BENEFITS are finally set for a boost next year, giving millions of Brits hundreds of pounds extra per year.
The Chancellor said there are NO plans to extend the benefits freeze – meaning that austerity will be over for millions of Brits in 2020.
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The four year freeze for working age benefits means they haven’t risen in line with inflation and they’ve been worse off in real terms.
Anyone claiming any kind of benefits including Jobseeker’s Allowance, Income Support or Housing Benefit, their payments would stay the same, it was announced at the end of last year.
Mr Hammond told the Commons the four-year suspension on increasing payments was “one of the very many difficult decisions we have had to take”, but it will end next year.
The Chancellor said: “We’ve made it very clear we have no intention of repeating the current freeze. When it is over, increases in benefits will resume in line with CPI in the normal way.”
But charities and campaigners hit out at Mr Hammond for not ending the four-year freeze early.
The Resolution Foundation said the continuing benefits freeze next year would leave low-income households more than £200 a year worse off.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation said the freeze will leave families even worse off – £560 on average.
Campbell Robb, chief executive of the Foundation said: “The Government should have shown today that it is serious about tackling the rising tide of poverty in the UK.
“Instead they chose not to end the freeze on benefits leaving families in poverty to face rising costs and bear all the risks of economic uncertainty, especially if we leave the EU without a deal.”
And CPAG chief executive Alison Garnham said: “The Chancellor could have sent a lifeline to low-income families.”
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The House of Commons Library said typical parents in work with two children would be £1,845 better off in 2019/20 if it were not for the policy.
But it was part of George Osborne’s austerity cuts to try and balance the books and get the country’s finances back on track when the Tories came into power in 2010.
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