Autumn Statement - Your reaction

The Chancellor also announced that the planned 3p fuel duty increase would be cancelled

Chancellor George Osborne has announced public sector pay rises are to be capped at 1% for two years, as he delivers his Autumn Statement.

Mr Osborne also confirmed that UK economic growth would be lower, and borrowing higher, than was forecast during the Budget in March.

BBC News website readers have been reacting to the chancellors announcement.

Michael Jackson, Barnoldswick, Lancashire

I am a teacher with a partner and two children and I am struggling in the current economic climate. I have what would be considered a 'good' wage and find that we are still struggling.

I am not overly happy about what we have heard from the chancellor. One positive is cancelling the planned increase in fuel duty.

I live in Lancashire in a small town and work in Bradford. There is a real lack of public transport, which means my fuel bill is very expensive. I have no alternative but to drive.

I would have liked to have seen a bit more help for young families. The government is increasing free child places for two-year-olds for the deprived, yet our joint wages take us out of that bracket. We are stuck in the middle, not deprived enough, yet not earning enough either.

It seems the middle is where the big squeeze is happening. Childcare costs are a huge burden and we struggle for my partner to afford to go to work part-time.

Help with nursery costs would significantly change our lives. We are waiting for our youngest to start school as the money we currently pay for childcare will help us enormously.

Chris Barratt, Saltash, Cornwall

I am an office manager and my wife is a part-time district nurse and we have three children between the ages of three and eleven.

The chancellor's Autumn Statement was depressing - the middle have been squeezed again. There was nothing in the statement to give optimism to myself and other hard working people in this country. There was nothing to make me think that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Yes it is good that fuel duty has been frozen, but really it should have been cut. The price of fuel is just too high and consumers are getting penalised for it in the shops, as businesses are passing on their fuel expense to the customers in higher prices.

My cost of living has gone up 40% over the last year and I cannot cut back any more. We don't go out to the cinema in the evening and we don't have Sky TV. All we do every month is pay for food, household fuel and council tax.

All the government is saying is cut back, cut back but they don't have to bear the pain. George Osborne is a millionaire and so is David Cameron. They are just robbing Peter to pay Paul.

The deficit we have now is just the tip of the iceberg. You cannot run a country like this. I am on a temporary contract and my wife is a district nurse and she has to take a pay cut. There is nothing we can do, we just have to manage and hope things get better.

The government really need to look at the amount we are spending overseas and get its own house in order before it helps other countries.

They need to cut taxes and fuel and help people to lower their cost of living and get people spending money to stimulate the economy.

Jonathan Vowles, Cranfield, Beds

I run an accountancy business with around ten employees.

The government pays attention to large companies but tends to forget the smaller ones.

Some of the measures announced by the chancellor in his Autumn Statement were encouraging, but as always the devil is in the detail.

The incentives that have been announced to help young people in to work are good, even if it is just for three months.

Any help for business is a good thing, although I would have wanted his measures on credit easing to be a lot stronger.

Why isn't the chancellor telling the banks to lend? Especially if the bank is government owned. It is low hanging fruit and would have been very easy for him to make it easier for small businesses to get cash. A lack of cash can kill a business quicker than a lack of profit.

The £20bn national loan guarantee scheme is interesting, but who is going to implement it? If it is any good, I will be applying for it.

The seed enterprise investment scheme - tax relief for people investing in small start up firms is a great idea but again the devil is in the detail.

Nigel Buckle, Darlington

I am a beef farmer, I run a boarding kennel business and I sell Christmas trees online.

I was very interested in what the chancellor had to say. Some people have said that freezing the fuel duty increase in January is not enough help but I disagree. Anything George Osborne can do to help is great.

The main thing I like is the extra help for businesses. The fact that we will now be able to borrow money without putting ourselves into debt is good news and will help give businesses some stimulation.

We are up against a mill wheel at the moment because of the banks. The banks are frightened of small businesses, and their reluctance to lend has been slowing us down. Now if we need a new tractor, we can get one.

The beef industry is buoyant at the moment. Meat wholesalers are dealing with India and China, who are paying supreme prices for our beef and lamb which in turn is causing a knock-on effect for how much consumers are paying for it in this country. But high beef prices is one of the things which we have to live with.

Mr Osborne can see that there is a future in farming and that we just need stimulus to keep pace with the global economy.

Of course there are some negatives that people will have to live with. The next year is going to be tough but there will be some daylight coming in to the spring. I am firmly behind him as long as he does what he says.