THOUSANDS of people across Hampshire are facing a squeeze on their living costs after a belowinflation benefits rise was agreed by MPs last night.

More than 68,000 working households across the south will get a real-term cut in their tax credits.

This includes almost 15,000 people in the Southampton Itchen and Test constituencies.

Ministers insisted that the one per cent cap on benefits rises was needed, because it is unfair that state handouts have been rising twice as fast as wages.

But with inflation at 2.7 per cent, it will mean less money in Hampshire’s poorest households.

Alan Whitehead, Labour MP for Southampton Test, said: “This is just not the way to deal with the whole issue of benefits.

“People will be losing significant amounts, and these are the people least able to bear that sort of burden.

“It is simply not true that all people on benefits are shirkers.”

But speaking during last night’s debate, Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith said Labour “spent taxpayers’ money like drunks on a Friday night, no care or concern for how effective it was”.