Women are being hit hardest by government welfare cuts according to new House of Commons figures.
Freezing maternity pay is set to cost new mums around £170 compared to how much they’d get if the benefit rose in line with inflation.
That follows the Department of Work and Pensions abolishing the health in pregnancy grant worth £190. Women will bear £18 billion of welfare cuts announced for 2015-16 while men will be hit by only around half that.
The SNP, who got the figures from the independent House of Commons Library, claim that Scottish women alone have seen their benefits cut by £4 billion because of the Coalition government’s policies.
SNP MSP Clare Adamson said: “It is appalling that pregnant women and new mothers will all be at least £360 worse off and women are having their benefits disproportionately cut by the Tory Westminster government.
“The fact that women are forced to carry the can for 86% of the cuts is quite simply flabbergasting.
“Last year we saw a 400 per cent increase in the number of people relying on food banks, and now it emerges that pregnant women and new mothers have their entitlements targeted it’s totally unacceptable.”
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