Kevin Peachey
Cost of living correspondent

Neil Gilbourne, 67, from Lincoln, asks: How have pensions been brought into the inheritance tax calculation?

Inheritance tax is paid if an estate is valued at more than £325,000, but currently any money saved in a pension does not count towards this.

Anyone who dies before the age of 75 can usually pass on what is left of their pension savings tax-free as a lump sum, or an income.

If they are 75 or older when they die, their pension money can still be passed on, but it is treated as income and the person they leave it to may have to pay income tax.

However, from April 2027, pension pots that are inherited will be part of the tax calculation, potentially bringing more estates into the net.

Kevin Peachey
Cost of living correspondent

Caro Reed, from Brighton, wants to know more about the announcement on bus fares.

The chancellor has confirmed that the cap on bus fares on many routes in England will rise from £2 to £3 in January, and will be in place for a year.

Single bus fares in London with Transport for London will remain at £1.75 and those in Greater Manchester at £2, owing to a different funding system in those cities.

It is also a good example of how policy differs in the different parts of the UK, as the devolved nations set their own rules too.

Kevin Peachey
Cost of living correspondent

Keith Anderson, 75, from Newport asks: Has the 25% tax-free lump sum when taking a pension been affected? There was speculation of this being limited to £100,000.

From the age of 55 (or 57 from 2028), anyone with pension savings can take a quarter of their money as a tax-free lump sum up to a maximum of £268,275.

Keith is correct that there was plenty of speculation that this cap would be lowered, in order to raise more in tax for the government. It prompted some people to act earlier than they might otherwise have done.

I’ve covered lots of Budgets and lots of pension changes are often mooted, then don’t happen. This is another one.

It will be a relief to some people hoping, for example, to pay off a mortgage (or help their children or grandchildren to get one) in the future by taking some of their pension pot as a tax-free lump sum.

Kevin Peachey
Cost of living correspondent

Laura from London wants to know: Will National Insurance payments by businesses impact their hiring power and potentially backfire on employees?

This is clearly one of the main points of debate in this Budget.

The National Insurance bill for all but the smallest businesses is likely to rise. Analysts – as well as the independent official forecaster – says that this is likely to mean businesses paying lower wages than would otherwise have been the case.

Business groups say it could also reduce the number of staff companies take on.

The chancellor says she was left with little choice as tax rises were required.

That’s before we get into the political debate over whether the NI change breaks a manifesto promise or not.

Kevin Peachey
Cost of living correspondent

Melania Benincasa asks: Will mortgage rates fall?

Of course, we don’t know the answer to this for sure, but the rates on new, fixed deals have been dropping in recent months.

In fact, the best deals are now on a par or lower than they were before the mini-Budget when Liz Truss was PM.

The bank rate – which is the benchmark interest rate – is expected to fall further, according to independent forecasters at the Office for Budget Responsibility.

However, owing to spending by the government fuelling some price rises, they say interest rates won’t fall as far and fast as they had previously predicted.

Kevin Peachey
Cost of living correspondent

Ross, 27, from Bristol asks: How will stamp duty change?

Two things are happening here – one mentioned in the speech, one not.

Firstly, a stamp duty surcharge on the purchase of second homes and buy-to-let residential properties in England and Northern Ireland will rise from 3% to 5% on Thursday.

Commentators say that could add to a squeeze on the number of properties landlords want to buy and rent out, hence potentially raising rents for landlords. The chancellor says it will give first-time buyers more of a chance to buy.

Secondly, thresholds at which stamp duty is paid looks set to return to original levels in April. Analysis by property portal Zoopla suggests about 80% of first-time buyers currently pay no stamp duty, but this would now fall to about 60%.

Scotland and Wales have separate, but similar, taxes on property purchases.

Standby - our Your Questions Answered session on the Budget is about to begin.

We've been compiling all your burning queries over the last few days as part of Your Voice, Your BBC News, which aims to invite you to get more involved in our journalism and the stories we cover.

Our cost of living correspondent Kevin Peachey is now poised to answer those questions, and dive deeper into what the Budget means for you and your finances.

At the same time, our colleagues at Newscast will be holding a Budget special, which you can either watch above or listen to here, so whether you prefer to read, watch, or listen - we've got all bases covered on your questions.

Rajdeep Sandhu
BBC Scotland

Family farmers will be looking carefully at the changes to agricultural and business property relief as part of inheritance tax.

Previously they have been exempt from paying any inheritance tax when passing a farm on to the next generation.

Under the new rules, assets over £1m will be taxed at 20%.

There were concerns the relief would be scrapped altogether and one Scottish farmer I spoke to was glad it hadn't been.

But she also pointed out many farms that aren't deemed particularly large will have assets over the £1m threshold and end up paying inheritance tax in order to keep the farm in the family, despite Rachel Reeves saying the government would "continue to protect small family farms".

