LONE parents and the disabled will be hit hardest by real-terms cuts to benefits, ministers admitted tonight (January 8) - as the controversial measure cleared its first hurdle.

Single mothers and fathers will lose £5-a-week, an official 'impact assessment'

acknowledged - more than the average £3-a-week loss - despite Government claims to be tackling so-called "skivers".

And families with a disabled person are more likely to lose out, because employment and support allowance (ESA) is among benefits where rises will be capped below inflation, for three years.

The revelations came as the Coalition easily brushed aside a small Liberal Democrat revolt to send the Welfare Benefits Uprating Bill into committee, with a comfortable majority of 56.

The measure will save £3.7bn by 2016 by raising most benefits and tax credits by just one per cent each year - less than half the 2.2 per cent inflation rate in September, to which benefits are normally pegged.

Ian Swales (Lib Dem; Redcar) voted for the Bill - amid a revolt by four party colleagues - but declined to set out his reasons.

James Wharton (Conservative; Stockton South) backed the cap, arguing that, over the last five years, benefits had risen by 20 per cent - much more than average salary increases of just 12 per cent.

He said: "Capping benefit rises, excluding disability benefits and pensions, at one per cent, is the right and fair thing to do at a time when so many across the region are struggling to make ends meet."

However, the assessment by the department for work and pensions (DWP) acknowledged that ESA claimants in the work related activity group - those deemed capable of future work, with support - would also be hit.

Richard Hawkes, chief executive of disability charity Scope, said: "The 'benefit scrounger' rhetoric has gone too far. The vast majority of disabled people need support. They aren't feckless, they aren't workshy - and they aren't scroungers."

In total, ten million households - 30 per cent of the total - will lose money, but the poorest tenth of households lose the most in real terms (two per cent of net weekly income).

And 340,000 new mums will lose a total of £156, unless their employers agree to cover cuts in statutory maternity pay - which will also be capped at one per cent.

Last month, The Northern Echo revealed that more than 160,000 low-paid people in this region will be hit - despite being in work - because tax credits will also be capped.

Alex Cunningham (Lab; Stockton North) was among North-East MPs who condemned the Bill, saying: "For a young person on jobseekers allowance, a one per cent rise amounts to 56p - not even enough to buy a pint of milk."

Meanwhile, there were signs that Conservatives had been told to tone down their "strivers versus skivers" language, amid fears it was reviving the old Tory image of "the nasty party".

One Conservative backbencher, Sarah Wollaston, joined criticism of calling the jobless "skivers", saying: "It might rhyme with the term strivers, but it doesn't mean that it's the right word to use for people on benefits."