway does little to make up for the tax grab by stealth under the frozen income tax thresholds.
"Hunt has given workers a minuscule nibble of carrot with his 2p cut to national insurance contributions after they’ve been battered by a stick recently," he says.
"The reality is workers are only £2.68 a week better off due to today’s tax ‘giveaway’ than they would have been, had tax thresholds not been frozen."
According to Quilter, the move gives a person on the average salary of £32,963 an extra £8.60. But in reality they are only getting a benefit of about 50 per cent of this due to the frozen tax bands and fiscal drag, says Moore.
"If we assume the tax bands had increased by 2 per cent over the past four years, someone earning £34,963 should be a further £308.40 better off. Therefore, if you take this off today’s headline saving in tax it is actually only a saving of £139.46 over the year or a rather measly £2.68 a week.
“Hardly life-enhancing, even for those with budgets stretched to breaking point."
Steven Cameron, pensions director at Aegon, agrees the effects of cutting national insurance while freezing income tax thresholds cut are limited.
He says: “While the national insurance cuts directly benefits employees and the self-employed, unlike a cut in income tax rates it won’t benefit those over state pension age (currently 66), who are exempt from national insurance contributions.
But, he adds, "national insurance cuts have the benefit of applying automatically across all of the UK, ensuring equal benefits for all regions such as Scotland.
