Reform UK leader Nigel Farage (Image: Getty)
Reform UK will increase the tax-free personal allowance to £15,000 if Nigel Farage wins the next general election. Robert Jenrick will pledge to bring in the change in the first 100 days of becoming chancellor in his speech at the party’s conference today.
The tax-free amount has been frozen at £12,570 since 2021 in a major stealth tax and is due to stay at that level until 2031. Mr Jenrick will tell the gathering in Birmingham: “As chancellor, I will wake each morning with one purpose. To make Britain a better place to be a worker than it was the day before.
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“In the first hundred days of a Reform government, in our first Budget, we will raise the tax-free personal allowance from £12,570 to £15,000.”
He is expected to add: “1.3 million were dragged into paying tax last year alone. Why? Because the tax-free allowance has been stuck at 12 and a half grand since 2021. And Labour has frozen it until 2031.
“That betrayal costs a full-time worker on the minimum wage more than £750 a year. And now for the first time, the freeze means they’re going to be taxing the state pension. What a disgrace.”
Robert Jenrick will make the pledge in his conference speech (Image: Getty)
Mr Jenrick will challenge Andy Burnham to match the policy, saying: “The hard choice for Burnham and for us is exactly the same. It’s either welfare waste, foreign aid and migrants – or the British worker. We choose the worker.”
He will add that it remains Reform’s long-term aim to bump up the tax-free amount to £20,000.
He is expected to say: “When we can — only when it is paid for in full — I will go further, step-by-step, until we’ve reached Reform’s ambition of a £20,000 tax free allowance.”
The Prime Minister raised hopes that he could unfreeze the personal allowance shortly after entering 10 Downing Street in July.
He said the issue was “lodged in my mind” after hearing it on the campaign trail during the Makerfield by-election.
But Mr Burnham later said there was no immediate commitment to increase the tax-free amount but that it would be looked at in the Budget.
The PM said: “Well, it’s funny these days you can’t answer a question honestly without then people reading everything else into it.”
He added: “I want to answer questions honestly in this job, as I said before.
“I think that’s all about trust in politics and doing politics differently, and I’m determined to keep working in that way.
“It was raised a lot, but I then went on to say, ‘But we’ll have to look at it at the Budget alongside everything else’. So no commitment, no unfunded promise.
“It’s just perhaps the way politics is these days and the way people report things, but that was an honest answer. There is no commitment at this point to change, but we will look at that at the Budget.”
A Labour Party spokesperson said: “Robert Jenrick only seems to be interested in making people better off when Reform UK are trying to distract from the latest scandal engulfing their party. The public will see right through it.
“Farage and Reform are funding policy after policy through mystery spending cuts, which could put local schools, hospitals and other vital public services at risk.”
Huge £15,000 HMRC personal allowance change promised if Nigel Farage becomes PM
Nigel Farage’s Reform UK has put a major income-tax promise at the centre of its latest economic programme, pledging to increase the tax-free Personal Allowance from £12,570 to £15,000 if the party wins the next general election.
The proposal would mean that workers could earn an additional £2,430 before becoming liable for income tax compared with the current system. Reform has presented the measure as part of its broader attempt to reduce the tax burden on working people and increase disposable incomes.
However, the proposal remains a political commitment rather than a change to HM Revenue & Customs rules. The current Personal Allowance is still £12,570 for the 2026-27 tax year, according to HMRC.
The £15,000 figure has nevertheless become an important part of Reform’s economic message, particularly as the party attempts to demonstrate that it has a detailed programme for government.
What is the Personal Allowance?
The Personal Allowance is the amount of income an individual can receive before paying standard income tax.
For the 2026-27 tax year, the allowance is £12,570. Income above that level is generally subject to income tax, depending on the taxpayer’s circumstances and applicable tax bands.
Under the current system, someone earning £12,570 or less from taxable income does not normally pay income tax because their income is covered by the Personal Allowance.
