Westminster's party leaders have made new pledges on employment, taxation and health while continuing to come under pressure to be clearer about planned cuts and tax rises after the election.
Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has made a manifesto commitment to spend an extra £3.5bn on mental health services.
The Conservatives are promising two million more jobs by 2020 while Labour will offer rate cuts for small firms.
There are 37 days to go until the general election on 7 May.
In other key developments on day two of the official election campaign:
- Plaid Cymru is to launch its manifesto with a call to "unleash the economic potential of Wales" and secure £1.2bn in extra annual funding
- David Cameron defended plans to cut a further £12bn from the welfare bill and refused to rule out taxing disability benefits after Chancellor George Osborne said there would no further details before the election
- The Conservative leader has also defended the number of personal attacks on Ed Miliband, saying he "makes no apology for putting Labour on the table"
- UKIP leader Nigel Farage will accuse David Cameron of making a "sham promise" on immigration at the last election
Mr Clegg kicked off a series of policy announcements by Westminster's three largest parties by unveiling more plans for mental health investment by his party.
This would include £250m for new services for mothers suffering from depression and to help reduce waiting times, the party said.
In the Budget earlier this month, the coalition government said it would invest an extra £250m a year into improving mental health services for children.
'Liberal mission'
The Lib Dems say their manifesto would commit to increasing the total spend on mental healthcare to £3.5bn over the next six years.
Full BBC Election 2015 coverage
Equality for people with mental health issues is a "liberal mission", Mr Clegg said, and the party would "make sure mental health is treated with the same urgency as physical health, with money to back that up, and challenge the stigma every day".
Mr Clegg challenged the Conservatives and Labour to commit to filling the £8bn gap in overall funding facing NHS England between now and 2020, saying his party would pay for this by ensuring NHS budgets rose in line with growth in the overall economy.
Asked whether voters will know the details of the Lib Dems' planned tax rises before the election, including a new council tax band for high-value properties and raising capital gains tax, Mr Clegg replied that "on taxes we will be pretty specific".
Pollwatch
David Cowling, editor, BBC Political Research
Following the flurry caused by YouGov's 4% Labour lead this Sunday, we had three polls on Monday telling a different story. Populus had Conservative and Labour tied on 34%; Ashcroft had a 2% Conservative lead (36% versus 34%) and ComRes had a 4% Conservative lead (36% versus 32%).
Among all four polls, the average Lib Dem rating was 8%, UKIP's was 13% and the Greens at around 6%. We've barely started our long road to 7 May but perhaps this campaign will develop into a battle of methodologies - telephone versus internet polls.
The two telephone polls (Ashcroft and ComRes) had the highest Conservative ratings - 36% each; and the two internet polls (YouGov and Populus) had the lowest - 34% and 32%. YouGov represented a 5.5% swing from Conservative to Labour, enough to give Labour a majority: ComRes suggested a 1.5% swing to Labour, barely a ripple on the election pond.
Mr Cameron, who has ruled out tax rises after the election in favour of spending cuts, said the Conservatives were focusing on their "positive vision" for the country amid criticism about the frequency of his attacks on the Labour leader in recent days.
The UK could create two million more jobs by 2020 - similar to the 1.9 million created in the last Parliament under the coalition, he said.
The Office for Budget Responsibility has forecast just under a million new jobs in the next five years but Mr Cameron said his government had a "record of economic success" and had exceeded OBR predictions since 2010.
Policy guide: Economy
This issue includes the wider economy and deficit reduction but also employment and the role of business.
"We have kept tax low for business, we have encouraged people to invest in our country, we have invested in skills, we have trained two million apprentices in this Parliament," he told BBC Breakfast.
"We are building an economy that can sustain these extra jobs...Just as we doubled the OBR forecast in the last Parliament, we are going to double it in the next one too."
However, Mr Cameron said he would not stop making Labour's tax and spending plans an issue, saying the opposition had "not even reached base camp" in terms of setting out their deficit reduction plans.
"The tone was absolutely right because this election is a choice," he told Radio 4's Today.
Shadow chancellor Ed Balls, meanwhile, is highlighting Labour's existing plan to cut business rates for small business properties and then freeze them by promising to take action in his first Budget.
The party says the measure would save businesses an average of £400 and would be funded by cancelling a planned cut in corporation tax for large companies planned by the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition.
"So instead of another corporation tax cut for large companies which helps fewer than one in ten firms, we will cut and then freeze business rates for small firms instead," shadow chancellor Ed Balls will say.
"This is the right priority when money is tight. And it will mean that the tax burden on small businesses will be lower with Labour than under the Tories."
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