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Budget 'to leave 13 million families worse off'

Thirteen million families will lose an average of £260 each year because of the change to working-age benefits, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has said.

Reacting to the first all-Conservative Budget in 19 years, the IFS said it was "regressive" and had taken "much more" from the poor than the rich.

George Osborne earlier defended his Budget, saying it represented a "new contract" for Britain.

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Budget 'unfair' to Catholics because of tax credit limits

The Budget is unfair to Catholics because of plans to limit to two the number of children eligible for tax credits from April 2017, a Labour MP has suggested.

Iain Duncan Smith said he was Credit: PA Wire

Intervening on Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith in the Commons, his Labour shadow, Helen Goodman asked: "Could you explain to the House why cutting tax credits for large families is a fair thing to do when it will be concentrated... on families where children are living in poverty, on Roman Catholic families, on Catholics from other minorities.

"Don't you understand that every child matters?"

Mr Duncan Smith replied: "I have for some time believed the way tax credits operated distorted the system so there were far too many families not going into work, living in bigger and bigger houses, with larger families subsidised by the state when many others, the vast majority of families in Britain, make decisions about how many children they can have and the houses they can live in.

"Getting that balance back is about getting fairness back into the system."

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