Working Britons will be forced to fund 25,000 more families on benefits thanks to Rachel Reeves’s Budget, the fiscal watchdog has admitted.
The Chancellor lifted the two-child benefit cap on Wednesday – with parents now able to claim Universal Credit and tax reductions for their third and any subsequent children.
The move was widely panned for buckling to the demands of the Labour left – several of whom were suspended from the party last summer after campaigning to do exactly what Ms Reeves did yesterday.
She said lifting it would bring 450,000 children out of poverty – at a cost to taxpayers of £3billion by 2030, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).
Around 560,000 families’ payouts will soar by an average of £5,310 by that year, while many households will start to claim Universal Credit for the first time ever as a direct result of the Budget.
The total cost “includes £300million by 2029-30 for the cost of an estimated 25,000 additional entitled families making a claim as a result of the increase”, the OBR said.
Shadow Chancellor Sir Mel Stride said: “The OBR confirms it: this was a benefits Budget.
“Tens of thousands of additional families will now be claiming Universal Credit thanks to Labour making benefits more generous – the clearest sign yet that Labour has engineered a system where it pays more to claim benefits than to work.
“Rachel Reeves has chosen to put taxes up to pay for more and more welfare.”
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Crowing Corbynistas declare victory after Rachel Reeves’s ‘Benefits Budget’
John McDonnell, Jeremy Corbyn’s Shadow Chancellor, hailed how Ms Reeves had buckled to the Labour left’s demands
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HOUSE OF COMMONS
Leading Corbynista MPs declared victory yesterday after it was confirmed that Rachel Reeves would lift the two-child benefit cap – at working Britons’ expense.
John McDonnell, Jeremy Corbyn’s Shadow Chancellor, hailed how Ms Reeves had buckled to the Labour left’s demands after more than a year of pleading.
Labour suspended the whip from seven MPs – including Mr McDonnell – who backed a move to lift the cap last summer.
Then in September, more than 100 Labour MPs demanded the Chancellor scrap it.
Mr McDonnell said: “I want to pay tribute to all those who stood firm in the campaign to scrap this appalling policy, including all those of my colleagues who faced disciplinary action in the Labour Party but never wavered.
“We’ve won.”