BENEFITS MOVE COSTS MILLIONS £200 A MONTH

Plea for Universal Credit rethink

MILLIONS of families will face losing £200 a month under the Government’s benefit changes.

The new universal credit system would cost half of single parents and twothirds of working couples with children

£2,400 every year.

Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey, inset, has revealed the figures to colleagues in the Cabinet.

In a triple whammy for hardup Brits, family debt is rising by

10% every year according to official figures and 100,000 are facing “unexpected” child tax benefit demands as they fall foul of new rules.

Universal credit is being introduced in stages nationwide to replace existing benefits. The monthly payment is intended for lowincome or out-of-work people but Government insiders are worried about its tarnished reputation. Charity the Trussell Trust has warned that plans to move the three million people who are receiving tax credits and disability benefits on to universal credit will trigger a huge strain on Britain’s food banks.

Torsten Bell, director of think tank the Resolution Foundation, said: “Rolling out universal credit is the Government’s single biggest domestic policy challenge.

“Delivering it successfully would bring real improvements but was always going to be difficult, involving significant change for millions of benefit claimants.

“But it has been made much harder because of the major cuts to benefits that are taking place at the same time.”

The Department for Work and Pensions did not comment.

entire nation of young girls but think it’s controversial to fight for equality of those girls. This is much less about Topshop than it is about powerful men.” Actress Thandie Newton