this is a bbc news budget special. i'm julian worricker. the headlines. the chancellor says the era of austerity is coming to an end — and puts an extra £2.7 billion into universal credit philip hammond's more than 80 minute speech brought forward plans to cut income tax — and announced a modest improvement in forecast growth. and reached a defining moment on this long journey, opening a new chapter in our country's economic history where we can look confidently to the future. the reality is that whatever the chancellor claims today, austerity is not over. english councils are to get more than £400 million to mend potholes and receive extra money to fund social care. duty on beer, cider and spirits is frozen. and there are changes to stamp duty. we'll examine what the budget means for you and your family. financial journalists, jasmine birtles and clare

barrett will be on hand to answer your questions. to get involved, text 61124, e—mail to askthis at bbc.co.uk, or on twitter using the hashtag bbcaskthis. the chancellor has declared a new chapter in the country's economic history, saying the era of austerity is coming to an end. with a large windfall from better than expected tax receipts philip hammond announced more cash for public services and said he would press ahead with tax giveaways for more than 30 million people a year earlier than planned. 0n the economy, there were modest increases in the forecasts for economic growth and borrowing will be

lower than expected — releasing more money for public services. there was more cash — as previously announced — for the nhs, and extra money for social care. plus an additional £1 billion for the mod and 1.7 billion to help people switching to the new all—in—one benefits system universal credit. and he brought forward by a year a rise in the tax—free personal allowance. which means from next april 32 million people will be paying less tax. but the labour leaderjeremy corbyn accused the chancellor of delivering a broken promise budget — and said that austerity was far from over. 0ur deputy political editorjon pienaar has ourfirst report this evening. is this really the end of austerity, chancellor? not quite yet it isn't, but philip hammond has reworked his act, not quite so stern and a few more smiles. is a no—deal brexit haunting this budget? and yes it was, but today with brexit day rushing up fast

and ten years of austerity behind, he turned up in parliament with a promise of better times ahead. the right honourable philip hammond. this time the austerity chancellor had come with words of encouragement. i present to the house a budget for britain's future, a budget that shows the perseverance of the british people finally paying off. he clearly meant to make an impact. because today, mr deputy speaker, i can report to the british people that their hard work is paying off and the era of austerity is finally coming to an end. but there were strings attached and a message to mps, britain needed a brexit deal to guarantee its future. we are at a pivotal moment in our eu negotiations and the stakes could not be higher. get it right and we will not only protect britain's jobs, businesses and prosperity, but we will also harvest a double deal dividend.

what was on offer today? we had heard about another £20 billion for the nhs in england, and he had a new announcement. today i can announce that the nhs ten year plan will include a new mental health crisis service with comprehensive mental health support available in every major a&e, children and young people's crisis teams in every part of the country, more mental—health ambulances, more safe havens in the community, and a 24—hour mental health crisis hotline. there was more, his mps are demanding it, more cash focused social care in england and another billion pounds for defence. and for schools struggling to pay the bills, there was this. but i recognise school budgets often do not stretch to that extra bit of kit that would make such a difference. so today i am announcing a £400 million in year bonus to help

schools buy the little extras they need. the opposition were not impressed with that, or with anything much. the chancellor was in full flow. someone had to pay, and the tech giants, google, facebook, presented a big target. we will now introduce a uk digital services tax. this will be narrowly targeted tax on the uk generated revenues of specific digital platform business models. it will be designed to ensure it is established tech giants rather than our tech start—ups that shoulder the burden of this new tax. we knew there would be help for high street traders in england. it had been helpfully leaked so that we did. a third off business rates for small retailers. an annual saving of up to £8,000 for up to 90% of all independent shops, pubs, restaurants and cafes. the chancellor was always likely to address big issues,

big problems for so many people, so half a billion for housing and every bit as sensitive, problems for millions claiming universal credit, the single payment that replaces six benefits. there will be more to ease the transition and claimants could keep more of what they earn. and today, i can tell the house that i am increasing work allowances in universal credit by £1000 per annum at a cost of £i.7 billion annually once roll—out is complete. benefiting 2.4 million working families with children. and then it was over. philip hammond content with his day's work. we are at a turning point in our history, and we must resolve to go forward, not backward, and work together to build a britain that we can all be proud of. i commend this statement to the house.

