top of page
18,300 Hull children in families hit by Tory Tax Credits cut
Diana Johnson MP
14/09/15, 00:00
The House of Commons votes today on Tory Government plans to cut Tax Credits for working families.
Figures from Office of National Statistics show that these cuts will hit the incomes of 10,500 families with children in Hull with a total of 18,300 children in these families.
In addition there will be 4,500 Hull households without children who will lose out from the Tax Credit cuts.
Three quarters of children in Hull North are in households who currently receive tax credits. Across the country, 70% of the three million families claiming tax credits are in work and will lose an average of over £1,000 a year from the Tax Credit cut.
Research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies shows that only 13% of the tax and benefit reductions announced in the recent Tory Budget will be recouped in the planned increase in the National Minimum Wage, when it is increased to £9 per hour by 2020 for workers over 25.
As well as voting against the Government's Tax Credit cuts, throughout this Autumn Hull North's MP Diana Johnson is to consult constituents across Hull North about measures in the Welfare Reform and Work Bill, such as the benefits cap reduction, Tax Credit cuts and plans to limit Tax Credit payments to two children.
Hull North MP Diana Johnson said: "It's now clear that 10,500 working families in Hull will be an average of over £1,000 a year poorer as a result of Tax Credit cuts.
"Not only are the Tax Credit cuts happening years before the promised increase in the National Minimum Wage, but even when the so-called 'National Living Wage' arrives in 2020 it will only claw back a modest fraction of what these families have already lost.
"Worse still, there are 18,300 Hull children in these households being hit by Tax Credit cuts. This means that child poverty will also worsen in Hull. Already the most recent figures showed that 48% of children in Orchard Park and Greenwood Ward live in households classed as in poverty, after housing costs are counted.
"These Tax Credit changes, not mentioned before the General Election, will mean more poverty and drive more people into Food Banks including many who are in work. So much for the Tories 'making work pay'. The richest have had tax cuts since 2010. But it's thousands of working families in places like Hull who are feeling the pinch."
Speaking about her plans to consult constituents on the latest welfare changes, Diana Johnson MP added: "To assist my work of opposing the Tory attacks on working families and looking at Labour's own longer term policies on welfare, this Autumn I am asking constituents in wards throughout Hull North for their views on several aspects of the changes that are in the Welfare Reform and Work Bill.
"I look forward to receiving local residents' views and will be writing to the Government with the consultation results and using them in Parliament."
bottom of page