For someone earning more, the first £12,570 is normally tax-free, while income above that threshold can fall into the basic, higher or additional tax rates.
Reform’s proposal would increase that tax-free threshold to £15,000.
The difference is £2,430.
For a taxpayer who remains within the basic-rate band, an additional £2,430 of tax-free income would represent a potential maximum income-tax reduction of £486 a year, assuming the full additional allowance could be used against income otherwise taxed at 20%.
That is equivalent to approximately £40.50 per month.
The actual benefit would depend on an individual’s income, tax position and other circumstances.
Reform’s £15,000 pledge
The proposal was announced by Robert Jenrick, Reform UK’s Treasury spokesperson, at the party’s annual conference in September.
Jenrick said the party would raise the tax-free allowance to £15,000 if Reform won the next general election.
He also called on Prime Minister Andy Burnham to adopt the same policy in the government’s upcoming Budget.
The announcement was designed to establish a clear contrast between Reform and the government on taxation.
Rather than reducing a particular tax rate, the proposal focuses on the amount of income that is not taxed at all.
That distinction is important politically because it makes the policy relatively easy to explain.
A worker currently receiving £12,570 or more would potentially see the first £15,000 of qualifying income treated as tax-free under the Reform proposal.
But the measure would not mean that someone earning £15,000 receives an additional £15,000 from the government.
It would simply mean that less of their income would be subject to income tax.
How much could taxpayers gain?
The headline increase is £2,430.
For a basic-rate taxpayer, the potential income-tax saving on that additional allowance would be £486 per year.
That calculation assumes a 20% income-tax rate applies to the entire additional amount.
For someone already paying higher-rate tax, the arithmetic could be different depending on how the allowance interacted with the tax bands and the detailed legislation.
There is also an important distinction between income tax and National Insurance.
Increasing the Personal Allowance does not automatically remove National Insurance contributions.
Employees and self-employed people can face different National Insurance rules, thresholds and rates.
Consequently, a £15,000 Personal Allowance should not be interpreted as meaning that somebody earning £15,000 more would necessarily keep every pound of the difference.
Why the proposal matters now
The promise comes against a background of frozen tax thresholds.
HMRC’s current figures show that the Personal Allowance has remained at £12,570 through recent tax years. The government has also legislated to keep the allowance at that level for 2026-27 and 2027-28.
When tax thresholds remain unchanged while wages and prices rise, more people can find themselves paying tax or paying more tax over time.
This phenomenon is commonly described as fiscal drag or a “stealth tax”.
It does not require the government to increase the headline tax rate.
Instead, the unchanged threshold means that rising nominal earnings can push more income into taxation.
Reform’s proposal therefore directly targets one of the thresholds that has remained frozen.
The political challenge for Reform
While the £15,000 figure is easy to communicate, the larger question is how the policy would be financed.
Any government reducing income-tax receipts would need to account for the lost revenue through some combination of spending reductions, higher revenues elsewhere, stronger economic growth or borrowing.
Reform has argued that its wider programme would produce savings and additional revenues that could help finance tax reductions.
The party’s economic plans include significant reductions in government spending and changes to areas including welfare, immigration, energy policy and the public sector.
The exact fiscal consequences would depend on the detailed policies eventually implemented.
This is one reason why a campaign pledge should be distinguished from an enacted tax change.
Before a government could introduce a new Personal Allowance, legislation would need to establish the new threshold and HMRC would have to update the relevant tax arrangements.
It is not a £15,000 payment
Another potential source of confusion is the meaning of the phrase “£15,000 personal allowance”.
The allowance is not a cash payment.
Someone earning £30,000, for example, would not receive £15,000 from HMRC.
Instead, under the proposed system, the first £15,000 of relevant income would be outside the standard income-tax calculation.
The remaining taxable income would then be taxed according to the applicable rates and thresholds.
This is similar in principle to today’s system, where the first £12,570 is generally tax-free.
