Theresa May promised help for the "Just About Managing" classes, or "Jams".
But there was little substantive to help people lower down the income distribution scale in the Autumn Statement.
The Resolution Foundation think tank has produced this chart which contrasts the hit to incomes from measures taken by George Osborne (in blue) and the help offered by Philip Hammond today (in red).
What is clear is that Mr Hammond's measures - such as the reduction in the rate at which Universal Credit benefits are withdrawn when claimants find work - barely offset the other cuts that many less well-off households are facing over the next five years thanks to the Government's ongoing programme of £12bn working age welfare cuts.
Resolution calculates that just 7 per cent of the losses facing low and middle income families have been undone.
“Despite increasing borrowing elsewhere, the Chancellor has left the big welfare cuts intact and chosen not to provide significant support for the just managing families that Theresa May has rightly said she is focused on," said Torsten Bell of Resolution.
“The double whammy of lower earnings and benefit cuts mean that the poorest third of households are now set to face a parliament of falling living standards. In the months and years ahead the key task facing the government is to turn that situation around.”
