LOW income families could lose as much as £90 a week under new rules for Family Credit - and some would find it more lucrative to give up work, it has been claimed.

From July 2, the top-up paid to families on low wages will be stopped as soon as the youngest child leaves school.

"The Government is penalising those families who go out to work for low pay," said Lancashire County council welfare rights committee chairman Frank McKenna.

"This change could result in the ludicrous situation where someone would be better off giving up work because they would be able to claim extra benefit for their son or daughter.

"Family credit is usually awarded for six months at a time and any changes in a family's circumstances are ignored until the next assessment, which makes this proposal even more difficult to understand.

"If someone won the lottery it wouldn't make any difference until they were next assessed.

"But if their youngest child leaves school their Family Credit would stop straight away.

"It will cause hardship and distress to those families trying hard to make ends meet on a low income.

"The state of the nation's finances must be dreadful if the Government is reduced to targeting such mean-minded measures on poor families."

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