Chancellor Alistair Darling's pre-Budget report – announced on Monday – aims to boost the ailing economy and includes a cash injection of £20bn in tax cuts.

Yvette Cooper, who is also chief secretary to the treasury, this week spoke to the Express about what she believes it will mean for the people in her     consitituency.

She said: "I think this will make a real difference to the money in people's pockets this year. We know there are going to be difficulties. Every country in the world is being affected by this crisis and we need to do everything we can to support jobs and help people through it.

"The main thrust behind the report was what can we do now to help families and businesses who are facing real difficulties because of the global credit crunch?

"The first thing was to cut VAT. People should start to see prices coming down in shops. Things should start to get cheaper and that will last for a year.

"The second thing, which will really help the Five Towns area, is we are giving a £60 cheque to every pensioner as well as families with disabled children. That will affect about 20,000 people in the Pontefract and Castleford area. It is for every pensioner, rather than per pensioner household.

"The money will help people with their gas and electricity bills. Although petrol prices have been cut down, I'm really concerned that gas and electricity companies are still not bringing prices down and there's going to be an investigation into why.

"We are also helping small businesses. We have a lot in the Pontefract and Castleford area who will get help with their tax bills. If they are having difficulties, they can ring the taxman and arrange to spread their payments.

"There is also going to be £2bn of loans for small businesses through government funding. We know there are a lot of small businesses that can't get lending from banks at the moment so we are setting up a loans scheme.

"There will also be extra help for families with children, of which there are about 10,000 in our area. We will increase child benefit in January from £18.80 to £20. We will also be providing an extra £75 in child tax credit, on top of inflation – so that would be £150 in total.

"Another big area is using government investment to speed up the repairs of buildings and primary schools. This would benefit and boost primary schools and also create jobs in the local area and at a time when we need it."

Ms Cooper said the government was determined to take action to help during the current crisis.

She said: "We know what happens in these times – especially around our area when the pits have closed and with the recession of the early 1980s. At that time, the government turned its back on people. We are doing the opposite.

"People bore the scars of that time for a generation aftewards.