CHANGES to taxes and benefits due to come into effect this week will make the rich richer and the poor poorer, economists warned yesterday.

The richest half of households will reap 80 per cent of a £2 billion tax cut windfall as the poorest third of households shoulder two-thirds of £1bn in welfare cuts, a Resolution Foundation study found.

It amounts to “a significant transfer [of money] from low and middle income households to richer ones,” said the think tank.