MPs today shouted "is that it!" as Rishi Sunak boasted he was helping families who can't pay energy bills - with a £500m increase to a backup fund.
The Chancellor doubled the Household Support Fund - designed to help people who struggle to pay energy bills - to £1bn.
He also boasted the "largest single personal tax cut in a decade" as he raised National Insurance payment thresholds by £3,000 in one go.
He said 70% of all workers will have their taxes cut by more than a general National Insurance rise. He also cut fuel duty by 5p a litre for one year in a £5bn move from 6pm tonight.
But he did not announce a rise to benefits - despite claims he would - as millions of Brits face a drastic cost-of-living crisis. Nor did he announce more direct cash help for energy bills.
Instead the Household Support Fund is a backup fund to help people who are struggling or falling through the cracks of other schemes.
He refused mounting pleas to raise all claimants' benefits by inflation in the annual uplift on April 11.
Benefits and pensions will rise by 3.1%, as little as £10.07 a month on the rate of Universal Credit, based on inflation last September.
Yet inflation has already doubled to 6.2% by February, leaving benefit claimants out of pocket as food and fuel prices rocket.
Last year's Budget confirmed the ‘taper rate’ - the amount of benefits withdrawn for each pound earned through work - would be cut from 63p to 55p from December.
And the work allowance - the amount some claimants can earn before the taper kicks in - was raised by £500 a year.
The Resolution Foundation had urged Rishi Sunak to raise benefits more generously as an urgent priority, ahead of any decision to cancel the National Insurance rise.