tory mps were happy, but it is labour's job to be unimpressed with the budget and jeremy corbyn couldn't wait to get started. this is a broken promise budget. what we have heard today, half measures and quick fixes, while austerity grinds on. and far from people's hard work and sacrifices having paid off, as the chancellor claims, this government has frittered it away in ideological tax cuts to the richest in our society. the government's opponents queued to condemn what they had heard. all the big decisions about how we pay for improved public services and the so—called end of austerity, it has all been put off until next year. wales was hardly mentioned at all in the budget. the part of the uk that needs investment more than any other, we are at the bottom of the economic league table at the moment and yet we get crumbs off the table once again. he hasn't ended austerity, he has continued it. we have a situation where the universal credit cuts that have

been are to be passed onto people. the chancellor has promised brighter days to come. he is also admitting things could get colder first. troubled times in politics are farfrom being over. john pienaar, bbc news, westminster. just a reminder. what will the budget mean for you? to get involved — you can text your questions to 61124, email to askthis at bbc.co. uk — or on twitter using the hashtag bbcaskthis. we can cross to westminster at talk to the treasury minister mel stride. how true do you convince those who have been so badly hit over the last eight years that austerity is coming to an end? we have spent the last

eight years gearing up the mess that labour left us with. we have reduced that deficit by about 80%. we now have record levels of employment, the lowest level of unemployment since 1975. we have made huge economic progress and we are now moving into a different user and that will allow us to do more to support public services such as the huge amount of support we are going to put into the nhs, the extra money that the chancellor has announced for social care, for schools. it is also allowing us to bear down on the cost of living for hard—working people so we are reducing taxes for 32 billion people, we are increasing the national living wage by above the national living wage by above the rate of inflation this coming april, freezing fueljese, and as you have heard, doing a great deal to ease the pressures on those going

into universal credit and we have been able to ease the pressures on business, reducing business rates for smaller retailers, particularly in our high streets which are under a lot of pressure, reducing by one third for those small retailers, 90% of them will qualify for that relief. how do you deal with the charge from the institute for fiscal studies that it does nothing like a bonanza, the rest of public services beyond health, most of the planned welfare cuts are still on the books, thatis welfare cuts are still on the books, that is true? when you mention wealthier, the total amount in the next five years, we will be putting in to ease the pressures around universal credit, in excess of £5 billion, on top of the 1.5 billion at the last budget. 0ther billion, on top of the 1.5 billion at the last budget. other measures such as the reduction of the taper for those transitioning into work. what of the other welfare cuts that are still on the books? we are putting in more money around universal credit. we have a review

coming up next year and in that review we will of course assess all the budgets that are in this dream. we will make decisions at that particular time. the overarching thing that is happening here is we are managing to support our public services more than before, we are able to bear down on cost of living issues for people, whilst at the same time supporting those vital businesses that are the engines of our economy. the chancellor spoke of those little extras that schools need, and has been criticised by referring to them as such, could he have fleas that better? what he was rightly saying was that while schools will be looked at in the review next year, in the short term, we recognise some of the immediate pressures , we recognise some of the immediate pressures, that £400 million will go quite a long way. in my constituency there are 43 quite small primary schools and they will receive on average £10,000 per school which

buys quite a lot of equipment and books and things that schools need, and for secondary schools, about £20,000. he is recognising, let us be as helpful as we can in the short—term whilst recognising we will revisit these funding issues at the spending review next year. how sustainable is all this if the brexit negotiations goes wrong? we are not expecting the brexit negotiations to go wrong, we are not expecting to end up with no deal, we are far advanced in the negotiations, 95% of withdrawal issues have been negotiated and we're upbeat and positive about the outcome. but the chancellor made clear that if there is an external major shock, and clearly entering eight no deal situation would fall into that category, then we would have to look at the situation as it was at that time and act accordingly, but this is a hypothetical maybe and we

are not expecting it to happen. as a prudent government the right thing to do is to at least look at the possibility of that happening and making sure that we are prepared for it in the unlikely event that it did happen. and we will hear from labour life in this half—hour as well. today's budget was the longest for over 20 years — the chancellor was on his feet for 80 minutes. so what else did he announce? the national living wage is to rise from £7.83 to £8.21. duty on beer, cider and spirits has been frozen. and as previously announced, there'll be no rise in fuel duty. there'll be help for the high street — with a cut in business rates for small businesses. the chancellor also announced that £420 million will be made available this year to highways authorities to help tackle potholes and other minor works. so with the talk of ending austerity — what does that mean in hard numbers for the economy and where will the money be found? 0ur economics correspondent

andy verity has been crunching the numbers. one reason philip hammond can even talk of ending austerity is the economy is growing faster than the official forecasts said it would. in the spring it was forecast to grow by only 1.3% next year. now they're forecasting it'll grow a bit faster — by 1.6%. faster growth means more tax money rolling in and therefore less need to squeeze spending. what you have seen is the government getting a pretty big fiscal windfall in this budget, reflecting the fact that tax revenues are looking stronger this year and they are likely to remain so in the next five years. the choice the chancellor has made is to spend that windfall rather than save it. well, since the financial crisis the government's been trying to reduce the deficit — the gap between its spending and its income. but because there's now more tax money rolling in than expected, the official forecast is that philip hammond will only have to borrow

