Kevin Peachey
Cost of living correspondent

If you are watching closely to see how the Budget will affect you and your money personally – well, we will help guide you through that today.

But here are a few tips when considering how and when you might feel an impact.

The chancellor will announce a lot that won't come into force immediately. For example, minimum wage rises don’t happen until April. So pay attention to the timings.

Some issues are devolved, so may not affect the whole of the UK.

And there's lots that may not be in the speech but is in the small print of the Budget documents. But, hey, we love the small print so will spend the coming hours and days going through that!

As a reminder, the Budget speech usually starts at about 12:30 GMT and lasts around an hour. Follow all the details live here, and you can also see it on BBC iPlayer.

Conservative Party leader Rishi Sunak will give his response to the Budget as soon as Reeves sits down.

Stay with us for all the details and analysis.

Yasmin Taylor from Kent is a tech consultant and single mother of two young children.

Her biggest outgoing is £2,600 per month on childcare. The children's father also helps with costs.

“I studied and worked hard to get a job that pays a great salary, but I feel like I’m being punished for having children," she says.

Because of her £150,000 salary, Yasmin does not qualify for Child Benefit payments, or help via tax-free childcare or 30 hours free childcare.

She acknowledges that her income classifies her as a high earner, but says: "You still have to pay the gas and the electric and that's gone up a lot."

One of her main concerns is around energy bills this winter. She is also interested in what the chancellor may do on capital gains tax (CGT). Although she is not subject to CGT now, the next step in her career would be to become a partner at her firm, which would involve her buying shares in the company - which may later be subject to CGT if she were to sell them.

Luken Coleman works as a Level 3 business administration apprentice for a recruitment agency, earning about £1,500 a month. Previously he worked in shops and in manual labour jobs.

He works full-time Monday to Friday and goes to college one day a month.

Luken lives in Newbury with his parents and pays them £200 a month rent. While he pays all his own bills, he cannot afford to move out and says he would like to see apprentices get paid more.

"The average rent where I live is between £700 to £900 per month. If I did move out, I'd have to move further away, so I'd need a car."

As someone nearing his mid-20s, he says it can feel like you're not achieving much when you are still living at home.

"It's a mental health thing. Money-wise, apprentices are paid less because you are learning on the job, but it can make you feel less about yourself when you are not fully independent.”

The minimum hourly pay rate for apprentices is set to go up in April, but Luken's apprenticeship is due to end in December so the change won't affect him.

When his apprenticeship ends he is hoping to be kept on by his company, but is open to other opportunities.

Read more here on what people want from the Budget.

We’ve been speaking to people with a range of incomes about what they want from the Budget and how they think they could be impacted.

Blogger and web developer Andrew Cunningham lives with his husband in Glasgow. He describes themselves as "middle earners but diligent savers" who have been investing in their individual savings accounts (ISAs) and their pensions to fund their retirement.

He is concerned about rumours that there might be a cap on the amount of money you can hold tax-free in an ISA in the Budget. "That would hit us and would be a massive disincentive to save."

He is also worried that any flat rate introduced on pension tax relief would hit middle earners. As he is self-employed, Andrew has set up a self-invested personal pension. A single rate tax relief would mean less money going into his pension.

"We are living our lives assuming we won’t get a state pension when we get to pension age, at least not in the form it is now," he says, pointing out that spending on the state pension has grown over the years as a percentage of the government's budget.

He thinks in years to come, the government might have to raise the state pension age again, or cut the amount of benefit you get.

Read more here.

Ben Howard and his wife Sarah from Bristol are expecting their first child in February. They have a joint income of £100,000.

In September, their mortgage repayments went up by 60% to £1,400. Ben says they're "comfortable", but thinks the government should do more around the cost of childcare, because in some cases, "it's more efficient for [parents] not to work".

"But that puts us back in terms of what our career aspirations are."

Ben is not fully convinced that Labour will keep its promise of not raising taxes on “working people”.

"Am I going to see tax on my pension contributions, any kind of stealth tax?"

He expects to be worse off after Budget day. "They're going very big on business and growing the economy, and I get that, but nothing's resonating with me and my pay packet."

Read more: What is a ‘working person’, according to Labour?

Mum-of-two Hannah Clarke from Rutland in the East Midlands was juggling two part-time jobs but recently started studying full-time for a midwifery degree. She also works six to eight hours a week as a beauty technician.

She takes home about £1,800 a month, mostly via a student loan which she doesn't pay tax on. She says this just about covers her mortgage payments, which went up by a third earlier this year, bills and fuel.

