How it unfolded: Osborne raids benefits and pensions to plug deficit

13 January 2013

Main points:
*Benefits cut for 3 years to save £3.7 billion
*Tax-free pensions cut: raises £1bn a year
*3p fuel duty rise in January is scrapped
*More dragged into tax to raise £1bn a year
*National pay for teachers to end
* Corporation Tax cut by 1% to 21% in April 2014

1600 GMT: That’s all from our live blog today. It has been an Autumn Statement which George Osborne promised would help the squeezed middle but – with excepting the decision to scrap the 3p rise in fuel duty – it won’t provide a great deal of comfort.

The Chancellor announced a squeeze on welfare benefits and a £1 billion-a-year raid on top earners’ pensions, but he also had to admit that public finances are in even worse shape than thought, with the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecasting that the economy will shrink by 0.1 per cent this year.