£31.8 billion in the next tax year. a lot less than previously predicted. the amounts the government's had to borrow over the years add up to the debt. today we heard that as a proportion of the economy, debt‘s been falling. from a peak of 85% of the economy two years ago — to just under 84% now. down to 74% five years from now. philip hammond wants that to keep falling. but he also wants to boost spending on the nhs by £20.5 billion. once you take account of spending on health service, other spending isn't being cut in total but it isn't going up and we still have some cuts to social security coming through. so on a very tight definition you might be able to stay austerity is over. you might expect that the chancellor would need to raise taxes to stay on track to cut the deficit.

but instead, philip hammond's announced further spending measures and tax cuts. including boosting the amount you can earn before you pay tax — one year earlier than planned. if you add in the extra nhs spending decided injune — then five years from now he'll be spending £30.5 billion more as a result of the measures announced today — that's a huge spending boost. not very austere at all. keep in mind that all of those numbers are based on the government signing a deal with the european union before brexit date next march. without that, all the official predictions for what happens to the economy next year can't be relied on. joining us from westminster is labour's shadow treasury minister clive lewis. good evening. jeremy corbyn was very clear in the commons today that

austerity is not over but surely labour has to acknowledge that there has been some kind of change here in the mind of the chancellor? possibly, maybe, but the truth will come out when people go about their daily business, when they go to do their shopping, when they look cut their shopping, when they look cut their pay packets, people will begin to understand that although theresa may did say that austerity was ending philip hammond has clearly shown that it is not. if you look at some of the figures that he has talked about, £650 million per adult social care, but a sticking plaster compared to the billions of pounds that our local authorities are screaming out for to be able to afford to afford to pay for the care of our elderly. today we heard about one of the biggest care providers going under because there is not enough money coming from government to be able to pay that. that is the

reality for most people. when this is analysed in detail people will begin to see that not enough has been done to make the claim that austerity has ended. people will look in their pay packets, at their shopping bills, and the vast majority will conclude it has not. this is more than labour was pledging to spend at the last election. at the last election labour said it was going to increase the amount of spending on the nhs, now the government has announced an extra £20 billion which, if we are looking at independent health experts, that is not enough, it works out to the 3.4% increase annually. we have said that he will add that 20 billion to what we were going to offer at the last election, which brings it up to 4% or 5%, we are going to spend more on the nhs. 20 billion does not keep the nhs treading water. the health minister is telling hospitals and the public there are likely to be emergency crises at accident and emergency

this winter, that is the reality for patientss as we approach what could be equalled a difficult winter for the nhs. you have hinted in those two a nswers the nhs. you have hinted in those two answers at areas where labour would spend more and i suspect if i went on to other policy areas that might arise again. people start to doubt where you are going to get the money from. how do you deal with that? we were quite clear at the last election, we set out £49 billion extra spending. some of that from reversing the corporation tax cuts that the government has made. going to 2010 levels. 0thers cuts that the government has made. going to 2010 levels. others from tax avoidance. bidding up the tax for the 5% of top earners. let us not forget the massive inequality within our society. we think it is right that those who own more, corporation is you are earning billions, pete moore to pay for public services that we need and we will invest in our economy, now we

have the lowest levels of investment in the g7, 620 have the lowest levels of investment in the g7, g20 league of countries. that is the difference between us, we are prepared to borrow to invest in the future of our economy, the future of our children. joining us from our westminster studio is our political correspondent iain watson. we have just seen the politics of this writ large because the government minister was on, and then the labour spokesperson, the division between the two parties is pretty wide. it is. we are seeing battle lines being drawn which will run all the way to the next election wherever that happens to be. what is the case is the chancellor has been trying to neutralise some of labour's best attacks. the nhs is one area where he has allocated money year by year for the next five years, talking

about how some of that money will be spent, for example on mental health. also, getting battle lines down on how money will be spent. £1 billion extra for defence and tying that is to renewal of nuclear weapons systems, something that the labour leadership, if not the mps, feel uncomfortable about. labour have an argument about whether austerity is over as the prime minister suggests, is it in the process of ending as the chancellor suggests. they are trying to see this as the myth of austerity coming to an end, they are highlighting that while there is extra money for the nhs, they are saying the threes on working age benefits is continuing. while that continues people amongst the least well off continue to feel the cold winds of austerity. they are trying

to wina winds of austerity. they are trying to win a political argument that the government has not yet entered austerity. they see they would do its swifter if they were in power, its swifter if they were in power, it is those kind of dividing line is that we will see between now and the next election. some specific policies are of interest. digital services tax, you could argue whether this has been delayed until 2020, is its practical or impractical, this is one area of criticism for businesses and other legislators from government. some specific policies under the microscope but the big question is can the government really claim to end austerity, will labour let them get away with that claim? the bigger picture, philip hammond bierley mentioned brexit. that is right. talking about dividing lines between the government and opposition, there are dividing lies within the

