Business, education and community groups across the North East have urged the Prime Minister and Chancellor to abandon rumoured benefits changes which they say would be “cruel and completely avoidable”.
Reports have been growing in recent days that the Government is planning not to increase benefits in line with inflation, instead pegging any rise to average wage increases. Former Ministers and Conservative MPs have voiced strong opposition to the plans, but Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng have refused to rule out the controversial move.
Now a wide coalition of groups in the North East have written to Ms Truss and Mr Kwarteng to say that below-inflation increases in Universal Credit and other benefits would increase the already high levels of hardship in the North East and worsen child poverty in the region, which already has the highest level in the UK. Groups including the North East England Chamber of Commerce, Schools North East, Children North East and the North East Child Poverty Commission have signed the letter, which has also been sent to all MPs in the region.
