Rex
When the Chancellor, George Osborne, got to his feet he announced today's Budget would 'reward work' and 'support working families'. But it took him the best part of an hour to get to what, for many families, were the 'best bits'.
The big news for working families is that the Government has now back tracked somewhat on its controversial plans to axe child benefit for higher rate taxpayers. And in a rare display of splashing the cash he also announced an extra £1,100 on the amount of money you can earn before paying tax. Here's what those family friendly changes mean for you.
Child Benefit Changes
It was George Osborne himself who'd previously announced the hugely unpopular decision to scrap child benefit from April 2013 for higher rate taxpayers.
Now to avoid what the Chancellor called a 'cliff edge' approach, (where some people earning just a few pounds over the limit would see their benefit wiped out), he announced that families where either partner in the household earns over £50,000 will lose child benefit, but only on a gradual basis. And only households where either earner brings home over £60,000 will lose all their child benefit.
This could mean an additional 750,000 families keep all, or at least some, of their child benefit, worth £20.30 a week for the first child and £13.40 for each and every other child; typically around £2,500 a year if you've got three children.
Tax allowances
There's also a big jump in the amount of money you can earn before paying tax. From this April the limit is £8,105 but today's announcement means this goes up by another £1,100 a year to £9,205 from April 2013 which means roughly another £220 a year in real terms.
Top rate taxpayers
If you're a top rate tax payer you'll pay less. The current top rate of tax is 50p but this will be cut back to 45p from April next year.
And the other bits......petrol, alcohol and cigarettes
No extra increases announced today to the price of alcohol or petrol, (although the planned 3p fuel duty rise on petrol will still go ahead from August), although if you smoke you'll pay another 37p a packet from tonight.
What do you think of the budget? How will it affect you and your family?