Food bank boss predicting rise in
crime and hunger as benefits cut

Chris Mould, the executive chairman of the Trussell Trust, yesterday denounced the cash-saving move as “short-sighted” and said it would result in knock-on costs for other Government departments.

His warning came as the shopworkers’ union Usdaw released figures suggesting that the 1 per cent cap on benefit rises will cost families on low and middle incomes more than £1,000 over the next three years.

The Benefits Uprating Bill, published on Thursday, will implement the cap announced by Mr Osborne in his Autumn Statement earlier this month, which effectively reduces the value of a range of welfare payments by holding increases below the current rate of inflation.

Mr Osborne said he wanted to be fair to those who “see their neighbour still asleep, living a life on benefits” when they set off for work.

But Usdaw general secretary John Hannett said the cap would also affect people in work who receive child benefit and tax credits. The union’s calculations suggest that by 2015/16, a family with one child will have lost £784, those with two children £1,091 and families with three children £1,398, compared to what they would have received if the Government continued to uprate in line with inflation.

“Working people on low and middle incomes have already borne a disproportionate cost from the Government’s cuts,” said Mr Hannett.

“The freeze on Working Tax Credit and on Child Benefit has already substantially cut the incomes of working people at a time when the cost of basic necessities like food and fuel has been rising so sharply.

“Many of our members are reporting that they struggle to afford to feed their families and heat their homes.

“That cannot be right for people who are already working as many hours as they can.”

The 1 per cent cap, which will be imposed on working-age benefits and tax credits for three years from 2013/14 and on child benefit, housing benefit and universal credit for two years from 2014/15, is predicted to save the Government almost £2.4bn by the 2015 general election and a further £11.8bn in the three years after it.

But Mr Mould said it would force up spending in areas such as health, law and order and housing.