Conservatives have been warning about this for the last few weeks and pointing out that many farms are cash poor so any tax bill could be problem.

The National Farmers' Union has called this a "disastrous" budget for family farmers, although there are some who see the reliefs as a loophole used by wealthy landowners to avoid tax bills.

Personal finance journalist Martin Lewis has just been speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live's Matt Chorley and offering his assessment of Rachel Reeves's newly-unveiled Budget.

Lewis says business owners could face having to pay an additional £615 per employee after the chancellor confirmed an increase in employers' National Insurance contributions from next April.

He warns the change could potentially push some businesses to cut wages.

"We need to be honest here, that cost will either be met out of profits - unlikely, increasing consumer charges - possible, or decreasing future benefits and salaries for employees - possible," he says.

Reeves presses on with welfare cuts planpublished at 16:03 Greenwich Mean Time 30 October

16:03 GMT 30 October

Munaza Rafiq
BBC disability producer

Rachel Reeves has committed to making billions of pounds of cuts to disability and incapacity benefits.

She says she will proceed with the work of the previous government to reform the work capability assessment, which is used to determine what work-related conditions a disabled person must meet to keep getting their benefit.

It’s part of Labour’s promise to support more disabled people to work.

Reeves didn’t give any details on what the changes will look like, but a consultation by the Conservatives last year suggested plans to change the way the assessment scores new claimants.

The proposals have proved controversial.

Disability activist, Ellen Clifford, has been granted permission by the High Court to bring a judicial review of the public consultation.

And reaction from disability charities is coming in. Richard Kramer, chief executive of the charity, Sense, says the chancellor’s plans risk “undermining the wellbeing of disabled people”.

Faisal Islam
Economics editor

A £70bn a year rise in spending - so 2% of GDP - raising the size of the state closer to European levels.

It is half funded by one of the biggest tax raising budgets outside of a recession, and half from a significant increase in borrowing.

The National Insurance rise at £25 billion a year for employers, netted off by a £5bn cost to public sector employers. It raises £20bn a year in total, one of the biggest single tax-raising measures in history.

The chancellor says this is driven by a problem she could only have seen since coming to power. And so it is also a Budget of blame. The chancellor looked like she was laying a charge sheet against former Treasury ministers for crimes against spending forecasts.

She points to the OBR verdict that its forecast at the last Budget would have been “materially different” had the Conservative-run Treasury been clearer about spending.

The new government claims this was a cover-up of the need for spending rises. It will be Labour’s version of Liam Byrne’s infamous “there is no money” letter.

This Budget will “wipe the slate clean on the fiscal fiction” of the previous government, sources suggest to me. The chancellor listed what she said was irrefutable evidence that the plans were never going to be delivered.

What does this all mean?

Public services will get an immediate injection. A line can be drawn under the years of austerity, at least until a longer term spending review.

The revenue raised by tax rises is directed at kitchen-sinking health spending in order to deal with record backlogs, that are now having an impact on the labour market and therefore growth.

Reeves sets out compensation for infected blood scandal victimspublished at 15:55 Greenwich Mean Time 30 October

15:55 GMT 30 October

Hugh Pym
Health editor

Image source, PA Media

The chancellor has announced that £11.8bn will be set aside to compensate victims of the infected blood scandal.

This is the first time the government’s expected liability for the scandal has been set out.

In May, a damning report from the public inquiry chair Sir Brian Langstaff concluded that doctors, the NHS and other health bodies and governments had “repeatedly failed victims”.

About 30,000 people were infected with HIV and hepatitis as a result of their NHS treatment.

Last week it was announced that the estates of people who died as a result of the scandal could apply to receive an interim payment of £100,000.

Other pay outs are expected to start later this year. Some victims could be entitled to more than £2m.

Hazel Shearing
Education correspondent

Rachel Reeves says money raised from VAT on private schools will be used to “provide the highest quality of support and teaching” for the bulk of pupils who learn in state schools.

But it’s controversial.

Private schools argue that higher costs would mean higher fees - and parents who have scrimped and saved to get their children there, perhaps for more special educational needs support, would be priced out.

The government reckons there won’t be a big drop in private school pupil numbers - and has said those with education health care plans (EHCPs) that name a specific school will be exempt.

The reality is that all private schools are different. Some will ask parents to pay more, others won’t.

Some families will be affected – the question is, how many?

The answer will become clearer over time, but any fall in private school numbers must be considered against a backdrop of falling pupil numbers more generally.

Some services may not improve despite tax risespublished at 15:51 Greenwich Mean Time 30 October

15:51 GMT 30 October

Dharshini David
Chief economics correspondent

Under previous Conservative plans, the tax burden - the proportion of the UK’s income going to the tax office - was due to reach 37.1% - its highest since the Second World War.

