A three-year-old boy has posted a heartbreaking plea to No 10 ahead of tomorrow's mini budget - warning millions of cash-strapped families face an "impossible winter".
Tomorrow the Tories will announce sweeping tax cuts which critics warn will predominantly benefit the well-off, amid calls for better support for Brits on low incomes.
Mum Merve Kalgidim, 33, and son Kingsley, three, today presented a series of petitions with more than 400,000 signatures to Downing Street demanding urgent action to address the cost of living crisis.
Worried families have called on the government to deliver a full emergency budget that includes an immediate boost to Universal Credit and other benefits and get reverse energy bill hikes.
Merve, who juggles part-time work with caring for her son, faces the prospect of spending a third of her Universal Credit just on energy bills this winter.
She says the £2,500 energy price cap will do nothing to prevent suffering in the coming months.
Merve said: “This winter is just going to be impossible for people on Universal Credit. Bills are already too high, and even with the new limit, they’re still going to go up.
“It’s not even just energy bills, food has gone through the roof - I’ve always shopped at the cheapest supermarkets but now I’m struggling to afford basics.
“It’s a really disempowering feeling, feeling like you’re never going to get afloat, that there’s nothing you can do. The system needs to change so that people like me aren’t trapped in this position.”
Charities including Save The Children, Turn2Us and The Big Issue handed in the petitions, organised by campaign group 38 Degrees, urging Liz Truss to listen to struggling families.
Former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: "Until those who face poverty are given proper protection thousands upon thousands of British people will continue to demand urgent action to end the cost of living crisis and I want to thank the 156,000 plus who have signed a petition calling for Parliament to act immediately."
Rev David Hardman, representing faith group Joint Public Issues Team, said: “Despite government announcements around energy costs, research shows that those living in poverty will be disproportionally worse off this winter.
"A family of four on Universal Credit will still have to find an extra £1400 to cover their household bills.
"This is unacceptable. As people of faith we believe that no-one should be stripped of their dignity and forced into impossible choices. We therefore call on the government to uprate Universal Credit so as to ensure that all can eat and keep warm this winter.”
The national insurance hike introduced by Boris Johnson's government will be reversed from November 6, Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng has announced.
Ahead of his mini-budget on Friday, Mr Kwarteng confirmed that he was cancelling the 1.25 percentage point increase imposed by Rishi Sunak when he was chancellor to pay for social care and dealing with the NHS backlog.
Mr Kwarteng said he would also be scrapping the planned Health and Social Care Levy which was due to come into effect next April to replace the national insurance rise.
The Government tabled legislation in the Commons on Thursday to enact the tax changes.
Mr Kwarteng said: "Taxing our way to prosperity has never worked. To raise living standards for all, we need to be unapologetic about growing our economy.
"Cutting tax is crucial to this - and whether businesses reinvest freed-up cash into new machinery, lower prices on shop floors or increased staff wages, the reversal of the levy will help them grow, whilst also allowing the British public to keep more of what they earn."
The Treasury said most employees will receive a cut to their national insurance contribution directly via their employer's payroll in their November pay, although some may be delayed to December or January.
The levy was expected to raise around £13 billion a year to fund social care and deal with the NHS backlog which has built up due to the Covid pandemic.
However Mr Kwarteng said funding for health and social care services will be maintained at the same level as if it was still in place.
The Chancellor and Prime Minister Liz Truss have argued that the lost revenues will be recovered through higher economic growth stimulated by the cuts in taxation.
But with Mr Kwarteng also preparing to scrap a planned rise in corporation tax, some economists have warned about the sharp rise in Government borrowing.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies said the plan to drive growth was "a gamble at best" and that ministers risked putting the public finances on an "unsustainable path".
