Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor has predicted that the £110 billion austerity cuts put in place by the coalition Government would hit women with children the hardest of all in society.
Mr Balls explained that the cuts to childcare support that would see families with two children losing out of up to £1,560 a year and combined with other costs incurred by freezing child benefits and cutting tax credits would see families really losing out.
Mr Balls warned: “Today will be a Black Wednesday for millions of families across Britain. All this pain, all in one go, aimed at families with children, is not just deeply unfair; it will hamper our economy too.”
He went on to say that that George Osborne’s “too deep too fast” approach was effectively “damaging consumer confidence and holding back an economy which should be growing strongly this year.”
The warning from Ed Balls came at the same time that the Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development revealed that Britain’s growth over the next three months will roughly compare to one third of the pace of other major world economies.
It is thought that out of the G7 countries, only Japan will see worse growth due to the earthquake.
The coalition government has been heavily criticised for the scale of its austerity programme and many have claimed that this is yet more proof that they are jeopardising the economic recovery of the country.
Research carried out last week highlighted that workers are now more than £1,000 worse off than they two years ago. This is a direct result of wages failing to keep up with the rising costs of everyday living.
References:
Black Wednesday warning
OECD
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