conservative party. in the past ten minutes for example, it has been said that this extra money going into universal credit, 1.7 billion to make sure that people could hold onto more of their money if they go into work, heidi alexander said that would not be enough to get families out of poverty. she said you had to highlight her concerns. the chancellor has faced that criticism from one of his own mps. schools budget, nhs budget, dollops of cash going around to try to keep various members of his own party relatively happy. 0ne members of his own party relatively happy. one of the underlying reasons for that is brexit. the parliamentary party might be less rebellious. but there was also implicit, he did talk about a double dividend. for example if there is a

brexit deal he is signalling that he would be able to increase public spending even more next year, not in this budget, when there is a public spending review for the next five yea rs spending review for the next five years but what the treasury were relu cta nt to years but what the treasury were reluctant to do was to see f the opposite happened and there was no deal they would be cuts to public spending. they have said in some ways the public spending would go up under that scenario, a good deal, you can afford more, a bad deal, you are forced to spend your reserves, to try to mitigate the effects of no deal. either way, for good orfor ill, public spending goes up. 0ur consumer affairs correspondent colletta smith has been to a car mechanics plant in chorley, in lancashire, to find out what today's budget means for workers and businesses. today i present to the house a budget for britain's future... as the chancellor got started, work was well under way here in lancashire.

fred is in charge of the nine staff here but he's not worried that extra 400 million from philip hammond spending on fixing the potholes will put him out of business. i don't think so. i think we'll still be here. we are very busy at the moment so i don't think there is a problem with that. it's about time the potholes were fixed, isn't it? pretty big potholes around? pretty big ones, you could fall in and never get out. it's a family affair and son sean has just bought his first house in a development nearby. it's definitely increased what we do. our customer base is so much bigger. it grows every year, new people turning up all the time, and we retain our existing customers. and getting people who are living here that have come from all over the country. it has been so much better for us. it's only going to increase, i think. in the back office,

twin sisterjessica. for her the announcement to help small firms afford apprenticeships will not solve their bigger problem. there's just not enough people at the minute willing to train to do the job. average pay in chorley is a little below the national average. silvia grew up here and says it's good news for people's cash in their pockets. some people on more than a living wage at the moment, but they will benefit from the tax threshold going up. and that will be the main difference for them. and the era of austerity is finally coming to an end... do you believe him? no, not at all. national minimum wage, it isn't enough to cover odds and ends. bills are going up. making work pay is the chancellor's goal but here in chorley it didn't seem to make a difference day to day.

coletta smith, bbc news. a number of the chancellor's announcements focused on housing — all first—time buyers purchasing shared equity homes of up to £500,000 are to be exempt from stamp duty. and the government also announced an extra £500 million for the housing infrastructure fund. let's speak to catherine ryder, who's head of policy at the national housing federation. what do those announcements add up to? it is positive that the government has acknowledged the housing crisis and it is positive that they have ambitions to build new homes but what we did not see is that ambition translated into policies that will make a difference. we know we should be building 340,000 homes per year, 90,000 homes for social rent, to do that we need money and land. we have seen some steps that the government has taken towards that but it is not enough. i will talk about land in a

moment but this £500 million for the infrastructure fund, it is designed to enable an extra 650,000 homes to be built, does that match your estimate? it is positive that the government is looking at infrastructure funding. it is difficult until you know where that funding is going and what it is for to estimate how many homes will be built. infrastructure is a critical pa rt built. infrastructure is a critical part of the puzzle, having money available to build roads and ra i lwa ys available to build roads and railways and things that will allow more sites to get housing is positive. but it does not in itself address the real problem. and that is land? money and land. if you are going to build homes particularly for social rent, you need support from the government, financial support, and we have seen some announcements from the government recently announcements from the government rece ntly o n announcements from the government recently on that. that is positive. but there is no where near enough land at affordable prices to build on. what would you require

governments to do to change that? the government needs to be really bold. we have seen some smaller announcements on land. but to do that they need to tackle the way that they need to tackle the way that land is bought and sold. that requires significant change in the way that it operates at the moment. we would like to see for example where land is sold, communities sharing in the uplift that landowners get from planning permission on that site, that money to be used to develop socially affordable homes. you are stressing the social housing point several times. do you see what the government has said with regards to universal credit having an impact? the announcement on universal credit is positive. we have seen universal credit have huge impact on peoples lives when they are moving from their traditional on to universal credit, particularly with a five—week wait, that measures the

government has put in will really help people who are struggling to pay the rent. that is positive. i am not sure that £1 billion and nights will be enough. as more people move on to universal credit, we need the government to make sure the funding is there. here is the weather. after a cold start temperatures recover, by the end of the week it will be increasingly wet and windy. 0vernight the coldest weather this where we have the clearest skies across western parts of the uk. temperatures dipping below freezing. in the east, increasing cloud, the chances of rain, maybe an early touch of frost. temperatures may go up touch of frost. temperatures may go up as the night goes on. " further west tomorrow may be taking some rain. elsewhere some sunny spells.

