Revealed: soldiers, nurses and teachers hit by benefit curbs

Half a million soldiers, nurses and teachers will have their income slashed under the coalition's benefits crackdown, according to a new report. The chancellor's sub-inflation rise in benefits and tax credits over the next three years will hit a whole range of the country's most trusted professionals.

Up to 40,000 soldiers, 300,000 nurses and 150,000 primary and nursery school teachers will lose cash, in some cases many hundreds of pounds, according to the Children's Society. The revelation appears to contradict the government's stated intention to target shirkers and scroungers, and will raise the temperature of the Commons debate and vote on the plan on Tuesday.

The analysis, which is set to be at the centre of Labour's attack on the coalition in the Commons, when Ed Miliband's party will vote against the policy, reveals for the first time the range of professions that will be hit. By 2015 a second lieutenant in the army who has three children, who earns £470 per week and whose wife does not work will lose £552 a year; a lone-parent nurse with two children, earning the profession's average of £530 a week, will lose £424 a year; and a couple with two children where the sole earner is a primary school teacher, earning £600 a week, will lose £424.

The coalition's welfare up-rating bill caps a whole range of benefits at 1% until 2015, including child benefit, tax credits, statutory maternity pay and jobseeker's allowance.

The Children's Society analysis prompted shadow work and pensions secretary Liam Byrne to brand his counterpart in the government a liar on Saturday in a significant escalation in the political row over the government's welfare plans. Iain Duncan Smith claimed last week that it was unfair that working families had been tightening their belts after years of pay restraint while watching benefits rise.

But Byrne said the analysis illustrated how those in work who have been suffering in the recession are now facing a double blow in the form of the coalition's squeeze on the full range of benefits. "Iain Duncan Smith is going to come to the House of Commons this week and say this bill is all about punishing Britain's shirkers and scroungers, when that is a big lie," said Byrne. "This is about an attack on Britain's working families."

The row is now in danger of overshadowing the attempt on Monday to renew the coalition, with a joint appearance by David Cameron and Nick Clegg in Downing Street to launch what the prime minister described as an "enormous reform agenda". They will attempt to dispel claims that the coalition is solely focused on deficit reduction by highlighting their attempt to make welfare fairer.

Cameron will claim that the coalition reforms are protecting and targeting support on people in real need, as well as stopping benefits going to those who don't need them, making work always pay more than benefits.

But in a letter published in the Observer, 27 organisations, including Barnardo's, Women's Aid, Citizens Advice and the Royal National Institute for the Blind, condemn the coalition's plans, which they claim will hurt working families.

The letter says: "This Tuesday, MPs will debate the introduction of a 1% cap on benefit and tax credit increases under the welfare benefits up-rating bill. If introduced, this hardship penalty will hurt millions of families across the country. Families already struggling to pay for food, fuel, rent and other basics will see their budgets further squeezed.

"Many thousands have turned to food banks for help. Nearly half of teachers say they often see children going hungry. And, shockingly, six million households are struggling to afford to heat their homes. As the cost of fuel, food and housing rise again, we can expect to see these problems become even more severe and widespread."

Matthew Reed, chief executive of the Children's Society, which also signed the letter, said: "The government needs to urgently reconsider this bill and make sure that increases in benefit rates at the very least reflect rises in cost of living."

A Department for Work and Pensions spokesman said: "In difficult economic times we've protected the benefits of disabled people and pensioners who have little means to increase their income. We've also committed to helping people who claim working age benefits and tax credits and will increase this support by 1%. This was a tough decision, but it will ensure that the welfare budget is sustainable over the longer term and will continue to help the people who need it most."