The new tax year started on 6 April and, as ever, a bundle of changes kicked in at once. Some are quiet wins. Some are quiet losses. Most of the headline coverage focuses on what was announced — what matters is what shows up in your bank account.
So here's the practical version: what changed, what stayed the same, and what to do about it.
Energy bills: a real £117 saving
This is the cheerful one. Ofgem's quarterly price cap for 1 April to 30 June 2026 fell to £1,641 a year for a typical dual-fuel household paying by Direct Debit — down 6.6% from £1,758 in the previous quarter. That's roughly £10 a month back in your pocket if you're on a standard variable tariff.
Three things drove the drop: wholesale gas prices fell about £38 a year, the Government moved the Warm Home Discount and a related social scheme off bills (saving households roughly £150), and offset against that, network upgrade costs rose by about £66.
The cap doesn't apply to fixed deals. If you fixed a tariff last year, this drop doesn't affect you until your fix ends — but it does mean the comparison sites are about to get more interesting. Worth a 10-minute switch check in May.
Child Benefit: a 3.8% rise — but the income trap is still there
Child Benefit rates rose with September's CPI inflation reading, as they do every April:
| What | 2025/26 | From 6 Apr 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eldest or only child (per week) | £26.05 | £27.05 | +£1.00 |
| Each additional child (per week) | £17.25 | £17.90 | +£0.65 |
| Family with 2 children, per year | £2,253 | £2,337 | +£84 |
The catch — and it's a familiar one — is the High Income Child Benefit Charge. If the higher earner in your household has an adjusted net income above £60,000, you'll start paying some of it back through tax. Above £80,000, you pay it all back. The thresholds haven't moved this year.
If you're sitting just over £60k, this is one of the most easily-fixed traps in the UK tax system: an extra pension contribution that gets your adjusted net income back below £60,000 means you keep both the full Child Benefit and the marginal tax relief on the contribution. For higher-rate taxpayers with two kids, the effective relief on a £5,000 pension top-up can exceed 70%.
Income tax thresholds: still frozen
The Personal Allowance stays at £12,570. The higher-rate threshold stays at £50,270. The additional-rate threshold stays at £125,140. None of these have moved since April 2022, and the Treasury has confirmed they're frozen until April 2031.
This is what's politely called fiscal drag and rather less politely called a stealth tax. Wages rise with inflation; thresholds don't. Every year, more people get pulled into higher brackets without anyone formally raising rates. The Office for Budget Responsibility expects roughly 4 million more people to be paying higher-rate tax by 2028 than would have been if thresholds had risen with inflation.
If your salary went up this year and you've crossed £50,270, you'll feel it in April's payslip. The portion of your raise above the threshold pays 40% income tax plus 2% National Insurance — so for every £1 of pay rise above £50,270, you keep 58p.
National Insurance: unchanged
The main rate of employee NI stays at 8% on earnings between £12,570 and £50,270, then 2% above. No changes from last year. Employers got their headline-grabbing increase in April 2025 (rate up to 15%, threshold down to £96/week) — that's still bedding in, with some employers passing the cost through to wages or hiring decisions.
Mortgage rates: still waiting
The Bank of England base rate sits at 3.75%. The Monetary Policy Committee meets next on 30 April 2026, and markets are split — wholesale fuel costs from the Iran conflict have pushed inflation higher than the path the Bank wanted, so the rate cuts traders priced in last winter look less certain.
Average two-year fixed rates for a 75% loan-to-value mortgage are around the high-fours; five-year fixes a touch lower. If your fix ends this year, the practical advice hasn't changed: don't drift onto your lender's standard variable rate (typically 7%+), and check brokered rates against your lender's loyalty deal — the gap's been closing but isn't gone.
What to actually do this month
- Check your tax code. A standard 1257L is most common. If yours is different and you don't know why, the HMRC app shows the live version in 30 seconds.
- Take 10 minutes on energy. If you're on a default tariff and haven't compared in a year, check whether a fix beats the new lower cap for your usage.
- If you're near £60k or £100k, look at pensions. The HICBC trap and the personal-allowance taper are the two highest-marginal-rate zones in UK tax. A pension top-up can be worth 60–70p per £1 in real money.
- Don't ignore your mortgage. If your fix ends in 2026, get a broker quote 6 months before. Most lenders let you lock in 6 months ahead and switch if rates fall.
None of this is exciting. The point of a tax year reset is rarely the headline numbers — it's the boring half-hour of admin that actually moves money.