Treasury sources said the Chancellor will have to ‘make a decision’ on what to do about business rate relief as it is due to expire next year.

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'.

The Chancellor unveiled a raft of upbeat data pointing to the recovery gaining momentum, with record numbers in work, borrowing falling and house prices forecast to soar by 5.2 per cent next year.

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

With this year's statement imminent, pension experts are pleading for a grace period for an industry that has undergone wide-ranging regulatory changes in recent years.

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

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.

The Deputy Prime Minister spurned the chance to hear the Chancellor's statement in person and instead headed to Cornwall to announce funding for coastal defences.

Geoff Parkes, teaching fellow at Aston Business School in Birmingham, said: ‘Thus far, the scheme has accounted for less than two per cent of all lending to small firms.’

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.

Today George Osborne will reveal details of his Autumn Statement. We round-up what to expect, including his tax credit headache and the predicted pension changes.

Changes sparked a backlash as they were forecast by the Insitute of Fiscal Studies to take £1,000 a year off 3 million families. They have now been halted altogether.

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.

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.

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.

Part-time students have been handed some good news in today's Autumn Statement with access to maintenance loans to help with living costs during their studies from 2017/18.

He has repeatedly slashed domestic spending, but the Chancellor remains committed to funnelling 0.7 per cent of Britain's GDP into an array of dubious overseas aid projects.

Insurers have slammed the rise which has pushed the tax up to almost double what it was in 2015 and they predict it will lead to an increase in the number of uninsured drivers on the road.

As John McDonnell stood up for his big moment to respond to the Chancellor's spending plans, Labour's MPs were much more interested in their mobile phones than his rambling speech.

The Chancellor reaffirmed the Conservative manifesto commitments to lift the personal allowance to £12,500 and the 40p tax threshold to £50,000 by accelerating progress to meeting the goals.

Philip Hammond fulfilled his promise to be an un-showy chancellor today as his biggest 'rabbit' turned out to be a joke about his own abolition.

Until yesterday, Chancellor Philip Hammond was among the most dismal of doom-mongers. But as he delivered his Autumn Statement, he seemed transformed.

As Hammond speeches go, the Autumn Statement was short and reasonably un-glum. He kept it to 45 minutes. By his own morose standards he was almost skittishly optimistic in places.

Philip Hammond said Britain’s ‘productivity gap’ was ‘well known, but shocking nonetheless’. He told the House of Commons that the UK ‘lags behind’ the US and Germany by 30 per cent.

Philip Hammond told MPs he would be compiling a major report into the impact that state spending on pensioners has on the health and social care of an ageing population.

It was not the kind of Autumn Statement we had come to expect under George Osborne – all fire and brimstone – but Philip Hammond’s debut was not without its nasty side.

The Flat Rate Scheme for VAT, designed to cut bills and red tape for small firms, is being overhauled in a measure the Chancellor said would stem abuse of the scheme.

Currently, employees do not have to pay income tax or national insurance if their redundancy pay is under £30,000.

DOMINIC LAWSON: BBC Newsnight also cited the Depression of the 1930s as the nearest thing to modern Britain under the Conservatives.

Stoke City are finalising the transfer of Wigan Athletic's Nick Powell and are interested in Everton's versatile 24-year old defender Matthew Pennington.

Barcelona are showing an interest in Manchester City teenage prospect Kian Breckin. The 15-year-old attacking midfielder has caught the eye of the Spanish club's scouts in tournaments.

The Ecuadorian outfit confirmed the 32-year-old's arrival on Friday afternoon by posting a video of Valencia getting used to his new surroundings.

Crystal Palace tweeted a cringeworthy video to announce the £8million signing of James McCarthy from Everton. The clip shows James McArthur outside an internet cafe.

Hearts have secured the signing of Manchester United keeper Joel Pereira on a season-long loan deal.It will be the 23-year-old's fifth temporary spell away from old Trafford.

Derby County captain Richard Keogh (left) has been pictured on crutches for the first time since being involved in a horror car crash that could have ended his career.

IAN WHITTELL AT EWOOD PARK: Wigan Athletic climbed off the foot of the Championship table on Monday night after playing out a goalless draw with Lancashire rivals Blackburn Rovers.

A bumper set of FA Cup fixtures continues on Saturday evening with five 5.31pm kick-offs taking place. Follow all the action across the five matches HERE via Sportsmail's SAM MCEVOY.

TOM COLLOMOSSE AT THE KING POWER: Leicester City have cruised into the FA Cup fourth round with a win over Wigan thanks to Tom Pearce's OG and a Harvey Barnes deflected strike.

The 20-year old has been recalled from a loan spell at Morecambe and was wanted by Championship strugglers Wigan Athletic before the ambitious Salford City swooped in.

The 32-year-old has been training with Salford this season after being released by Wigan Athletic last year. The midfielder was once viewed as a long-term replacement for Paul Scholes at United.

In a rush to obtain holiday money before taking a flight to Corsica, travel journalist Sarah Hartley took out €200 from a Moneycorp machine. A debit card receipt showed she'd been charged £245.

We revealed how some airlines use a 'no-show' clause to cancel return flights if passengers fail to board their outbound leg. Airlines claim this prevents passengers from 'gaming' ticketing rules.

Flight prices for Antigua and Brazil have seen some of the largest falls this summer, a new report has revealed - while Kiev has also seen a fall, and a boom in interest, thanks to 'dark tourism.'

Research by The Mail on Sunday found that Airparks Drop and Go at Birmingham is a 14-minute drive from the airport, with buses only coming every 25 minutes.

All inclusive holidays are becoming increasingly popular with a 28 per cent increase of families searching for the packages this year compared to last year, new data has revealed.