CONTROVERSIAL plans to freeze benefits until 2020 will hit more children in Bradford than almost anywhere else in the country, a national charity warned today.

More than 100,000 children across the district live in low-income families who face a real-terms cut to their benefits if the Government presses ahead with its plans, new analysis by the Children's Society shows.

And two-thirds of the children affected would be from working families using in-work benefits to top up low pay.

The charity has urged the Government to re-think the move, warning it will push more children into poverty and undermine incentives for parents to find work.

Rob Jackson, Yorkshire area director for the Children’s Society, said: "Families on low incomes across Yorkshire and the Humber are facing a barrage of cuts.

"If ministers are genuinely concerned about child poverty they must reconsider plans to freeze benefits over the next four years.

"At the very least, the Government needs to guarantee there will be no further cuts when the Chancellor delivers his budget next month."

The Government's Welfare Reform and Work Bill includes proposals to freeze child tax credits, working tax credits and jobseekers’ allowance for four years from April.

But the Children's Society has warned that if benefits are frozen, rather than rising in line with living costs, it will hit the pockets of 48,700 families in the Bradford district, including 32,400 families where at least one parent is working.

Its analysis shows Bradford would be the second-worst hit district in England and Wales after Birmingham under the changes.

In total, 104,000 under-18s would be affected - around three-quarters of the district's children.

The charity has warned that the benefits freeze and other planned welfare cuts threaten to wipe out any gains made by the introduction of the £9-an-hour National Living Wage.

But a spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions refuted the charity's criticisms, saying: "The reality is that our welfare reforms are incentivising work while protecting the most vulnerable, and ensuring we have a system which is fair to those who pay for it, and to those who benefit from it.

"We are bringing welfare spending under control, while – crucially – helping people into work, and through Universal Credit helping them to earn more.

"More people than ever before are now in work, wages are rising above inflation, and the National Living Wage is set to boost pay even further."

Imran Hussain, Labour MP for Bradford East, said the Children's Society's figures were deeply worrying.

He accused the Government of "persecuting welfare claimants and forcing them to make the decision of whether there will be food on the table or money on the electricity meter".

He said: "What is particularly concerning about these figures is the high number of families who receive top-up support for low pay that will be affected by the four-year freeze, a figure totalling 8,700 in Bradford East and 32,400 in the whole of the district, as it demonstrates the prevalence of low wages which this government shows no signs of tackling, despite their widely announced ‘living wage’, which when analysed is actually nothing close."

Naz Shah, Labour MP for Bradford West, said: "The 104,000 children affected in the Bradford district is quite alarming, given the fact that child poverty figures are already increasing. This appears to be another way for the Tory Government to punish those who are struggling.

"This policy does nothing to address our low-wage culture or our insecure and unstable job market. A market that means many cannot afford to live through working alone.

"It does nothing to address the economic imbalances that have led to the situation where so many are reliant on working tax credits and child tax credits to survive."

Ms Shah said pushing children and families into increasing poverty was not a long-term solution to the country's debt, adding: "It is time the Chancellor realised this before we see a forgotten generation of children."

Kris Hopkins, Conservative MP for Keighley, Philip Davies, Conservative MP for Shipley, and Judith Cummins, Labour MP for Bradford South, could not be reached for comment yesterday.