The National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) has joined forces with Generation Rent and Shelter to urge the government not to go ahead with its planned £20-a-week cut to Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit at the beginning of October.

The landlord body is one of 100 organisations including Citizens Advice and the National Housing Federation as well as children’s charities and advice services which have signed a letter to Boris Johnson, warning that the cut risks causing “immense, immediate, and avoidable hardship”.

It says that imposing what is effectively the biggest overnight cut to the basic rate of social security since World War Two will pile unnecessary financial pressure on about 5.5m families, both in and out of work.

The letter adds: “We are at risk of repeating the same mistakes that were made after the last economic crisis, where our country’s recovery was too often not felt by people on the lowest incomes.

“The erosion of social security support was one of the main drivers of the rise in in-work and child poverty, and contributed to a soaring need for food banks, rising debt and worsening health inequalities.”