"UK Budget: Hunt's Reforms Aim to Boost Economy and Work Incentives"

UK Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt announced a mix of childcare and pension reforms to boost the country's stagnating economy, along with corporate tax breaks to boost weak business investment. Hunt extended help for households hit hard by soaring energy bills and froze a tax on vehicle fuel. He also expanded free childcare to children under two in England as a way to get more parents of young children into work. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said it was hard to judge the impact of Hunt's attempts to get more workers into the jobs market and it warned that the share of people in work or looking for it was set to hit a 23-year low next year before rising.