Britain is in a “welfare crisis” in the wake of Rachel Reeves’s “benefits Budget ” with a damning report claiming jobless families who take a raft of hand-outs would be £18,000 better off than neighbours on the national living wage. The Centre for Social Justice claims a three-child family in work who do not rely on benefits would need to earn £71,000 before tax to match the welfare income of an equivalent jobless family.

The respected think tank says that families on full hand-outs will get £18,000 a year more than the after-tax income of neighbours on the living wage following Ms Reeves’s abolition of the two-child benefit cap.

The report lands as Sir Keir Starmer is facing calls to fire the Chancellor for allegedly misleading the country about the state of the public finances

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