We round up the main announcements in the Chancellor's speech and explore the devil in the detail to see how tax and spending changes affect you.

Osborne claims the UK is open for business but beyond the hyperbole his budget statement has closed the door on chances to stimulate growth, says one entrepreneur.

The 'mummy tax' accusations came after it emerged the Chancellor will impose a real terms cut on statutory maternity pay.

The 'mummy tax' accusations came after it emerged the Chancellor will impose a real terms cut on statutory maternity pay.

The Shadow Chancellor - who dressed as Santa for the Westminster Kids Club Christmas party - was jeered in the Commons after declaring that the deficit was coming down before changing his mind.

Bassetlaw MP John Mann said the Shadow Chancellor’s response to the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement had damaged Mr Balls’s leadership prospects – and made Mr Miliband’s position secure.

Where was the BBC’s Daily Politics presenter, Andrew Neil, on Budget Day? Apparently the Budget is viewed as a state occasion by the BBC. And thus the exclusive preserve of Edwards.

To reclaim the high ground, Mail City Editor Alex Brummer suggests the speech Osborne needs to make from his dispatch box.

The Chancellor told the Cabinet they must reduce spending every year for the next three years, as he prepared to set out a highly-political statement to the Commons.

Anyone currently in their 40s or younger would be affected by the move, which will see the state pension age rise as the average person lives longer.

As George Osborne speaks and throughout the day This is Money will be live blogging analysis, reaction, charts and data and what people are saying on social media.

Osborne has given the first cheerful update in his time as Chancellor, as he raised growth forecasts and cut borrowing predictions today. We round up City reaction.

The rate paid by ETF providers is currently 0.5 per cent but this will be ditched in April 2014, Chancellor George Osborne revealed in his Autumn Statement today.

Experts had claimed that the lifetime limit could be capped at £100,000 – a figure that seasoned savers may have already reached - but that has not transpired.

George Osborne described the crackdown as the 'largest package of measures to tackle tax avoidance, tax evasion, fraud and error so far this parliament'.

Many employers are hiring staff on contracts where they are classed as self employed, even if they are full-time employees.

Chancellor George Osborne has announced that pensioners will get the chance to boost their incomes in a six month window between October 2015 and April 2016.

Call for a freelancer limited company structure to be set up within the tax system and for training for a new career to be tax deductable.

Oil price decline provides a key backcloth to the budget. It will keep downward pressure on inflation, and offers the prospect that the decline in real earnings could start to be reversed.

The Chancellor insists there will be no political tax breaks because Britain must ‘stay the course to prosperity’.

Households up and down the country are hoping Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne will come up with a couple of ‘surprise’ announcements.

The purchasing managers’ index of activity in the UK construction sector dipped from 61.4 in October to 59.4 in November, which is still well above the 50 mark that divides growth and decline.

The annual deficit has fallen from the record £153bn racked up by Labour in 2009-10 to £97.5bn last year, but progress has now all but stalled as tax receipts disappoint.

George Osborne's comments while delivering the 2013 Budget revived his fortunes. But it was only a confidence trick. Now, with an election just around the corner, the Chancellor is in a bind.

Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has very little room for manouevre in today's Autumn Statement.

Annuities which come with death benefits can be passed to loved ones tax-free if you die aged under 75, the Chancellor announced in the Autumn statement.

Income tax free personal allowance to rise to £10,600 rather than the planned £10,500 next year. Higher rate income tax threshold to rise to £42,385 next year.

Live analysis, reaction, charts and data and what the experts and you the readers are saying in reader comments and on social media .

Autumn Statement day is always a big one in the Commons year but yesterday the fervour was particularly felt as next May’s electoral reckoning looms, writes QUENTIN LETTS.

The stinging criticism from former Home Office minister Jeremy Browne came after the deputy leader shunned Wednesday’s Autumn Statement.

Whether you are earning the minimum wage or raking in millions, the amount of tax that disappears from your earnings is likely to change to some extent.

As analysts digested the detail of the Chancellor’s ‘mini-Budget’ the ramifications of reforms to stamp duty, business rates and the North Sea tax regime became clearer…

IPSE, a body that represents the self-employed, believes the Chancellor could limit contracts to just a month for freelancers, after which they would be forced on to the client’s payroll.

The Chancellor has pledged to eliminate the record deficit racked up by Labour during the financial crisis and return the country to the black by the end of the decade.

Chancellor George Osborne will use tomorrow’s spending review to announce that the Health Service will receive an extra £6billion straight away – rising to £10billion a year by 2020.

UK Sport has been handed a shock 29 per cent increase in funding, handing a boost to British athletes preparing for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo four years later.

We bring you the latest the analysis, reaction and charts from the experts and our own journalists from throughout the day.

George Osborne says household energy bills will fall by an average of £30 by 2017 as a result of reducing green levies, as outlined in his Autumn Statement this afternoon.

Public funding - known as Short Money - given to opposition parties to prepare to become an alternative government is to be slashed by 19 per cent, in line with Whitehall departments.

The Prime Minister took a few seconds out from the 65-minute brief to subtly unravel the treat and pop it into his mouth like a mischievous schoolboy.

To raise £18billion in spending cuts over the five years, George Osborne slashed departments by up to 37 per cent but the NHS, defence and international development are the big winners.

The Autumn Statement contained some good news for entrepreneurs as George Osborne pledged to carry on exempting micro companies from paying business rates.

George Osborne showed himself a master of his political trade in yesterday's Autumn Statement - but seems to have abandoned his early enthusiasm for slimming down the size of the state.

Draconian rises signalled by the Chancellor will see the average bill for a Band D household rise up to £320 by 2020/21. George Osborne urged town halls to impose increase to fund social care shortfalls.

HMP Holloway in north London, which has been home to some of Britain's most infamous killers, will be sold off as part of a £1.3billion government overhaul of the UK prison service

Chancellor George Osborne landed buy-to-let and second homes a huge shock by announcing a stamp duty surcharge on property purchases from April.

George Osborne hit the buy-to-let dream with a big stamp duty hike yesterday, but landlords still have a tax trick they can pull to claim it back.

Theresa May has told Chancellor Philip Hammond to make middle and low-income families in the UK a priority in next week’s Autumn Statement.

Theresa May has told Chancellor Philip Hammond to make middle and low-income families a priority in next week’s Autumn Statement.

Defying Brexit doomsayers, the deficit came in at £4.3billion in October - below the £6billion expected. The figures emerged on the eve of Philip Hammond's Autumn Statement.