THE Tory-LibDem Coalition's flagship benefits cap is set to go ahead after MPs threw out objections to sweeping welfare cuts.
The UK Government offered only minor concessions to appease potential rebels as it swiftly overturned a series of embarrassing defeats in the House of Lords.
A number of LibDem MPs, including Alan Reid, the member for Argyll and Bute, did vote against part or all of the plans, but it was not enough to prevent comfortable wins for the Coalition.
Charities and campaigners protested that the changes would leave the most vulnerable in society to pay for the country's economic woes.
The Coalition's Welfare Reform Bill will introduce a £26,000-a-year benefits cap for workless families, without an exemption for child benefit payment backed by peers.
Up to 7000 cancer suffers will also be docked support worth £94 a week, simply because they have not got better "quickly enough", charities warned.
The Bill will also cut payments to disabled children, in a move ministers claim will allow them to increase support for the most severely disabled, and introduce a so-called "bedroom tax" on under-occupied homes, which critics claim will force thousands of council tenants to move.
Although the legislation is due to return to the House of Lords, technicalities mean there is little scope for further changes to the Bill.
Before the votes last night Prime Minister David Cameron vowed to battle for the reform that he described as "right and fair".
Coalition ministers insist the changes are necessary to free those "trapped" by a lifetime on benefits.
However, the Government also wants to make £16 billion worth of welfare cuts, to help reduce the budget deficit.
Polls show there is strong public support for the benefits cap, which will mean families cannot receive more than £500 a week.
Ministers say it is unfair those on benefits can earn more than the average family does by going to work.
Peers had argued that exempting child benefit from the cap could still leave the central aim intact, but that was rejected by ministers.
Concessions announced just before MPs voted included a nine-month grace period from the cap for those made redundant after it is introduced.
Last night Enver Solomon, policy director at The Children's Society, said the Coalition had made life more difficult "for some of the poorest and most vulner-able children in the country".
She added: "The vote to include child benefit when calculating the benefit cap means more than 220,000 children have an uncertain future as they and their families will struggle to pay for fuel bills, basic essentials or, in some cases, the roof over their heads."
Elspeth Atkinson, director of Macmillan Cancer Support, one of more than 30 charities and health professionals who wrote an open letter to The Herald yesterday urging MPs to vote against the Government plans, said she was "bitterly disappointed".
"Despite mass opposition from Lords, the public, their own supporters and the whole cancer community, the Government has pushed through an unfair proposal which means thousands of cancer patients – still recovering from their illness and therefore too sick to work – will see their income drop," she said.
Last night Labour accused the UK Government of "hiding behind parliamentary procedure" to overturn the House of Lords defeats.
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