thicker cloud in eastern england, some outbreaks of rain. the course of the coast you are, fairly brisk winds as well. temperatures still for most of us will be in single figures. it will feel like that. temperatures edge up as the week goes on. welcome back to our budget special. we'll be answering some of your questions shortly but first a look at some of the other day's stories. there were emotional scene outside leicester city's stadium today as the wife and family of the club's owner as well the leicester players all came to lay flowers in his memory. hundreds of floral tributes have been left at the ground, following the deaths of vichai srivaddhanaprabha and four others, in a helicopter crash on saturday. air accident investigators are examining data from the flight recorder. today prince william, who's president of the fa, praised the businessman for his contribution to the game. our sports editor dan roan reports.

the people of leicester had paid their respects to the club's owner, today it was the turn of those closest to him. a poignant moment when vichai srivaddhanaprabha's wife and son walked among a sea of tributes to lay their own wreath. shortly afterwards and with the crowds growing came the players led by goalkeeper kasper schmeichel and followed by strikerjamie vardy. a very public display of reflection. this is the first time that leicester city players have been back here to the king power stadium since the tragic events of saturday night. a squad and a city in shock. he was not your archetypal owner. this guy seemingly was someone who gave so much to the football club and also gave so much to the city. he invested huge amounts of money into hospitals, he treated fans like he cared. srivaddhanaprabha's helicopter left the stadium an hour

after the game against west ham. but seconds later crashed into a car park at the south of the ground bursting into flames. the air accident investigation branch has recovered the digital flight data recorder from the aircraft and said it would begin analysis immediately. the tragedy was witnessed by one of the club's former greats. all of a sudden it seemed to drop a little bit and then obviously crashed. and it all happened so quickly. then there was sparks coming out of the back and then some small flames. and larger flames and then itjust blew up. it isjust something i think will live with us forever. it was one of the most horrendous things i think anyone could ever see. srivaddhanaprabha was one of five people killed when the helicopter crashed. also on board, two staff members, nursara suknamai and kaveporn punpare. the pilot, eric swaffer, considered to be a veteran airmen and his partner, also seen here, izabela roza lechowicz. herself an experienced pilot.

there's nobody i know better equipped at what he does and eric flew that helicopter like it was a limb. his knowledge was notjust for flying but it was technical as well. he technically knew the systems of all the aircraft he operated. a couple of seasons ago this is stadium witnessed a fairy tale one leicester city won the premier league. this afternoon the current squad spent some time with the late chairman's family, a club united in grief. seven men have been convicted of sexually exploiting vulnerable teenage girls in rotherham. sheffield crown court heard how the men targeted and exploited the teenagers before subjecting them to acts of a "degrading and violent nature". one of the men cannot be identified for legal reasons. they are due to be sentenced next month. search operations in indonesia have continued into the night following a fatal passenger plane crash.

indonesian authorities say it is unlikely that any of the 100 and 89 people onboard the lion air flight survived. the plane came down over the sea, only 14 minutes after take—off from the capital jakarta. rescue teams have been recovering bodies and personal items from the water. lion air's ceo said there had been a technical problem on a previous flight but that the issue had been resolved. a man accused of carrying out saturday's mass shooting in pittsburgh in which 11 people were killed has appeared in court. 46—year—old robert bowers was shot and injured by police officers after the attack at the tree of life synagogue, he appeared in court today in a wheelchair. a 97—year—old woman and a husband and wife were among the victims of the shooting. a british academic charged with spying in the united arab emirates has been released on bail this evening. matthew hedges, who's studying for a phd from durham university, has reportedly been held in solitary confinement for nearly six months. the 31—year—old has been told

to remain in the uae, until his next court appearance at the end of next month. his passport hasn't been returned to him. he denies the charges. for the third time in two weeks, work has again been suspended at the uk's only active fracking site, because of a minor earth quake. the energy firm, cuadrilla, said the tremor — with a magnitude of 1.1 — was no cause for concern, but it had temporarily halted work in line with government regulations. angela merkel has announced that her current term in office, which ends in 2021, will be her last as germany's chancellor. the veteran leader, whose fragile coalition government has been rocked by a series of recent crises, told a news conference in berlin it was time for a new chapter. she will stand down as head of her centre—right christian democrats party in december. brazil's new far—right president—elect has promised sweeping economic and political

changes after he takes office on the 1st of january. jair bolsonaro, who won 55% of the vote in yesterday's election, said he would govern following the constitution and the bible. he also vowed to be tough on what he called "the extremism of the left". lecture turned to the budget, i promised some answers to your questions. i'm joined now by the financial journalist jasmine birtles and the financial times's personal finance editor claer barrett who are here to answer some of your questions about today's budget. we will do this in a nice and fluid way, so feel free to answer as we go. the first category we have questions on comes under income tax,

