The Chancellor could and should have gone further and increased the benefits safety net to prevent millions of children from living in poverty, a leading campaigner has said.

Jeremy Hunt, in his Autumn Statement, increased benefits roughly in line with inflation but according to an anti-poverty charity, it is not enough to tackle poverty.

Benefits will rise by 10.1% from April.

READ MORE: Autumn Statement: What it means for wages, benefits and pensions

John Dickie, the director of Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) in Scotland, said poverty is so high because benefits have not increased enough over the last decade.

He said: “There will be relief for families across Scotland and the rest of the UK that benefits and the benefit cap will rise with inflation.

“But this is only the fourth time UK benefits have risen by inflation in the last 10 years.

“As a result, there are almost four million children living in poverty in the UK, over a quarter of a million of them in Scotland alone.

“Today’s package will not stop the ice from cracking under those struggling families.”

He said the UK Government can afford to provide more but has chosen not to.

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Mr Dickie added: “If the Scottish Government can find the resources to provide a £25-a-week cash boost for each child in low income families, as it has done with the rollout of the Scottish Child Payment this week, then so too can the UK Government.

“The Chancellor now needs to go further and work to restore the value of UK family benefits so that our social security system never again leaves children so brutally exposed to the kinds of health and economic shocks we have seen in the last few years.”