TRYING to work out how one budget will affect you is hard enough.

Yesterday, the people of York were left trying to come to terms with the effect that two will have on their lives.

In Westminster, Chancellor George Osborne used his first budget uninfluenced by the Liberal Democrats to slash benefits for low paid workers while trying to force businesses to pay them more.

In York, meanwhile, the new ruling Conservative-Lib Dem coalition claimed their emergency budget will give a £2 million boost to frontline services. But Labour, now in opposition, countered that it would lead to a 'tale of two cities' , with rural outer wards benefitting from subsidised bus travel while city centre wards suffered from reduced support for housing.

So how will you be affected?

Much of the devil will be in the detail - and detail is something we're still very short on, with both budgets.

Mr Osborne's national budget seems broadly to have been supported by business.

Fixing the Annual Investment Allowance - which allows firms to claim tax relief on profits - at £200,000 would encourage companies to invest in their businesses, said Nick Scull, a tax partner at Garbutt + Elliot. Meanwhile, the York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce has welcomed corporate tax reductions and lower national insurance payments for small businesses. These would 'help company owners to retain more of their profits to invest in jobs and growth,' said Suzanne Burnett, the chamber's president.

The introduction of a compulsory national Living Wage - set to rise to £9 an hour by 2020 - and the raising of the personal tax allowance to £11,000 will be welcomed by many.

But these are likely to be more than offset by savage cuts in welfare and benefits, local experts warn.

The freezing of working age benefits for four years will hit those on low incomes hard, says the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Meanwhile, restricting tax credits and universal credit to two children only might make it very difficult for some parents to stay in work, warned Rebecca Jeffrey of the York CAB.

Locally, the City of York budget is stoking a fresh political row.

The ruling Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition are scrapping Labour's plan to charge for green bin collections, and will be spending more on ward committees, recycling, front line services and support for small businesses.

The plans will be funded by reducing spending on social media, consultants, and trade union activity, the coalition says.

But Labour claim more than half of the 'shopping list' is being funded by their own careful management of last year's budget - and that cost cutting reviews of health and social care needs threaten the most vulnerable.

Without more detail, it is hard to know who is right. But one thing is for sure: there are many years of austerity still to come.