LAST week’s first purely Tory budget since 1996 may have been big on spin but many I’ve spoken to in Newport East are under no illusion – they know it will hit them hard.

Over 6,300 working families with children in my constituency claim tax credits and cuts to this vital support will have serious consequences for many. The increase in the minimum wage to £9 in five years’ time goes nowhere near offsetting the £4.5 billion cuts to tax credits, no matter how the Conservatives try to spin things. The introduction of a so called “National Living Wage” has already been attacked across the board. The same Resolution Foundation report that Osborne cited on announcing the policy calculated that a Living Wage would need to be above £12 if tax credits were cut - which they have been.

A couple with one person working full time on average earnings will lose over £2,000 in tax credits from the changes in the Budget and will not benefit from the National Minimum Wage measure. As Wales has many people on relatively low pay this will just increase the pressure on working families, who I know from the surgeries I hold, are already struggling.

Many of those who have contacted my office after the election are disabled people already impacted by the last Tory/Lib Dem Government’s welfare changes which have hit Wales disproportionately hard.

Last Wednesday’s new announcement that disabled people could lose up to £30 a week will hit many including those with mental illnesses, even though decision makers have currently deemed them too sick to work.

Young people will not benefit from the changes to the minimum wage which will only apply to those aged 25 and over, and 18 – 21 year olds will no longer be able to get housing benefit - often a lifeline for vulnerable young people who find themselves in difficult situations and can’t rely on family for support.

I worry about the human impact of these cuts and also the increased pressure on other services as they help to pick up the pieces.