Truss’s planned benefits cuts are axed

BENEFITS will keep up with the soaring cost of living after a controversial cut being considered by Liz Truss was ditched.

Welfare payments for working-age people and the disabled will rise by 10.1 per cent, in line with inflation, from April.

It means a family on Universal Credit will get an average £600 more next year, at a total cost to taxpayers of £11billion.

And it also means the Government will avoid a major revolt. During Miss Truss’s brief time as prime minister she had refused to commit to the rise, prompting outrage from several senior Tories who said the most vulnerable in society must be protected.

In an implicit criticism of the former PM, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt told the Commons yesterday: ‘There have been some representations to keep the uplift to working age and disability benefits below the level of inflation given the financial constraints we face. But that would not be consistent with our commitment to protect the most vulnerable.’

His move was welcomed by Rebecca McDonald, chief economist at anti-poverty charity the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, who said: ‘It will be a huge relief to families on benefits that they are not facing what would have amounted to a historic cut. The Government has acknowledged that people cannot withstand benefits being eroded any further.’

But she warned: ‘Families are facing the worst winter many will remember and can’t wait for April – they need help now to get through a winter of soaring costs.’

The Bishop of St Albans, the Rt Rev Alan Smith, and Bishop of Durham the Rt Rev Paul Butler said in a statement: ‘One of our key concerns was to see benefits keep pace with inflation.

‘So we welcome the Chancellor’s commitment in this regard but continue to call for the end to the two-child limit on Universal Credit, which hits some of the poorest families hardest.’

Meanwhile, the national living wage is to increase by 9.7 per cent to £10.42 an hour from next April, giving a pay boost to an estimated 2million workers.

It represents an increase of more than £1,600 a year to the average earnings of a full-time worker, the Government said.