A NEW report by the Low Pay Network reveals that increasing numbers of Bolton families are relying on Family Credit to top up their wages.

Figures show that there were 110,000 claimants in October, 1996 - a 48.7 per cent rise on the total of 74,000 in May, 1993.

Family Credit is available to people who work 16 or more hours a week, earn low wages and have dependent children.

An analysis by local Social Security offices show that Bolton"s per centage rise was 66.7 per cent - roughly midway between Workington (95 per cent) and Manchester (59 per cent).

Gabrielle Cox, Co-ordinator of the Greater Manchester Low Pay Unit, said today: "These alarming figures show an explosion in the number of families dependent on means-tested benefits despite having somebody in work.

"The taxpayer simply cannot afford to continue paying billions of pounds a year to subsidise low-paying employers in this way."

She added: "Nor should good employers be undercut by businesses which only survive by paying poverty pay."

The Low Pay Network argues that these figures underline the need for a national minimum wage.

It says this argument is being accepted increasingly by employers who are anxious about the effects of low pay and wage-undercutting in their industries.

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