Ministers have been warned the Westcountry's economy will suffer and the vulnerable pushed into debt as research revealed £514 million a year will be slashed from the region's welfare bill.
A raft of benefits started to be axed last week, which will take £343 million from Devon's economy and £171 million form Cornwall's annually when in full effect, according to a Sheffield Hallam University report.
Torbay on the South Devon coast will be hit hardest, with residents out of pocket on average by £704 a year. Cornwall will lose £521 per person. Academics examined the impact of changes to housing benefit, disability living allowance and several other hand-outs, and found hard-pressed areas such as the far South West would fall further behind – with the South East emerging relatively unscathed.
Michelle Kent, from Penryn, Cornwall, could lose more than £1,000 a year. "The benefit cuts are too much in one go," she said.
Stuart Roden, South West organiser for Unison union, said: "I can see a lot of people being put in serious financial circumstances."
But Conservative Party chairman Grant Shapps, in the Westcountry yesterday, said welfare reform is "popular" among voters in the region. He told the Western Morning News: "We want to support people that want to get on. Do you think it's right that someone should be better off on benefits?"
