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Seven million children face benefits freeze

Millions of children face being pushed into poverty if the planned four-year freeze on benefits comes into force this April, new research has found.

A briefing from the Children’s Society reveals that 7.59 million children will face the freeze, of which 4.92 million – two-thirds – are children in working families.

This freeze is part of a draft of changes in the proposed Welfare Reform and Work Bill, which is being debated in Parliament today. Other changes include the new Universal Credit, introduction of the National Living Wage, and an increase in the income tax personal allowance.

The Children’s Society says the combined changes will mean that various family types lose thousands of pounds in income by 2020 as living costs rise.

Their briefing, entitled The Future of Family Incomes: How key tax and welfare changes will affect families to 2020, compares how the overall income of six case-study families will change from 2015 to 2020.

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