Failure to raise benefits would be ‘hostile and harmful’, Truss is warned

PM reneging on Conservative promise to increase benefits in line with inflation morally indefensible', say experts

• Punishing us': despair as families face real-term cut to universal credit

Liz Truss will deliver the biggest permanent real-terms cut to the basic rate of benefits ever made if she fails to raise them in line with inflation, one of the UK's leading poverty charities has said.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) urged the government not to renege on its promise, made earlier this year, to raise universal credit and other working age benefits in line with inflation. It said such a move would be a harmful act of historic proportions" - and deliver a devastating blow to millions of families on low incomes.