article_snippet: Families will be better off this year than Families were when the Coalition came to power, independent experts said yesterday.
article_snippet: The Chancellor’s claim that families would be £900 better off in 2015 was one of the key Tory messages in Wednesday’s Budget.
article_snippet: Mr Osborne seized on The think-tank’s verdict last night as evidence that the Government’s plans are starting to deliver higher living standards for families despite the years of austerity needed to deal with the huge budget deficit left by Labour.
article_snippet: The Chancellor said: ‘This is a very significant moment for our economic debate: on the day after the Budget, The IFS have confirmed the Office for Budget Responsibility forecast that living standards are set to be higher in 2015 than in 2010.
article_snippet: The debate over living standards provoked a furious row between Labour and the Conservatives during Wednesday’s Budget.
article_snippet: The Chancellor’s claim that families would be £900 better off in 2015 was one of the key Tory messages in Wednesday’s Budget .
article_snippet: Tory did not directly endorse Mr Osborne’s £900 figure, but said it was based on a ‘quite reasonable measure of living standards’.
article_snippet: Tory said the IFS’s own forecasts also suggest a significant rise in living standards this year.
article_snippet: In the aftermath of Wednesday’s Budget, the Tories and Labour have clashed bitterly over what will be a key General Election battleground: Are households better off now than in 2010?
article_snippet: What George Osborne says: On Wednesday, This Chancellor declared: ‘The facts show households on average will be around £900 better off in 2015 than households on average were in 2010 – and immeasurably more secure for living in a country whose economy is not in crisis any more.
article_snippet: However, a recent ONS research paper found that if families were removed from the figures, the measure would have delivered a marginally more positive result for ordinary households and George Osborne – not less so, as Ed Balls implied.
article_snippet: The hammer was brought down in favour of George Osborne by the hugely respected Institute for Fiscal Studies, which said average household incomes ‘are finally rising and probably will be higher in 2015 than average household incomes were in 2010’.
highlights_snippet: Osborne's claim that families will be £900 better off was key Budget pledge .
  