Philip Hammond has been urged to use next month’s Spring Statement to outline measures to fix the broken labour market and rescue the working poor.
The Commons work and pensions committee chairman Frank Field called on the chancellor to tackle an “overwhelming precariousness” that has “engulfed families in low-waged work”.
His pleas come as a new survey found one in three workers are falling behind with household bills, with many turning to payday loans.
Centre for Labour and Social Studies director Dr Faiza Shaheen, who commissioned the study, said the findings show the UK labour market “is broken”, with multiple stresses of low pay and overwork becoming a “serious threat to workers’ health as well as the economy”.
The squeeze on benefits since 2010 has been found to have had a devastating effect on some of the poorest households in the country.
According to a study released last week austerity policies have resulted in nine years of slower growth and left us all £1,495 a year worse off, with the economy left short of £100 billion in lost revenue.
In a letter to the chancellor, MP Frank Field spoke of feeling ‘horror’ that people in his Birkenhead constituency had been relying on food banks.
A government spokesman said: “We are spending £90 billion to support families who need it, and by 2022 we will be spending £28 billion more on welfare than we do now.”
