Welfare spending for UK's poorest shrinks by £37bn

Field said the cuts were behind increases in food bank use and destitution.Spending on welfare benefits for the UK’s poorest families will have shrunk by nearly a quarter after a decade of austerity, according to new figures highlighting the plunge in living standards experienced by the worst-off.The figures, obtained by the Labour MP Frank Field, show that just under half the total savings will come from the freezing of most working-age benefit levels since 2016, a policy which will deliv