Now it‘s set to hit 38% by 2030, a new record.

That leaves the UK in the middle of the international league table, but the burden is rising particularly fast here because the chancellor wants all spending on public services by 2030 to be matched by income.

Despite tax rises of £40bn, however, the broad spending figures imply the budgets for areas such as law and order and housing fail to keep pace with inflation after 2026.

In the words of the OBR, this includes "departments responsible for policy areas where the government has significant policy ambitions, including tackling climate change, addressing rising economic inactivity, and increasing housebuilding".

Health, welfare and interest payments on public debt have taken increasing shares of government spending as we get older, sicker - and have borrowed more.

So while the state is getting bigger, it may not deliver all the improved services you might expect.

Image source, House of Commons

Back in the House of Commons, where a debate on the Budget is ongoing, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey says the Budget may not offer people “a sense of hope, urgency and the promise of a fair deal”.

He says Chancellor Rachel Reeves faces an "enormous task", as the Conservatives left an "appalling economic legacy".

But, Davey adds, as the people of the UK look "to this Budget for a clean break with those failures of the last few years, for a sense of hope, urgency and the promise of a fair deal" he fears it won't deliver.

He also congratulates Reeves for today making history today as the first woman to present a Budget.

Image source, Getty Images

The Office for Budget Responsibility assesses the health of the UK's economy. It is independent of government but works closely with the Treasury.

Its reports are usually released alongside big government events such as the Budget and Autumn Statement.

Before these announcements, the government gives the OBR details of its plans to raise or lower taxes and how it intends to spend public money.

The OBR checks the information and makes economic forecasts covering the next five years.

These forecasts cover things like whether the government will spend more money than it raises, and whether the UK's economy will grow or shrink.

The OBR's next forecast will be published alongside Chancellor Rachel Reeves' Budget on 30 October.

• Learn more about the OBR here

Dearbail Jordan
Business reporter

A key task of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) is to provide forecasts on the economy, government spending and whether Labour will meet its own fiscal rules.

But that doesn't mean that what it predicts will necessarily come to pass.

In calculating its forecasts, the OBR depends on assumptions - for example, where it thinks oil and gas prices might go.

These can easily be blown off course, as happened after Russia invaded Ukraine and energy prices went haywire.

What the OBR provides is the best stab at what might happen in an uncertain world.

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) is now holding a press conference to discuss its forecasts surrounding the Budget.

Reeves has lifted National Insurance Contributions by employers but the OBR reckons that it will be workers who end up paying the price.

OBR member David Miles says: "It seems highly likely that it will have an impact on the level of wages that firms who are facing higher taxes on employing people will pay."

He said that over time, it means wages will be lower than they otherwise would have been.

What does the Budget mean for Scotland?published at 15:14 Greenwich Mean Time 30 October

15:14 GMT 30 October

Douglas Fraser
Scotland business & economy editor

Some of the announcements made so far by Rachel Reeves don't affect Scots, at least directly.

Allowing for income tax thresholds to rise after another three years of freeze is an end to a very effective stealth tax, as more people move into higher brackets.

It will be up to MSPs to decide if the same will apply to the different thresholds in the Scottish income tax system.

The reduced level of relief on business rates for the hospitality industry does not apply north of the Border. The consequent money has been added to the block grant for Holyrood, but has not been used for that purpose.

The Budget gives a boost to capital spending - for housing, transport, schools and hospitals - which feeds through that spending formula to the Holyrood block grant.

The chancellor said Holyrood will see £3.4 billion added to the Scottish budget. We had to wait until the papers were published to find out that this is for next financial year, including £2.6 billion of day-to-day spending, and the rest for capital spending. A further £1.5 billion is being added to this year’s Holyrood budget.

That announcement came with a nod to the role Anas Sarwar has, as Scottish Labour leader at Holyrood, when he takes the consequences of this Budget into the 2026 Holyrood election campaign.

Small business say changes will hurt, but it could have been worsepublished at 15:06 Greenwich Mean Time 30 October

15:06 GMT 30 October

Simon Jack
Business editor

Business bore the brunt of the chancellor's £40bn tax raid, but some small businesses may be spared the worst of the impact.

While employers' National Insurance will rise to 15% from 13.8% and the threshold at which it is paid almost halves from £9,100 to £5,000 - the employers allowance rose from £5,000 to £10,500 - that means that they get a £10,500 discount from their overall employers NI bill.

Small business groups described this mitigation as "huge" in protecting many small businesses.

On business rates, there was also good and bad news.

The bad news is that the 75% discount on rates will expire in April, the good news is it will be replaced by a 40% discount for 2025-2026.

Not great but could have been worse.