Latest benefit cuts will leave more than 160,000 of the region's families worse off

They are households receiving tax credits, which will be hit by the controversial decision to cap increases at a below-inflation one per cent for the next three years, official figures show.

Labour seized on the statistics as evidence that the cap - because it applies to working tax credits, as well as out-of-work benefits such as jobseekers' allowance (JSA) - was a "tax on strivers".

In the Commons, Ed Miliband said they made a nonsense of George Osborne's claim that he was targeting people "still asleep, living a life on benefits", while their neighbour went to work.

He said: "It's the factory worker on the night shift, it's the carer who looks after elderly people around the clock and it's the cleaner who cleans the Chancellor's office - while his curtains are still drawn and he's still in bed."

But David Cameron hit back, insisting low-paid people were better off overall, because of the sharp rise in the sum earned before income tax kicks in - to £9,205 next April, from just £6,475, when the Coalition came to power.

James Wharton, the Conservative MP for Stockton South, poured scorn on Labour's prediction that the so-called "strivers' tax" would cost him his seat, in 2015.

According to the House of Commons library figures, there are 7,100 families receiving tax credits in Stockton South - far more than than the slender Tory majority of just 332.

Mr Wharton said: "With the personal allowance being increased, working people on lower incomes will pay less tax and keep more of their money.

"I think most people will agree that, when wages in the private sector and public sector have faced years of freezes, it is right that we restrict the increase to benefits payments to one per cent."

Turning the tables, Mr Wharton added: "Voters in Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland who work hard and pay their taxes will wonder why Labour wants to increase benefits when everyone faces a freeze."

In that constituency, held by Labour with a majority of just 1,677, a total of 6,600 families receive tax credits and face a real-terms cut, the figures show.

The largest number of recipients is in Washington and Sunderland West (8,200), followed by Middlesbrough (8,100), Scarborough and Whitby (8,000) and Darlington and Stockton North (both 7,900).

The clash followed Labour's decision to vote against the one per cent cap in a crunch vote next month, a decision that both main parties believe could determine the general election result.

Kevan Jones, Labour MP for North Durham, told The Northern Echo the one per cent cap was among measures that were leaving the North-East behind in a "two-speed Britain" - but also that it would "rouse the British sense of fairness".

He said: "Throughout the many hard-pressed areas of the UK, wages are often low and the work is too often part-time, meaning that many rely on benefits to top-up their income.

"On the whole benefits are not funding lifestyles of closed curtains and widescreen TVs. They are a way of keeping many hard-working families’ heads above water."

The Conservatives are cock-a-hoop, confident that Labour has fallen into its trap of refusing to get tough with benefit bills that - the polls show - voters are demanding should be cut.

The proportion of people who want more spending on welfare has plunged to 28 per cent, down from 35 per cent when the recession began - and from 58 per cent in 1991, according to one survey.

But Labour believes the public can be won over by the evidence that 60 per cent of families hit by the one per cent cap - including 161,900 across the North-east and North Yorkshire - are in-work households.

The party also cited an Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) study that found the average one-earner couple will be £534 a year worse off, by 2015.

But Mr Cameron rejected the figure, telling Mr Miliband: "We are lifting the personal allowance, we are taking millions out of tax and we are standing up for those who work. He only stands up for those who claim."