700,000 Yorkshire children face benefits freeze
More than 700,000 children in Yorkshire live in families facing a four-year freeze to their benefits.
More than 700,000 children in Yorkshire live in families facing a four-year freeze to their benefits.
The Children's Society is warning that from April the freeze will hit almost 372,000 low-income families across the region.
It risks pushing many more children into poverty over the next four years as living costs rise.
Shockingly, almost two thirds of those affected in Yorkshire and the Humber – 469,000 children living in 247,000 families – live in working households who receive benefits to top-up low pay.
Freezing Child Tax Credits, Working Tax Credits and Job Seekers’ Allowance – rather than raising them in line with living costs – could see affected families losing up to 12% from the real value of their benefits and tax credits by 2020.
Nationally, The Children’s Society estimates that around 7.5 million children living in 4 million families across the UK will be hit by the benefits freeze. Of these, 4.9 million children in 2.6 million families could be affected, despite at least one parent in each family being in work.
The freeze forms part of the Welfare Reform and Work Bill, which is due to be debated in Parliament today Tuesday 23 February.
Ahead of the debate, and ahead of next month’s Budget, the charity is urging the Government to reconsider its plan to freeze benefits and agree to a moratorium on further cuts in support for low-income families.
While some changes, such as the introduction of a higher minimum wage, might increase household incomes by 2020, others will cancel out any gains by significantly cutting key support for many families.
Planned changes that threaten to make life harder for struggling families, aside from the benefits freeze, include limiting Child Tax Credits to a family’s first two children and scrapping the family element of Child Tax Credit. In addition, Universal Credit claimants may receive less support than they might have under other benefits.
Young parents and families with disabled children claiming Universal Credit for the first time are particularly likely to lose out.
The changes are expected to impact various family types in the following ways for people making new claims in 2020:
- A 23-year-old primary school teacher and single mum of two children renting their home could be worse off by ÂŁ239 per month (ÂŁ2,868 per year). - A nurse and her partner with three children, renting in London, could be worse off by ÂŁ425 per month (ÂŁ5,100 per year). - An army corporal and his partner with three children, including one who is disabled, who own their home, could be worse off by ÂŁ771 per month (ÂŁ9,252 per year).
Rob Jackson, Area Director for The Children’s Society in Yorkshire and the Humber, said: “Families on low incomes across Yorkshire and the Humber are facing a barrage of cuts. If ministers are genuinely concerned about child poverty they must reconsider plans to freeze benefits over the next four years. At the very least, the Government needs to guarantee there will be no further cuts when the Chancellor delivers his Budget next month.
“Austerity has hit families hard, including those in work. Further cuts to support would push more children into poverty and undermine incentives for families to move into work or earn more.”