a straight forward opening gambit, how much more or less will i pay asked of you? this is great because it will benefit 32 million people, it will benefit 32 million people, it was feel—good philip hammond best measure in the budget. the changes to the personal allowance, the rate at which we start paying tax is going to change. a lot of people thought he would scrap this altogether, it was due to happen in 2020 but he's bringing it a year ahead. in terms of the difference to you, if you earn 12 other have pounds from next april or below you'll not pay income tax. if you area you'll not pay income tax. if you are a basic rate taxpayer which means everything up to the income of £50,000 you'll pay less and the higher rate band will be shifted to start from and above where it at the moment it's about £4000 below that. 0verall moment it's about £4000 below that. overall it depends how much you earn

but it will benefit you buy at best a couple of hundred pounds if you're a couple of hundred pounds if you're a low earner. but it will affect a large number of people and it's quite a significant boost. even though it's only a small amount to make us feel better the chance or hope sad ups to a lot. he kept seeing hard—working british people, it is all part of the if you work you are rewarded and we will reward you are rewarded and we will reward you are rewarded and we will reward you a bit more witches, you know, nice if are working. if you are working self—employed, any change review in those circumstances? sort of. they are calling it ir 35 and my ears pricked up because i am self—employed i thought, hello, what they have been doing is making public sector organisations pay freelancers as though they are on pay as you earn which is not good

news for freelancers. he was saying they would do this with the private sector as well. he's pushed it back but has not scrapped it. it means as of 2020 as things stand at the moment, if you work for example for the bbc doing bits and pieces here and they are suddenly you'll have to pay extra national insurance, tax and all sorts of things. the fact he's pushed it back, does that suggest is perhaps not as confident about how it's gone so far?|j suggest is perhaps not as confident about how it's gone so far? i would guess so. about how it's gone so far? i would guess so. certainly he will have had a lot of people pushing back. again, i've kind of does not go entrepreneurship thing. he's doing things for the high street and small businesses, he mentioned many times small businesses, digital businesses etc. self—employed people are micro—businesses. they need help. the last one on this list is about those on low incomes and if they will see a pay rise for anyone who

is currently low paid ? will see a pay rise for anyone who is currently low paid? the linkup tax changes will benefit the middle and higher earners but the changes to universal credit, i believe it's getting a £1.7 billion boost, much—needed reform in my opinion, and the national minimum wage is scheduled to rise faster than expected so he's really going for the broadest spectrum possible trying to get everybody something. does he fear a snap general election? he did not upset anybody in this budget. it felt like a party budget. i know budgets and party don't really go together. fine! fiscal party! it felt to me like, he's probably not going to be here next year so let's do a bunch of giveaways, let's do this. an extra 30p per hourfora

giveaways, let's do this. an extra 30p per hour for a living wage, not bad, through the week it's a decent increase. you mentioned benefits and universal credit, we had a question about those changes. it was very much concentrated on that one form of welfare wasn't it? yeah, the government has been in the firing line for changes to universal credit andi line for changes to universal credit and i think everything about this budget building on watson said has been to deliver a statement which was uncontroversial as possible. harking back to your comment about small businesses and the budget in 2017, he try to reform national insurance, he was trying to get at the upper echelons of the self—employed but he ended up offending white van man, the tabloids took against him. he did not want this budget to have anything like that and it so they've gone for what the media has been rejecting the most which is universal credit. i was quite disappointed, a long time to get to get to it. we don't know the details are because he's left that to esther mcvey later in the year. there is a

lot of that in this budget. consultation is being launched, extra time being given. but then given the political backdrop there area given the political backdrop there are a lot of cans been kicked down the road. that was the question of what changes are there for people receiving benefits which was the next category were looking at which we kind of dealt with except to say that other benefits are still not necessarily changing. there was a conversation earlier on this programme about the fact there are still other welfare cuts in the pipeline. that's still true. that's true. maybe it in the red book that you would expect him to say if any of these benefit cuts as it were we re of these benefit cuts as it were were being brought back. he mentioned working tax credit which was the only party specifically mentioned and he said at the end is a single parent who is working on a minimum wage will actually be about £800 per year better off, the

working tax credit, the living wage, universal credit changes. little bits true. let's deal with retirement matters, what is happening about state pensions as it stands the state pension is below the basic wage, he's looking for something positive. you are lucky to have the state pension you have. they've not made any changes to the triple lock which is what governs how the state pension rises and the other big pensions news rather the lack of it is they are not any changes to the tax release when you get into peeing into a pension which a lot of financial times readers have been worried about because that costs around £25 billion a year. i watch only expensive is how philip hammond discredit a few weeks ago so we we re hammond discredit a few weeks ago so we were braced for that to be a change but he has stopped short of doing anything for that her now.|j

