Labour: George Osborne’s benefit cap to hit 14,000 Tower Hamlets families

Benefit caps announced by Chancellor George Osborne in his autumn statement on the economy will hit 14,000 working families in Tower Hamlets, Labour has claimed.

Earlier this month, Mr Osborne announced that increases in benefit payments would be capped at one per cent - below the rate of inflation – for the next three years.

But Labour councillors and MPs are warning that the cap will hit some of the borough’s poorest working families, not just those who choose to remain on benefits.

“George Osborne’s announcement in the autumn statement is another painful blow for residents in Tower Hamlets”, said Rushanara Ali, MP for Bethnal Green and Bow.

“There is nothing fair about making working families pay the price for this government’s economic failure.”

Delivering the statement in the House of Commons, Mr Osborne had promised to make sure the welfare system is “fair to the working people who pay for it”, and not just those “living a life on benefits”.

But Labour claims that thousands of residents of Tower Hamlets with full time jobs who rely on tax credits to top up wages and make living in the capital affordable will be hit.

Tower Hamlets Labour group deputy leader Cllr Motin Uz-Zaman said: “To hit 14,000 of the hardest working families with another round of cuts is totally unfair.

“With the cost of living in London sky rocketing, families working long hours on the minimum wage still need help to make ends meet.”