“I just about make ends meet, but it isn't easy and I do sometimes have to ask for help," she says.

She would like free school meals to not be means tested but failing that, says the eligibility threshold should be lowered.

She also says if fuel duty goes up then the extra cost per litre of petrol or diesel "should absolutely not be passed on to drivers".

BBC News has been speaking to people with a range of incomes about what they want from the Budget and, in some cases, how they fear they could be impacted. Read more here.

Today's Budget will reveal how much tax each of us will pay and how much the government will spend on key services such as schools, transport, and the NHS.

BBC News has been speaking to people with a range of incomes about what they want from the Budget and, in some cases, how they fear they could be impacted.

Up next, we'll be bringing you some of what they had to say.

Dharshini David
Chief economics correspondent

Spreadsheets, snacks, back editions, earpiece, makeup, post-its, notebook, eye drops for squinting at the fine print …and trainers for running between studios. This is my Budget day battle kit, honed over more years and red books than I want to admit to.

Prepped (as we can) be for a day of wading through numbers and hundreds of pages, frantically drafting scripts and graphics - and on-air analysis.

Now just need the actual details…

We can bring you some images now of Cabinet members arriving at Downing Street ahead of today's Budget.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, PA Media

Image source, Reuters

Image source, PA Media

How is the UK economy looking?published at 09:03 Greenwich Mean Time 30 October

09:03 GMT 30 October

Dharshini David
Chief economics correspondent

The warnings of a painful Budget may have dominated but the good news is the economy is in better shape than expected in the spring.

The first half of this year saw an emphatic bounce back from 2023's short-lived recession, making the UK a top performer amongst major economies. For those reasons the independent forecasters, the Office for Budget Responsibility, will upgrade their predictions for growth this year. And with the spike in inflation behind us, the next interest rate cut is expected next week.

But that’s not to say it’s plain sailing ahead. That recovery has lost momentum as we enter the second half of this year, as businesses and households continue to grapple with higher costs, and some of the latter are exposed to a jump in interest repayments as they re-fix mortgages.

So while the Chancellor may be able to unveil a solid set of growth forecasts, they will be far from sparkling, a fraction of the growth UK enjoyed on average prior to 2008's financial crisis, meaning we're each thousands worse off than we could have been.

Rachel Reeves plans to reboot public investment to boost growth. However, such projects take time to deliver - and the results can be uncertain.

The Treasury has shared some photos of Chancellor Reeves preparing for the budget over the last week:

Image source, HM Treasury

Image source, HM Treasury

Image source, HM Treasury

This Budget will set the political landscape for years to comepublished at 08:49 Greenwich Mean Time 30 October

08:49 GMT 30 October

Chris Mason
Political editor

This will be a big Budget. Big tax rises, big borrowing, big spending.

And big politically – because it will set the political landscape for the years to come.

Expect a lot of talk from Rachel Reeves about what she will call "choices".

Her team see it as a "once in a generation" Budget, where its scale, it is claimed, matches the scale of the challenge they face.

Which is code for the country's in a mess and they think it's going to cost a lot to fix it.

The extent to which it is - and whether billions of pounds more of taxpayers' money are the solution - are the open questions.

• Read Chris Mason's full analysis ahead of the Budget here.

The chancellor has confirmed ahead of today's Budget that minimum wages will rise in April, with hourly rates for over-21s set to go up to £12.21 an hour.

Rachel Reeves said the pay boost marked a "significant step" towards achieving Labour’s promise of a "genuine living wage" for workers. It means:

• The minimum wage for over 21s, known officially as the National Living Wage, will rise by 6.7%, from £11.44 to £12.21 from April 2025. This year, it increased to £11.44 an hour, from £10.42
• For 18 to 20-year-olds, the minimum wage will rise from £8.60 to £10. In April this year, the rate was increased from £7.49
• Apprentices will get the biggest pay bump, from £6.40 to £7.55 an hour. Prior to this year, it was £5.28

The Treasury said a big hike in the minimum wage for under-21s - the largest on record - marked the first step towards a single rate for all adults.

A cafe owner in Pudsey, Leeds, says the increased cap on single bus fares - from £2 to £3 - will hit her customers hard. Her cafe, Scrumdiddlyumptious, sits opposite the bus station.

Adele Duncan tells the BBC: "That's extra money they have to find and it means they will have less to spend in here.

"I've run the business for a couple of years and it's been really hard and I'm worried it's going to get even harder," she adds.