ee, doing anything for that her now.|j ou doing anything for that her now.|j agree, you are doing all right. it's the people who are in work, the people who have had in work benefits taken people who have had in work benefits ta ken away from people who have had in work benefits taken away from them, they are the ones who need looking after. the triple lock i think is a delightful thing for retired people. i was even wondering if there was going to be something said about social care, how you would maybe have to start paying for that perhaps as an extra tax. i think silence has been golden there. let's talk about savers. nobody cares about savers he writes, ten yea rs nobody cares about savers he writes, ten years of pathetic interest rates and savers he says will not see an end to austerity. there is a bit of good news in the budget but you have to look quite hard for it. for starters the isa allowance will remain at £20,000 and if you have a

junior isa that will rise in line with inflation. there is also going to bea with inflation. there is also going to be a consultation, yet another one, on the regulation for child trust funds which predate the junior isa. it would make them potentially merge with the junior isa regime which would be good for savers. and finally premium bonds, at the moment to buy premium bonds you have to be the child's parent or grandparent, i could not buy one for my nephew for example. that'll be changed. anyone can buy them for children for next year and the can buy them for children for next yearand the minimum can buy them for children for next year and the minimum which was £100 will be reduced to £25 so it will be easier to buy premium bonds, the nation ‘s favourite form of gambling! let's talk housing, the last couple of questions relate to that, what will change for people trying to move out of rented and into buying their home? not a huge amount from what he was announcing.

he's increasing the amount of stamp duty relief that first—time buyers can have, he's announced there is going to be more money for social housing and to my mind its social housing and to my mind its social housing that is the answer to the housing that is the answer to the housing crisis. builders, building companies say the reason they are not building so much is because they don't want to build things they are not certain of selling, social housing is the most guaranteed one so housing is the most guaranteed one so really we, in my view we need a lot more money into social housing. he also said he's putting out enough money for another 60,000 houses. every year the chancellor says we are going to sort out the housing crisis and then they don't. not in my view, anyway. he's doing more to stoke demand because he's going to extend the help to buy programme but this is of course the scheme that will help lend you money and subsidise the cost of buying a home,

it will be restricted to first—time buyers, a lot of people thought it was only available to them anyway but they are correcting another anomaly which is if you are a first—time buyer buying a shared ownership property worth less than £500,000 you will not have to pay stamp duty any more to bring it into line with other types of property. add a brief word for buy to let landlords, what changes? not such a bruising budget as previous years but if you are known what is an accidental landlords you could be a bit of bother. these are people who wa nt to bit of bother. these are people who want to sell her home but have got lumbered with it for whatever reason, maybe because the market is slow. it used to be able to claim tax relief on the n and a capital gains tax when you sold it, but that's under a consultation and could be restricted. we must stop there, thank you both very much indeed. one of the key announcements from philip hammond was extra cash to ease the transition

to universal credit when the new benefit rolls out nationally from next year. the government has faced criticism for underfunding the complex reform. so what is universal credit? it's a change to the working age welfare system which merges six benefits into one. income support, income—based job—seeker‘s allowance, income—related employment and support allowance, housing benefit, child tax credit, and working tax credit are all being replaced by universal credit instead by universal credit. instead of making all the separate claims, a single payment is made into the clamant‘s bank account. because it replaces the tax credit system, which tops up low incomes, it will be claimed by people who are in work as well as those who are seeking it. the goal of the system is to make sure that people are always better off taking on more work than they would be claiming benefits. under the old system many faced a "cliff edge", where people on a low income would lose all their benefits at once as soon as they started working more than 16 hours. in the new system, benefit payments

are reduced at a consistent rate as income and earnings increase. the government has set aside money to ensure that people moving from the old system to the new one will not lose money. however it has faced criticism that some new claimants will not receive as much under universal credit as they would have claiming under the old system. earlier i spoke to our social affairs correspondent michael buchanan and i asked him about the problems with the benefit since it was introduced. in last year ‘s budget the chancellor had to spend effectively one and a half billion pounds to fix design problems. he's come forward and is having to spend another billion again fixing those problems when people move on to the benefit, what they're planning on doing is

allowing people to continue to get there all benefits for a fortnight after they apply for universal credit, at the moment as soon as you apply free nurser credit those benefits are stopped. in addition they are reversing some of the cuts that the old chancellor george 0sborne made in 2015, this was cuts to work allowances which was hugely criticised by people who support the idea of universal credit because they say the cuts that were made meant universal credit for some people was not an incentive to go to work and what philip hammond has done today is he's going to spend seeing you can keep more of what you earn and you can go and get a job. the insensitive incentive element is a key pa rt the insensitive incentive element is a key part of the policy. yes that's why you had people like iain duncan smith who was such a driving force behind universal credit saying to the government you need to put money back into this universal credit was designed as a process to encourage people to move into work, the way

