HARD-WORKING households in Bolton face losing more than £500 per year because of government reforms, a borough MP claims.

Bolton West MP Julie Hilling has urged Chancellor George Osborne to rethink tax credit and benefit changes which she claims will hit thousands of residents.

In his autumn statement, Mr Osborne said: “Fairness is also about being fair to the person who leaves home every morning to go out to work and sees that their neighbour is still asleep, living a life on benefits.

“As well as a tax system where the richest pay their fair share, we have to have a welfare system that is fair to the working people who are paying for it.”

But Ms Hilling reckons that hard-working families are among those being hit the heaviest and that households with one wage earner could lose out by as much as £534 a year.

She claims 60 per cent of the people affected by the government’s changes to tax credits and benefits are working people.

She said: “The people that are losing out here aren’t skivers, they’re strivers.

“I think working families in my constituency who are feeling the pinch will be angry to see their tax credits and benefits cut.”