A Budget tax raid on salary sac­ri­fice schemes is set to raise £3bn-£4bn, hit­ting busi­ness and encour­aging employ­ers to cut pen­sion pay­ments to staff.

The move by Rachel Reeves is expec­ted to be one of the biggest meas­ures in next week’s Budget, with people briefed on the plans fore­cast­ing that it will raise more than the £2bn pre­vi­ously floated.

The plan would reduce the amount of money people can sac­ri­fice from their pay cheques to put in their pen­sion pots without pay­ing national insur­ance.

It faces strong push­back from busi­nesses, which would face the brunt of the tax rise and have already seen costs soar as a res­ult of the chan­cel­lor’s decision to increase national insur­ance for employ­ers in her Budget last year.

Last week, Reeves reversed course on plans to break Labour’s mani­festo vow by increas­ing income tax after weeks of pre­par­ing the ground for the move, pla­cing the focus on other meas­ures.