Child benefit cuts 'tough but necessary' say ministers
Ministers have defended plans to cut child benefits to higher earners amid criticism they represent an "attack" on already hard-pressed families.
From 2013, benefits will be removed from any family where one parent earns more than about £44,000 a year.
Labour said the move - aimed at saving £1bn a year - undermined the coalition's claim to be a family-friendly government.
But Chancellor George Osborne described the plans as tough but fair.
In a speech to the Conservative conference, Mr Osborne said he was determined to "stick with" the government's five-year plan to substantially cut the deficit, even though it would result in difficult decisions that ministers would not be taking otherwise.
'Makes sense'
He also announced plans to cap the maximum amount of benefits that any single family can claim at about £26,000 - the same amount that an average family gets from work.
Mr Osborne said the move - which it is estimated could see up to 50,000 workless families worse off by an average of £93 a week and some losing up to £300 a week - would signal to people that a life on benefits cannot pay.
But unions said it would stigmatise those unable to find work and harm the young in particular.
As recently as a year ago, Mr Osborne said he would preserve child benefit - for decades paid to millions of families irrespective of their income - as it was "valued by millions" of families.
But he said he he could no longer defend paying out £1bn a year to better-off families and the one-off cut "made sense" given the scale of debt and welfare spending he had inherited.
About 1.2 million families - about 15% of recipients of child benefit - will lose out on payments currently worth £20.30 a week for the eldest child and £13.40 for subsequent children.
Families with three children no longer eligible for the benefits - which continue to the age of 19 - face being £2,500 a year worse off.
While critics said they accepted it was right that better-off families should be targeted, there was anger about apparent anomalies in the proposals.
Households where two parents each earning slightly less than £44,000 - adding up to a combined family income of over £80,000 - will keep the benefit while households where just one parent earns over £44,000 will lose it.
Parenting and anti-poverty groups said this risked penalising lone parents and mothers staying at home to look after their children.