The proposed change is therefore an increase in the tax-free threshold, not a benefit payment.
What would happen to higher earners?
The Personal Allowance also has an important interaction with high incomes.
Under current HMRC rules, the allowance is reduced by £1 for every £2 of adjusted net income above £100,000. It reaches zero once income reaches £125,140.
A future government increasing the standard allowance would need to decide whether and how those withdrawal thresholds should also change.
That could affect the distributional impact of the policy.
The headline £15,000 figure therefore does not by itself tell the whole story.
Detailed legislation would need to establish how the new allowance interacted with the existing tax bands and the withdrawal mechanism for higher earners.
The wider Reform tax programme
The Personal Allowance proposal is part of a much wider Reform economic programme.
The party has repeatedly argued that Britain needs lower taxation, higher economic growth and significant reductions in government spending.
Its latest conference programme has attempted to link those objectives together.
The party is also trying to demonstrate that its tax promises can be incorporated into a broader plan for government rather than treated as isolated giveaways.
That is particularly important because Reform is attempting to move from being primarily a protest and electoral movement towards presenting itself as a potential governing party.
The £15,000 pledge is consequently about more than the allowance itself.
It is also an attempt to define what Reform believes the relationship between workers and the tax system should look like.
The argument over affordability
Supporters of a higher Personal Allowance can point to the straightforward effect: people keep more of their earnings before income tax begins.
Opponents can focus instead on the cost to the Treasury and the question of how the lost revenue would be replaced.
Both issues are relevant to assessing the proposal.
A tax reduction can increase disposable income for households, but the government must also account for the corresponding reduction in tax receipts.
The final economic effect would depend on how the measure was financed and what taxpayers did with any additional income.
For example, additional disposable income could be saved or spent, while businesses could potentially be affected indirectly by changes in consumer demand.
Those effects would need to be assessed alongside the direct cost to government finances.
What happens if Reform enters government?
If Reform UK eventually formed a government, the £15,000 pledge would still need to move through the normal process of policy implementation.
A Chancellor would need to set out the measure, legislation would need to be passed, and HMRC would need to update tax systems and guidance.
The timing would also matter.
Jenrick has said the party wants to introduce the increase as part of its early programme in government, with the pledge linked to Reform’s broader 100-day agenda.
But until legislation is enacted, the existing £12,570 allowance remains the applicable figure.
That distinction is particularly important for employees and employers planning their finances.
What the proposal means for ordinary workers
For a basic-rate taxpayer able to use the entire additional allowance, the arithmetic is relatively simple.
Moving from £12,570 to £15,000 would create £2,430 more income outside income tax.
At 20%, that represents up to £486 less income tax per year.
The monthly equivalent is around £40.50.
That is the direct mathematical effect of the proposed increase for a taxpayer in that situation.
However, the broader financial impact would depend on National Insurance, other taxes, pension contributions, benefits and individual circumstances.
It would therefore be misleading to describe the proposal as a universal £486 annual payment.
It is a proposed change to the tax threshold.
A significant pledge, but not yet a tax law
The £15,000 Personal Allowance has quickly become one of Reform UK’s most prominent economic promises.
It offers a simple message: increase the amount workers can earn before income tax applies.
At the same time, the proposal raises questions about affordability, the distribution of benefits and how the Treasury would replace the revenue lost from a higher tax-free threshold.
For now, the key fact is that the current Personal Allowance remains £12,570 for 2026-27.
Reform has promised to raise it to £15,000 if it forms the next government.
That would represent a £2,430 increase in the tax-free threshold and, for someone paying basic-rate income tax on the full additional amount, a potential income-tax saving of £486 a year.
Whether the pledge ultimately becomes law would depend on the outcome of the next election, subsequent government decisions and the legislation introduced to implement it.
Until then, the £15,000 figure is a Reform UK commitment rather than a new HMRC rule.