UK 'unusual' for not recognising 'inter-dependency in the tax system'

Plans for some married couples to get tax breaks worth up to £200 a year have been announced by David Cameron ahead of the Tory conference.

The prime minister said four million couples would benefit from a £1,000 transferable tax allowance from 2015.

Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies told the Today programme's James Naughtie "it will benefit those couples where one of them is a basic rate tax payer and the other isn't in work or doesn't earn enough to pay tax".

Dr Samantha Callan, director of families at the Centre for Social Justice said the the UK was "unusual" because we did not "recognise inter-dependency in the tax system" compared to other European countries.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Saturday 28th September 2013