Hard-pressed families could get £130 boost if Philip Hammond scraps benefit freeze

[Ulquiorra]

HARD-pressed families could get a £130 boost if Philip Hammond scraps the benefit freeze in two weeks.

Campaigning MP Frank Field demanded the Chancellor use his spring statement to ditch the final year of the benefits freeze, a move which would help millions of families who are being forced to food banks.

Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) boss Amber Rudd has said she will fight to end the freeze if she can.

New research from the House of Commons showed that a lone parent in work could be £132 better off per year if the freeze was ditched for 2019/20, while those who are out of work could be £723 better off.

In a letter to the Chancellor Mr Field said the effective cuts to benefits had had a "devastating" impact on poor households - and single parents are £1,400 worse off over the last four years.

And that the freeze had totally wiped out any benefits the boost to the minimum wage or increases in the personal allowance had brought.

Mr Field, who quit the Labour Party last year, said: "In the light of these trends, it is not difficult to see why so many families, reliant on low-waged jobs, now seek help from their local food bank.

"There is an overwhelming precariousness that has engulfed families in low-waged work, all too many of whom are vulnerable to hunger because their incomes will not stretch to the end of the month.

"I very much hope that, having considered these new data, the Chancellor will begin setting out, in the Spring Statement, a rescue package for the living standards of families with children whose incomes have been wrecked by successive waves of caps and freezes."

Last month the DWP Secretary Ms Rudd admitted that the five-week wait for Universal Credit could have driven people to food banks.

She said there were problems with people not being able to access cash quickly enough and having to seek help for food.

A Government spokesman said: "Our priority is to support people to improve their lives. Last week's figures show the unemployment rate is the joint lowest since 1975 and wages are growing at the fastest rate in over a decade, outpacing inflation for nearly a year.

"We know that some people need more support. That's why we're spending £90 billion to support families who need it, and by 2022 we will be spending £28 billion more on welfare than we do now."

Mr Hammond will deliver his spring statement on March 13.

It's set to be a minor speech as the Budget in the Autumn is where all the major tax and spend decisions are given.

But with Brexit just weeks away the Chancellor could use the speech to pump out emergency funding.