Some 3,000 families will benefit to changes in child benefit.

In a move that reverses a policy decision made in 2012 when Eddie Teare was Treasury Minister, the rate for a second child and subsequent children will be increased to the same level as that for the first child.

Including a 5.7% inflationary uplift, this measure is forecast to cost £2.36m.

Pensioners will continue to benefit from the triple-lock arrangement, with the basic state retirement pension and Manx state pension seeing an uplift of 8.5%.

The UK Government recently confirmed that the pensions triple lock arrangement would be remain in place.

Most benefits will rise by 6.7% or 5.7% in line with either the UK or Isle of Man CPI rate at September 2023 – the annual uprating expected to cost £21.8m.

Maternity, paternity and adoption allowances will each increase by 15%, building on last year’s 16.8% rise, and coming at cost of about £0.6m.

Benefits payments continue to gradually rise driven by increasing pension claims.

But revenue funded benefits for 2023-24 are currently forecast to be approximately £6.3m lower than budget.

Incapacity benefit claims have not risen here, despite concerns in the UK around long-Covid claims, the Treasury Minister told a pre-Budget presentation to the media.

The increase of 8.5% to the Manx State Pension and 5.7% to Income Support are the other main contributors to the overall increase in spending on benefits.

Dr Alex Allinson said Tynwald that this year the long-term sustainability of the National Insurance Fund will be further reviewed by Treasury in response to the recently published report by the UK Government actuary’s department.

The NI fund is due to be exhausted by 2047-48 if no action is taken.

But the forecast National Insurance investment income on the external fund for 2024-25 is expected to increase compared to the budget and forecast for 2023-24 and is predicted to continue to grow year on year over the period of the financial plan.

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