For households across England, Scotland and Wales, standing charges, fixed daily fees customers pay regardless of usage, will be removed from gas bills, while the VAT cut on electricity bills has been extended until July.

Import taxes are to be removed on more than 100 food products, including gherkins and marmalade, as well as kerosene and fertilisers.

For mum-of-six Gwyneth Totney, the one-off £100 payment will "help but not much, it will cover about two weeks of gas and electric".

She added: "My weekly shop has gone from about £100 to about £130 a week.

"I've started going to the butcher's for my meat now as it's cheaper than the supermarket.

"We're working more to get more money but we have less time. We still have our pizza night and cinema night at home, but it's way too expensive to take all the kids to the cinema."

Reacting to the Budget, she said: "It feels like they are trying to bring the cost of living down, but they are not actually doing it."