Osborne puts families with children in frontline of austerity again

Commenting on new proposals today (Monday) for a two-year freeze of working age benefits announced by George Osborne at the Conservative Party Conference, TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said:

“In today’s low-pay Britain, in-work benefits are a lifeline for millions of families. Working families have already been hit by three-quarters of the total cuts the government has already made to welfare and now the plan is to put them in the frontline again.

“The Chancellor’s new cuts would hurt working families with children most of all, pegging their tax credits and housing support behind rising prices and rents. This is yet more chipping away at the social safety net working families pay into, putting them in greater danger of destitution if they become sick or lose their job.

“It tells you everything you need to know that George Osborne has unveiled more harsh cuts for working families on the same day as tax breaks for the pension pots of the richest one per cent.”

NOTES TO EDITORS:

- An analysis of benefit cuts by household type for the current parliament, which details how working families have been hit by three-quarters of the cuts, is available at www.tuc.org.uk/sites/default/files/BenefitCutsHouseholdType.pdf

- The analysis has been undertaken for the TUC by Landman Economics whose tax/benefit model uses the Family Resources Survey (FRS) to consider how families across the UK will be affected by social security changes. It looks at all the tax and social security changes using data from the FRS to model the impact on different types of families. Where the FRS does not contain adequate information to model the impact of the cuts (for example in relation to some disability benefits and housing benefit), estimates of the cumulative costs of the cuts have been taken from Treasury Budget documentation.

- All TUC press releases can be found at www.tuc.org.uk

- Follow the TUC on Twitter: @tucnews

- On Saturday 18 October the TUC is organising a national march and rally in London to call for an economic recovery that delivers for everyone, and for fair wages to help end the living standards squeeze. For more information on the campaign go to http://www.tuc.org.uk/economic-issues/britain-needs-pay-rise
For information on the march and rally go to http://britainneedsapayrise.org/