"By raising the personal allowance threshold, we've lifted 2 million people out of tax altogether, clearly benefiting people on a low income".
There is some suggestion that the Conservatives are basing their pledge on a 30-hour working week for someone on minimum wage, which is neatly just below the £10,600 current personal allowance threshold.
Their new personal allowance threshold – the rate at which they start paying income tax – would be £11,000 from April, so a 1p rise would see them gain £4.17 a month.
The fact that Osborne prefers to use his limited resources in this budget to lift the personal tax allowance threshold rather than changing the 40p top rate tax threshold shows he knows the potential damage inflicted on his party every time it helps those on above-average incomes.
The charity welcomed recent changes to boost working people's income – such as the introduction of the "national living wage" and raising the personal tax allowance threshold – but it wants to see those urgently complemented by efforts to improve people's security at work.
But the government says it has tackled the higher cost of living by raising the tax-free personal allowance threshold to £10,000, taking 2.7 million people out of tax, and other measures such as freezing fuel duty.
We've had the scrapping of a fuel duty rise, some tinkering (expected) with allowances, thresholds and green levies.
The chancellor has tended to up-rate tax allowances and thresholds in line with inflation.
Francesca Lagerberg, head of tax at Grant Thornton, says: "There's to be a glacial uplift in most of the well-known allowances and thresholds over the next two years.
