AMBER RUDD is preparing a near £2billion spending spree on benefits for low-paid Brits to tackle a shock rise in child poverty.
The Sun can reveal the Work and Pensions Secretary is demanding a small fortune to top up child benefits and housing allowances.
PA:Press Association
The money would be paid out from April 2020 – after the end of the current four-year benefits freeze.
Initial meetings have been held with Treasury officials ahead of the Chancellor’s Spending Review later this year.
It comes just days after ministers were humiliated by official figures showing a shock 200,000 rise in the number of children living in absolute poverty – to 3.7million.
The number – the government’s preferred poverty measure – had been falling since 2012.
Sources claimed Ms Rudd initially sought £1.5billion but the actual total package could add up to £2billion spread over three years.
One insider said: “It’s extra money for child benefit in Universal Credit – and local housing allowance for people with children. The question is whether it will support those that need it most.
“The thing is the extra money may only keep poverty levels flat.”
A Treasury source said: “The Chancellor has said he wants to get welfare spending back into a sustainable position and will consider all spending review bids in the usual way.”
URGENT ACTION
Ms Rudd promised to take action after last week’s figures revealed the effect the four-year benefits freeze was having on income growth for the lowest paid.
In an address seen as a Tory leadership pitch, she said she wanted to look at the “next steps on welfare policy” in the spending review.
“I will of course look at what more can be done to address poverty,” she told MPs.
Child Poverty Action Group said the four year benefits freeze put in place by ex-Chancellor George Osborne had cost families with children an average of £240 a year.
New Government data last week showed the number of children living in absolute poverty across the UK had gone up by 200,000 – after gradually falling since 2012.
Theresa May yesterday insisted the Government took poverty “very seriously”. She had been accused of failing in her 2016 promise to tackle “burning injustices” by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Speaking in the Commons, the PM said: “The only sustainable way to tackle poverty is with a strong economy and a welfare system that helps people into work. That is why it is important that we have the lowest unemployment since the 1970s.”
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online politics team? Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368. We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours
