Reacting to today’s Benefits Up-Rating Bill second reading, Julia Unwin, Chief Executive of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said:

“Today’s Bill is bad news for people living in poverty, whether they’re in work or out of work. Clearly, there are difficult decisions to be taken by Government, but Ministers’ opportunistic rhetoric on this issue is disturbing. Allowing today’s Bill to be presented as a choice between the ‘deserving and ‘underserving poor’ is both morally and economically wrong.

As incomes fall and costs rise for people – whether they are in or out of work - we are at risk of entering a decade of destitution.”