Darling, I want to cover you in pepper and sneeze all over you…

In his speech today, the Chancellor neglected to mention that tax allowances would remain stationary at £6 475 pa.

Noting that inflation is currently at around 4%, this means that people are going to be subject to “fiscal drag”: as their earnings rise, more of those earnings become taxable.

This is particularly damaging to the low paid (costing about £48 per basic rate tax payer).

Perhaps more worrying is the fact that the personal allowance is quite so low: for many, going from the dole to a part-time job is rarely worth it, given that tax/NIC combined with reductions in benefits means that they might be working 10 hours/week for only a couple of pounds extra.