The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has disputed Chancellor George Osborne's recent claim that household disposable incomes are higher now than at the start of the economic slowdown.

“Whichever way you look at it - you only have to look at average earnings, wages and salaries - all those data tell us that the levels have been falling,” added Stephen Nickell, an economist at the OBR. “So it’s inconceivable that household incomes haven’t been falling over that period.”