No UK benefits decision until end of October, says chancellor

Kwasi Kwarteng told MPs ‘no decisions have been made’ on whether welfare payments will rise with inflation or face a real-terms cut. Photograph: PRU/AFP/Getty Images

Struggling households will have to wait until the end of October to find out whether welfare payments will rise with inflation or be subject to a real-terms cut, the chancellor has announced.

Kwasi Kwarteng was accused of compounding the anxiety faced by those already at the sharp end of the cost of living crisis by telling them clarity would not come until his Halloween fiscal statement.