At least 60 per cent of families in Haringey will suffer if tax credit cuts go ahead.

Children’s charity Barnardo’s has crunched the numbers and says that 20,000 families in Haringey, 62 per cent, currently use tax credits to top up low incomes.

The credits help people to buy everyday essentials like food and clothing and will hit 38,500 children if they go ahead.

Barnardo’s is urging the Tory government to keep the ‘lifeline’ benefit and not to cut tax credits.

Chief Executive Javed Khan said: “Without this income, many parents in London could not afford their weekly food shopping let alone school uniforms and books.

“With low wages and high living costs stretching budgets, tax credits are an everyday lifeline for British families.

“Children who grow up poor are more likely to be ill, do worse at school and be jobless in future. If as a society we fail to invest in children now, we will all bear the costs in the future.

“Families would be better off if the government focused on tackling low wages and high childcare costs, instead of cutting struggling families income.”

Tax credits, which include child tax credits and working tax credits, were introduced in 1998 as a response to rising child poverty.

More than half of families with children who live in greater London receive tax credits.

Haringey has the eighth highest proportion of families receiving tax credits in the capital, behind Tower Hamlets, Newham, Hackney, Barking & Dagenham, Brent, Waltham Forest and Enfield.

Since the introduction of tax credits the number of children living in poverty in the UK has fallen from 35 per cent to 19 per cent. 

Successive Governments have said the benefit is a crucial tool in keeping thousands of children out of hardship.

More than half, 54 per cent, of families with children who live in Greater London receive tax credits and across the country in excess of 6.3m children live in families in receipt of them.

Barnardo’s has been campaigning alongside other organisations to get the government to move away from benefits cuts to tackling low wages instead.