John and Donna Whyte, aged 30 and 31 respectively, are married with one young child, Megan, and another due in two weeks.

Mr Whyte is an independent financial adviser for Haywards Heath-based Knivett Financial and his wife is on maternity leave from Marks & Spencer.

Their joint household income, including child benefit, falls into the £50,000 to £60,000 band.

Mr Whyte pays £120 a month for life assurance and his wife pays £80 a month.

They have a part endowment -part repayment mortgage which costs £960 a month.

They have a family car with a 1.6 litre engine, which runs on unleaded fuel, and Mr Whyte uses another, with a 1.4 litre engine, for work.

They spend about £50 a week on petrol and drive about 20,000 miles a year.

Neither smoke and they drink no more than two bottles of wine a week and Mr Whyte has a four-pack of beer.

They eat out eight times a month (including takeaways).

Their weekly shop sets them back about £75 and their bills for gas, electricity, water and phone cost £45 a week.

Council tax amounts to £1,100 a year.

Mr Whyte said: "From a professional point of view, I was looking for a change to stamp duty and inheritance tax, because both were behind the pace.

"I'm not too bothered about paying extra tax because we would benefit from improvements to public services."

Matt said the new child trust fund was well timed for Mr and Mrs Whyte.

An initial payment of £250 would be made when the baby arrived.

Their weekly tipple would cost only a little more but the one per cent increase in national insurance would hit hard.

In view of their joint income, they might receive only a small amount of child tax credit.