Caroline Dinenage, a work and pensions minister, confirmed that the benefit freeze for working age people will remain in place, while the state pension and some other benefits will increase by the rate of inflation at 3%. The freeze, which has been in place since 2015, means a real-terms cut in income for millions of people because of rising living costs. But the freeze will still bite for millions of people in a move that saves the Treasury about £1.9bn next year. Philip Hammond had been facing calls to scrap the four-year benefit freeze promised by George Osborne in 2015 but he did not overturn the policy at last week’s autumn budget. The Joseph Rowntree foundation has predicted the freeze is set to drive almost half a million more people into poverty by 2020.

Source: The Guardian November 27, 2017 19:23 UTC