THE coalition government announced plans yesterday to step up its merciless attack on unemployed people by delaying payment of entitlements when they are thrown out of work.

Union organisation the TUC warned the plans, revealed by the Department of Work and Pensions’s social security advisory committee,  delays entitlements for a week, costing each newly jobless person £40, and could take effect in autumn.

The TUC also says victims are more likely to fall prey to loan sharks.

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Forcing people to wait for job support will not help anyone find work.

“Instead it will make them easy prey for loan sharks. This has nothing to do with making work pay. It is simply a mean attack on the welfare safety net and could affect any one of us.”