A basic rule of thumb comes to mind and seems universally accepted: you should be able to keep at least half of every extra pound you earn.
The Chancellor will have have more money to play with than was forecast. How he uses these additional resources will tell us a great deal about his priorities.
If the Treasury gets its way, the Chancellor will score a big victory. But Ministers should watch for Labour stealing their thunder over taper rates.
The overseas aid and Universal Credit decisions suggest that, for the first time in a while, the cause of fiscal conservatism is gaining the upper hand.
There will always be a case for just giving people money, but ministers should consider a much wider spread of better-targeted interventions instead.
There may some ingenious halfway house solution. But it is hard to say how extending it for another year can be avoided.
We found over a million people excluded from the Government schemes are struggling to pay for food and everyday essentials.
If you enter work, you lose 63p of benefit for every £1 you earn. This acts like a hefty tax on the poor.
The Prime Minster could do worse than dust down the Social Justice Outcomes Framework published by the Coalition Government.
The idea is reportedly being considered as an alternative simply to continuing or ending the Universal Credit uplift in April.
Labour would abolish Universal Credit, which has coped well with the unprecedented pressures of this unprecedented last year.
The present social contract was written when the number of taxpayers well outstripped the number of retirees. But times have changed.
The levelling up agenda depends upon nation-wide digital inclusivity. If we give up on this, we will be trying to deliver it with one hand held behind our back.
As the jobs market expands, the taper could be lowered. This would leave low hours workers with more money, helping accelerate them into full-time work.