FAMILIES 'NEED WAGES OF £71,000 TO BEAT BENEFITS'

Critics reveal true Budget burden on working parents with three kids

- DAVID WILLIAMSON

HARD-WORKING families with three children have to earn £71,000 to bring in as much money as a similar household living entirely on benefits, a damning report claims.

Jobless families on handouts are also £18,000 better off than neighbours on the national living wage. The verdict comes after Rachel Reeves axed the two-child benefit cap in her Budget. The Chancellor is facing calls to quit for allegedly misleading the country about the state of the public finances ahead of her tax-raising speech last Wednesday.

The Centre for Social Justice has warned that Britain is in a "welfare crisis" in the wake of her "benefits Budget". The report from the respected think-tank lands as Sir Keir Starmer remains under pressure to fire Ms Reeves.

Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, who founded the body, said: "Hiking taxes on working people to pay for £16billion in extra welfare spending is a bad choice...We must make work pay and as this government loses control of a ballooning welfare budget it will ensure work does not pay." The Chancellor is further accused of breaking Labour's election manifesto pledge not to raise taxes on working people, when she extended for three years a freeze on the point at which people start paying income tax.

There are also fears for the future of high street shops, restaurants and pubs, with many businesses facing higher taxes.

Shadow Chancellor Sir Mel Stride said: "Rachel Reeves delivered a benefits Budget paid for by hardworking people.

"She misrepresented the state of the public finances to distract from the fact taxes are going up by billions to fund a welfare splurge.