Lower-paid jobs – nursery assistants, street cleaners, van drivers – gain less from the NI cut so will see a bigger cumulative loss to income if benefits increase with earnings instead of inflation.
Two hundred thousand more children will be pushed into poverty if benefits are uprated by wages rather than inflation, new analysis from Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) finds. Almost all these children will be in families where at least one parent is working.
"Despite his rhetoric about supporting families, this was in reality a statement for the 1 per cent, saying more about bankers’ bonuses than helping hungry kids..."
Households subject to the benefit cap will from April be battling the cost of living crisis £65 worse off than they would be if they were not capped, unless the cap is uprated, new analysis from Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) finds.
Removing the cap would mean an additional £65 a week, on average, in the pockets of capped households, meaning an average capped couple with 2 children would be £85 below the poverty line.
"The cost of living crisis has pushed many families to the brink as a difficult winter looms. With around 2 million children living in households affected by deductions, the Work and Pensions Select Committee is right to say that now is time to pause these repayments.
Families have had months of dread watching prices soar while government has delayed and delayed any response, pushing many ever closer to the brink. The new prime minister has the opportunity to demonstrate that she stands with hard-pressed families and will act in the interests of the nation’s children, who have been invisible for far too long. Long term investment in a social security system that protects kids from poverty is an essential starting point.