Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has said that housing benefit changes that have been introduced today are about "fairness".
In response to criticisms of the so-called 'bedroom tax', he said: "The reality is this is about getting our housing benefit back into order".
"This is about fairness. It's about fairness to those who pay vast sums of money in taxation to see that people living in subsidised accommodation who often don't use the bedrooms they've got, while others in overcrowded accommodation.... they can't get the accommodation they need.
"This is a nonsense problem that was created by the last government who didn't build enough housing and didn't manage the housing stock properly".
How the Chancellor's Budget plans to help business
New Employment Allowance will take the first £2,000 off the employer National Insurance bill of every company in the country
Around 450,000 small businesses - one third of all employers - will pay no employer National Insurance at all after introduction of Employment Allowance in April next year
Small firms will be given help through Government procurement budgets, growth vouchers and controls on regulators' charges
The Capital Gains Tax holiday will be extended
Corporation tax to be reduced by a further 1% to 20% in April 2015
Small company and main rates of corporation tax merged at 20p
Here are some of the measures announced by Chancellor George Osborne that could affect voters' wallets:
Rise in personal allowance brought forward to 2014, meaning no income tax on the first £10,000 of earnings
Tax free child care vouchers worth £1,200 per child and increased support for families with children on universal credit
Flat rate pension worth £144 a week to be brought forward to 2016
Fuel duty rise scrapped
Help for Equitable Life policy holders extended to those who bought with-profits annuities before 1992, with payments of £5,000 and extra £5,000 for those on lowest incomes
Planned 3p rise in beer duty tax scrapped and replaced by a 1p cut in duty on a pint of beer
New Help-to-Buy scheme for those struggling to find mortgage deposits will include £3.5 billion for shared equity loans, and a Government interest-free loan worth 20% of the value of a new build house
Cap-on social care costs to come in in 2017 and protect savings above £72,000
£2,000 cut in National Insurance bill for employers
The new Employment Allowance will take the first £2,000 off the employer National Insurance bill of every company in the country.
Around 450,000 small busineses - one third of all employers - will pay no employer National Insurance at all after introduction of Employment Allowance in April next year.
Steven Bruck, a partner at Blick Rothenberg Chartered Accountants, says: "Interestingly beer duty increases have been cancelled so that beer remains affordable. It's interesting to ask how this can be reconciled with the Prime Minister's wish to prevent cheap alcohol encouraging alcoholism."
