Budget Aftermath: The family Mr Hague thought didn't exist

WILLIAM HAGUE doubted they existed, but Linda Duval and Michael Webb fit the bill perfectly. The couple from Reading meet all the Conservative leader's criteria for a winning family in this year's Budget.

Mr Hague mocked the Chancellor's claim that the Budget was good for families, saying: "It is good for families who don't have a mortgage, who aren't married, who don't run a car, who don't smoke, who don't save for a pension. For a family like that it's fine!"

He added sceptically: "There may even be a family like that somewhere in the country. Sounds suspiciously like you, to me!"

Well, Ms Duval, 39, with her partner, Mr Webb, 43, and two children, represent just such a family. She works 25 hours a week as a part-time pharmacy assistant, which brings in pounds 95 a week; he works full-time for a cleaning contractor, for which he earns pounds 170 a week. Neither of them has any long-term financial commitments: no mortgage, no pension and no car.

The couple will be an estimated pounds 79 a year better off from changes to income tax and national insurance announced in this week's Budget.

Ms Duval welcomed the unexpected windfall.

"Basically we just get by," she said.

"We haven't got a car because we can't afford it.

"I'd rather have a holiday in Great Yarmouth and it's a case of one or the other.

"I'm one to watch my money, but after we've had our holiday we might now be able to have a new living-room carpet. This one's in a right state.

"We would feel better if everything was in order how we would like it."

Ms Duval and Mr Webb are not affected by most of the Budget measures. Married couples are to lose their tax allowance, a change which pleased Ms Duval. "They class us as being married for most other things, so why should we be treated differently when it comes to tax breaks?" she said.

Since they are not home-owners, the couple will not suffer from the abolition of mortgage interest relief at source (Miras). And since they don't smoke, they are not stung by the 17.5p immediate increase in the cost of a packet of 20 cigarettes.

With children aged 18 and 16, Ms Duval is eligible for child benefit only for the younger one. There is, however, a small gain on this front: the allowance for a second child is to go up from pounds 9.30 to pounds 9.60.