Poverty will soar due to cuts — Meacher

Michael Meacher

HARD-UP Oldhamers will get the opposite of Christmas cheer when letters detailing tax credit cuts arrive in December.

Oldham West and Royton MP Michael Meacher has demanded an investigation into the impact cuts to tax credits will have on “in-work poverty” as numbers visiting food banks continue to soar.

Mr Meacher said the country was seeing a return of absolute poverty, which has not existed in Britain since Victorian times.

He said: “The Tories have no idea of how their cuts will impact on people and nor do they care. We need a commission to find out how these brutal cuts on the low paid, families and young people impact on poverty figures.

“Millions of families are living in poverty despite employment and that number is the same as poverty levels for those out of work. It is inevitable levels will soar given the cuts passed by the Tories in Parliament.”

Cuts to tax credits were announced in the Budget after May’s general election and were passed by Parliament last week with a majority of 35. They will take effect in April. Claimants will hear in December what the effect will be on them, but more than three million families are expected to lose £1,000 a year.