Reports Say Universal Credit Will Affect Half UK’s Children!

As we are all well aware, Britain’s benefit system is in the process of undergoing a huge overhaul. The changes will affect working families.

Changes will include:

– Freezing tax credits for four years.

– Limiting child tax credits to two kids for children born after April 2017.

– Cutting the household benefit cap to £20,000.

According to The Mirror there were an estimated 14.7 million children and young people aged 19 and under that were part of families relying on tax credits in 2013. This means that as many as 50% of children and young people around the country could be affected by the switch to Universal Credit.

The Mirror reported: ‘Tower Hamlets in east London and Blackburn, Lancashire are the places likely to haveamongthe highest proportions of children affected. In TowerHamlets as many as 74% of children and young people in the borough lived in families who were drawing taxcredits, while in Blackburn the figure was 73%. The government says that it is introducing Universal Credit to ‘make work pay’ and to simplify the system. Many of the areas likely to be most heavily hit were towns and cities that struggle with poverty and deprivation.’

In the last budget, George Osborne tightened the threshold for Universal Credit, which means that the amount families will receive will go down quite quickly from last year.

CLICK HERE to read how universal credit could take free school meals away.

CLICK HERE to read how the benefits overhaul affects you.