Tomorrow’s Budget is expected to contain measures intended to coax young people on benefits into training or employment.

Under 23s will stop receiving unemployment benefit unless they join a Youth Guarantee programme, through which young people go through a tailored training programme aimed at improving job prospects.

The measure will also apply to single parents whose children are one year and older. They will lose their entitlement of some €100 a week, known colloquially as ‘relief’, unless they join the training initiative.

The measures are intended to underpin the theme for this Budget which is meant to employ a carrot and stick approach to encourage work.

Wine drinkers are in for an excise tax of 20 cents per litre, a move resisted in previous years to protect the local industry. Spirits, however, are not expected to be affected.

There will also be a one-time top-up for those who are at the lower end of the income scale to compensate for this year’s low cost of living adjustment, which works out at just 58 cents a week.

There will also be incentives to encourage young single parents to join the labour market.  Moreover, employers who hire single parents or switch them to full-time employment will be given a cash refund equivalent to the salary of their workers. 

As expected, the maximum income tax rate will now be capped at 25 per cent.