Derbyshire campaigners protest outside Chancellor Rishi Sunak's office ahead of Budget statement

Unite Community Union members from Derbyshire headed to Northallerton, in Mr Sunak’s North Yorkshire constituency, on Friday to ask ‘advice’ from the chancellor on how to balance their own budgets.

It comes ahead of the chancellor’s spring statement on Wednesday, and Derbyshire activists and Universal Credit claimants carried the iconic red briefcases, which have become a symbol of the budget.

One campaigner handed a letter to the chancellor’s office asking how he is supposed to budget when the increased cost of food, energy and transport take his expenditure over his income.

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Unite Community Coordinator Heather Blakey said:“No one in this country should have to choose between heating or eating.

"The chancellor must not use his spring budget to bring forward a package of measures including reinstating and extending the £20 a week uplift to Universal Credit cruelly snatched last October and increase benefits in line with inflation.

"If he doesn’t people could die, and that’s no exaggeration.”

Derbyshire Unemployed Workers Centre spokesperson Colin Hampton, who has helped organise the visit said Mr Sunak must help people in the county live in ‘dignity’

“The chancellor is a millionaire, as are many of his colleagues, and has no idea of the day to day decision making that many people have to make with regard to spending on the essential items of existence.

"The chancellor will talk about prudence and ‘not spending more than you earn’ but ordinary people do not have the ability to conjure up money from the printing press or the issuing of bonds.

"The stark reality for millions of people is that they face harsh choices and years of indebtedness.

"There is no need for this, and the chancellor could ease the burden by using his office and budget to raise the incomes of people, both in and out of work, to a level that would mean they could live in dignity and not live in fear of the letter in the brown envelope or the domestic appliance breaking down.”

Reports say the Treasury is looking at ways to ease the cost of living crisis in the spring statement.