Scores of charities and public bodies heaping pressure on chancellor to ditch draconian welfare cuts before budget

George Osborne is facing unprecedented pressure to halt £12 billion-worth of welfare cuts to be announced next week as part of his budget statement.

The Scottish Campaign on Welfare Reform (SCoWR) is the latest group to call on the UK government to ditch further austerity measures after leading charities yesterday (1 July) warned more cuts would push vulnerable people to breaking point .

Osborne is expected to outline how the government will scythe at least £12 billion from the welfare bill at the 8 July budget annocuement - and it is expected that tax credits, working-age benefits and housing benefit will be subjected to swingeing cuts.

But Child Poverty Action Group Scotland (CPAG) along with One Parent Families and The Poverty Alliance - which coordinates SCoWR - said the planned changes were intolerable.

In the Queen’s Speech, the government confirmed that the benefit cap would be reduced from £26,000 to £23,000 for a non-working family.

It is expected that this will actually only save around £135m a year but a leaked government memo suggested that a change in the benefit cap would result in another 40,000 children living in poverty.

It is time the UK government listened - John Dickie

Peter Kelly, director of the Poverty Alliance, said the planned changes will hurt the poorest families most and were “ideologically driven.”

He added: “We know the move will save very little money and will push more families into poverty, but it is likely that the UK government will persevere with it anyway.

“Alongside our colleagues in SCoWR we have campaigned, and will continue to campaign for, a fairer social security system which lifts people out of poverty and helps them achieve their full potential.

“I would urge the chancellor to reconsider these proposals and ensure that the poorest families throughout the UK are able to access the support they need to lead decent, dignified lives.”

John Dickie, head of CPAG Scotland, said rather than indiscriminate cuts to the benefits and tax credits the country needed to see a fundamentally different approach to social security.

“Voluntary organisations, trade unions and faith groups across Scotland are united in calling for a system that provides genuinely adequate support in a way that respects peoples dignity and promotes their wellbeing,” he said.

“It’s time the UK government listened."

All of the UK’s children’s commissioners also warned this week that more cuts will plunge kids into deeper, more desperate poverty.

They have asked the United Nations to intervene believing the cuts represent a breach of children’s human rights and go against the UN’s articles of convention.

Satwat Rehman, director of One Parent Families Scotland, said a draconian regime of benefit cuts and sanctioning means single parents and their children have been disproportionately affected.

She added: “It is no accident that use of foodbanks is highest in areas with the highest levels of sanctioning.

“Benefits are set at the minimum level of existence so if you take this away people can’t feed themselves or their children.

“This government is ideologically wedded to continuous cuts as the route to a smaller public sector which in the end means our poorest citizens are being made poorer.

“The most vulnerable have suffered enough and should be safeguarded from further cuts.”