Almost 88,000 children in Tayside and Fife will be affected as their families lose up to £1,000 a year under UK Government Budget plans, new figures have revealed.
House of Commons Library statistics, sourced by former First Minister Alex Salmond, reveal the dramatic scale of the financial impact proposed cuts to tax credits will have.
More than two-thirds of the youngsters who will see their state support slashed are from local working families, according to analysis of the statistics by The Courier.
Mr Salmond, MP for Gordon, said: “These figures expose the cruel con trick behind the Budget. My constituency is, on paper, one of the most prosperous in the country but no fewer than 3,200 children are in families set to lose out.
“The living wage is a great policy and a long-standing SNP policy, but in total it is worth only one third of the loss of income from welfare cuts.
“It also helps different people. Hard working people with low family incomes have been hammered by this Budget as these dramatic figures show.”
The Institute for Fiscal Studies said George Osborne’s minimum wage rise would not cover the welfare cuts, including the likes of child tax credits and working tax credits, which will impact on low-income workers in particular.
The independent body said some tax credit claimants would be left up to £1,000 a year worse off.
A Treasury spokeswoman said: “As the chancellor said, we are moving
Britain from a low wage, high tax and high welfare economy to a higher wage, lower tax and lower welfare society.
“That’s why we’ve introduced the National Living Wage, which taken together with all the welfare savings and the tax cuts, means a typical family where someone is working full-time on the minimum wage will be better off in 2020.