Adele says she wants to see Chancellor Rachel Reeves extend business rates relief, which is due to end at the end of March next year.

She tells the BBC she sometimes ends up working 13 hour days, five days a week, as she can't afford to employ anyone else - especially as the minimum wage is increasing.

A beauty salon owner in Chelmsford says the planned rise in minimum wage - which will increase the wage of apprentices - will leave hairdressers suffering.

"Being in the hair and beauty industry, I know hairdressers are going to suffer significantly with their apprentice rises. There is big need for apprentices but it’s also unskilled labour," Chloe Ahmed tells BBC Radio 5 Live.

"I’ve got one apprentice. So yes it will have an effect but that effect is manageable. When you have 10 apprentices, that’s a difference kettle of fish," she says.

She says despite rising costs, there's a limit to how much her salon can raise its prices. Chloe would like to see a hike in the threshold at which businesses pay VAT - but says she's "certain" this won't happen in the next five years.

One of the measures we've already heard is coming in the Budget is an increase in the single bus fare cap, applied to many routes in England, from £2 to £3.

But in Manchester, where the buses are operated under a newly-introduced locally-controlled system, a £2 cap will remain in place.

Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham tells BBC Breakfast that buses outside of areas like London and Manchester are "deregulated" and it's "quite expensive to subsidise fares in that system".

He argues that when buses are under public control the money they raise does not go to private operators' profits but instead can be used to subsidise fares.

Asked what he would like to see from the Budget, he says he wants to see new rail infrastructure for the north of England and that there is a need to "get serious about the housing crisis and start building council homes right across the country".

At the election, Labour promised not to increase taxes on "working people" and said it would not raise VAT, income tax or National Insurance (NI).

But after warning about "difficult decisions" to be made about the country’s finances, here are some other changes the Budget could set out:

• Capital gains tax: There has been speculation that these rates could be increased but the prime minister appeared to dismiss suggestions of a rise to as much as 39%
• Inheritance tax: It is thought changes to a number of exemptions which affect how much inheritance tax people have to pay are being considered
• Fuel duty: Fuel duty was frozen between 2012 and 2022, and cut by 5p in March 2022 when pump prices surged following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Some motoring groups argue the cut was never passed on to motorists and the RAC says it could be reversed

• Non-dom tax status: Labour has said it wants to toughen the existing plans, although these plans might be reconsidered amid worries they could bring in less money than expected
• National Insurance contributions by employers: At the moment companies do not pay NI on pension contributions they make for staff, but reports have suggested this could change

Read more about what might be in the Budget here.

Dharshini David
Chief economics correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

The government typically spends more than its income, the difference funded by borrowing on financial markets via bonds. The interest rate on those, bond yields, is influenced by perceptions of the government’s creditworthiness, the riskiness of its plans.

The big giveaway in Liz Truss’ government’s mini-Budget in 2022 saw those rates soar, reflecting concerns about the size of the tax cuts, and what that meant for the amount the government had to borrow - plus a lack of oversight from the official independent forecasting body. That triggered a temporary spike in the related cost of new fixed rate mortgages.

Most governments set themselves rules, to try to keep those rates down by demonstrating responsibility.

Rachel Reeves will confirm two new rules. Like Jeremy Hunt, she wants the public debt built up over time relative to income to be falling in five years time. But by tweaking the definition of debt, she intends to borrow billions more. However, she hopes that won’t lead to a surge in borrowing costs by not taking up the full amount of borrowing space on offer. And crucially such borrowing is only for investment projects like roads, which aim to boost growth.

For her second rule will be that day-to-day public services will have to be funded through income such as tax in five years time.

For a chancellor, credibility has a price tag attached.

A couple of big ticket changes which would usually come out in the annual Budget statement have already been announced - shortly after Labour came to power in the summer:

• Minimum wage: The National Living Wage paid to over-21s will go up by 6.7% in April 2025, while the National Minimum Wage for 18 to 20-year-olds will see a 16% increase
• Bus fare cap: The single bus fare cap applied to many routes in England will be raised to £3. It is an increase on the current limit of £2
• Winter fuel payments: The government has said future payments will only be made to those getting pension credit or other means-tested help
• State pension: The state pension is expected to rise by 4.1% in April 2025
• VAT on private schools: The government has said VAT will be added to private school fees from 1 January. Some private schools will lose business rates relief.
• Energy windfall tax: The energy profits levy is due to rise to 38% from 35% on 1 November, external, external, and will remain in place until 31 March 2030.

Find out more here.