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George Osborne: I'm trying to help people "who want to work hard"
Chancellor George Osborne has denied his Autumn Statement will hit the working poor harder than the rich.
Mr Osborne insists a benefit squeeze is fair on people who go out to work and pay tax.
But Labour says the majority of people affected by the move, announced in Wednesday's statement, are in work.
All working age benefits, including tax credits and child benefit, will go up by 1% a year, less than the rate of inflation, for the next three years.
In his statement, Mr Osborne confirmed it would take longer to clear the country's debts than he previously thought - and this means the spending cuts will go on for longer than planned.
Pensioners have been protected with pensions going up by 2.5%.
But the chancellor said a further squeeze on the welfare budget was needed to help pay off the deficit - but he said other moves, such as a £1bn raid on the pension pots of the wealthy, meant the "richest 20% have paid most".
- One of the two major statements the chancellor has to make to Parliament every year
- Since 1997 the main Budget - which contains the bulk of tax, benefit and duty changes - has been in the spring before the start of the tax year in April
- The second statement has tended to focus on updating forecasts for government finances
- Under the last Labour government it was called the pre-Budget report
He said measures such as raising the level at which people start paying income tax and scrapping a planned 3p rise rise in fuel duty would also help the low paid and proved "We're all in this together".
He sought to justify the squeeze on benefit payments by suggesting working people would support it.
"I think people getting ready to go out to work, they are frustrated that they pay their taxes, that they work long hours and a lot of that money, frankly too much of that money, goes into a welfare system that supports out-of-worklessness," Mr Osborne told
But Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls said the majority of people affected by the move were not unemployed - and a working family with children on £20,000 a year would lose £279 a year from April.
"He somehow wants to attack people he thinks are workshy and feckless but if you look at the facts 60% of the people who are affected by that 1% freeze are in work,"
He said planned cuts to maternity pay and the top rate of income tax made a mockery of Mr Osborne's claim to be cutting fairly, saying: "Where's the fairness in that?".
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