you do that is to allow people to keep more of what they earn, don't reduce to benefit as quickly as george osborne said out to do. philip hammond has listened to some of that criticism, today investing is1.7 of that criticism, today investing is 1.7 billion. there are some people saying it's not enough, labour say the roll—out should be halted and the whole policy needs reviewed but the national audit 0ffice reviewed but the national audit office in the summer said the problem with universal credit is that at the time it was a flawed benefit but the department for work and pensions have reorganised their entire system and it's impossible to stop it now. joining us from our sheffield studio is katie schmuecker, head of policy at thejoseph rowntree foundation, which campaigns on poverty related issues. let's start with universal credit, what is your view on what the government announced on that today? we are seeing a really important step in the right direction with that £1.7 billion being announced to

go into the work allowances within universal credit. if you look at what's happening around us, we are seeing a rising tide of in work poverty in this country, that's the problem of our times, the majority of people in the country experiencing poverty at the moment are living in a household where someone is in work. this measure to increase the work allowance within universal credit is an important step in beginning to tackle that problem. it will put money into the pockets of some of the lowest earning people in our country helping loosen the group of in work for them. white mac has your organisation ‘s book and the government over the last bottle while while the problems you allude to work growing, how receptive relatives of the proposals you were putting forward? we have also been talking to claimants of universal credit as well as the government

talking in particular to working pa rents talking in particular to working parents claiming universal credit. so this measure of increasing the work allowance is something that has been highlighted by them is something that would make a big difference to their lives and something we have then been able to say to government, if you want this benefits to live up to the potential it has and to begin to create a platform from which families can build a better life then increasing the work allowance is one really important measure and so seeing substantial investment going back into the work allowance because of course this is money that was cut from the work allowance back in 2015, but seeing some of that money going back in is an important step and it shows the government has listened, to that part of what people are saying about universal credit and i think now the issue now is to listen to other groups moving on to universal credit and to really hear what people are saying about

what is an important change to our benefit system. this is the system that's going to set the living standards for low end people as they leave the eu, it's important we get it right. briefly, the principle behind it, six benefits under one, making sure work always pays, you are in favour of that principle? the principles are important, it helps smooth the transition for people as they move in and out of work, reduce they move in and out of work, reduce the risk of them falling through the cracks. it makes it easierfor people to claim everything they are entitled to. we have a big problem with people not claiming benefits they are entitled to and it was meant always make work pay and the measure we've seen today will help to make that a reality for some of the lowest earning people in our country. not to say everything is fixed and there is nothing else we need to worry about universal credit, but i think it's right to

acknowledge the money that's gone back into the work allowances will make a big difference for those who are experiencing in work poverty. thanks very much for coming on. now it's time for a look at the weather with nick miller. cold weekend, called monday, there have been showers around, the combination producing a rainbow in nottinghamshire. wetter over the past few hours across eastern parts of scotland. it's messy on the big picture, this is the front coming in and turning things n easter scotland, this big area low pressure, wind, rain, snow moving out of italy. that'll fringe across eastern most parts of england tomorrow. 0vernight its coldest where we see the blue, across the western side of the uk meaning here you are most likely to get frost. temperatures are a few degrees below freezing. in the east we've got

cloud, the rain running to eastern scotla nd cloud, the rain running to eastern scotland and parts of north—east england will see that as well, temperatures will go up for some of us as the night goes on. you might see an early touch of frost. this initial weather front take some patchy rain, near the north wales towards the west midlands, many other places will be dry, rocking clyde and sunny spells but you will notice that area low pressure bringing rain towards eastern parts of england. uncertainty about how far inland that will get, notjust cloudy, it is wet for some of us and windy as well, whatever it says on the thermometer it probably means this part of england will have the cold est this part of england will have the coldest weather in the uk tomorrow. elsewhere you get to see sunshine. that really helps even though your temperature is in single figures. low pressure pulling away towards scandinavia as we going into wednesday and as we look to the atla ntic wednesday and as we look to the atlantic for our next weather front, pretty ragged affair but it will have a long it's going into

wednesday somehow breaks of rain across western parts of the uk. not one line of rain as you can see, anywhere necessarily raining all day long but it does mean the further east you are you will probably stay dry especially towards the east midlands, east anglia and south—east england. windsmoor south—westerly, becomes less chilly in england and wales, more places getting into double figures. we will see the weather turning active at the end of the week, rain in eastern parts of england on thursday, four friday we will see an active area of low pressure coming in from the atlantic which will turn things wetter and windy across western parts of the uk, more that cumbersome of us as we go through the weekend. the headlines. the last budget before brexit. the chancellor says austerity is coming to an end. philip hammond calls it a budget for britain's future as he announces

more money for a universal credit, social care, nhs, and schools. now we have reached a defining moment on this long journey opening a new chapter in our country's economic history where we can look confidently to the future. the reality is that whatever the chancellor claims today, austerity is not over. the of the green party will give us his reaction. in a moment the other main stories.