Government plans to cap benefits payments to an average annual household income of £26,000 will bring hardship to some 50,000 families, according to the think tank established by welfare and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith.

The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) warns in an audit of the coalition's welfare policies that the large families affected, set to lose on average £93 a week in benefits,'will have the rug pulled from under them overnight'.