Budget hits poorest families hardest, says IFS

Low income families with children and older people will be hit hardest by the coalition government’s first Budget, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has claimed.

The tax and benefit changes announced in the emergency Budget in June are “clearly regressive”, the economic think tank found in an analysis of the impact of the cuts.

IFS researchers had previously cast doubts on Chancellor George Osborne’s claim that his was a “progressive Budget” that would hit the richest more than the poorest.

The Treasury said it did not accept the “selective” findings of the IFS, according to the BBC.

The changes, which include a freeze on child benefits and public sector pay, are due to come into effect between now and 2012-13.

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